Tips Guides and How-To's

Buyers Guide
Choosing Binoculars Sorting through a world of choices.	How to Choose a Telescope Sorting out telescope types, sizes, and capabilities.
Buying the Best Telescope Take the worry out of the big decision with our guide to buying the scope that's best for you.	The Art of Using a Telescope Once you’ve got a telescope, here’s how to put it to rewarding use.

How to use your telescope (and other Useful Articles)
General Instruction Booklet (Download) How to use your telescope effectively.	Starfinding with a Planisphere A star wheel is every skywatcher’s most basic tool for finding what’s up.
The Setting Circles Beginners should ignore them and learn to navigate the sky by eyeball instead. However, setting circles do have their uses -- if you make all the right adjustments first.	Dealing with Dew How to keep your optics dry and clear even on the dampest, dewiest nights.
Starting Right Here are some suggestions to help get you going in the hobby.	Keeping warm at the Telescope Sky watching on a clear winter night is the coldest activity known to man. These practical tips can keep you surprisingly comfortable.
Accurate Polar Alignment Long-exposure astrophotography requires an accurately aligned equatorial mount.	Beating the Seeing Atmospheric "seeing" is the quivering, shimmering, and fuzzing of images at high power -- the bane of every telescope user. Here are experts' tricks for minimizing it.
Using a Map The essentials of navigating the heavens at high power with a star atlas.	Observing from the City How some amateurs do fun, productive observing under the most horrendous sky conditions.
What does that mean? Part of learning astronomy is learning the language. Read this brief primer on a few essential terms if you skip the longer articles below.	The Stellar Magnitude system Everything you need to know about how astronomers describe the brightness of celestial objects.
Spectral Types of the Stars Every star has its own color and character. Why the Sun is called G 2V and Polaris is called F 5-8Ibvar. (It's not as bad as it looks.)	Understanding Celestial Co-ordinates How things are located on the sky. All about right ascension and declination.
Names of the Stars Understanding the star-naming systems that astronomers use.	Names of Deep-Sky Objects The nomenclature of galaxies, clusters, nebulae, and more. What does NGC mean, anyway?
Time and the Amateur Astronomer Standard time, Local Mean Time, Universal Time, and much more explained.	The Future of Amateur Astronomy A fictional, but accurate as possible, picture of how amateur astronomy will be done in the year 2030.
Secrets of Deep-Sky Observing Tips on working to detect dim, remote nebulae, star clusters and galaxies at the very limit of your night vision.	Dissecting Light Pollution Light pollution has spread from a problem in cities to a major astronomical disruption almost everywhere. Here's how to deal with it.
Using a Naked-Eye SkyMap A quick primer on how to locate and identify stars and constellations.	Caring For Optics When cleaning lenses and mirrors, the most important rule is that of the doctor's Hippocratic Oath:"First, do no harm."