The final frontier is not out of reach. Here's a beginner's guide to the stargazer's life When it is darkest, men see the stars. You and I, we stopped trying to find patterns in the night sky after we grew out of the excitement of Class IV science classes. But the sky remains, for us to befriend. So here I am, with Soumen Mukherjee, an amateur stargazer in Kolkata for 20 years now, trying to familiarise myself with an old world. Read more
For we Lawnchair astronomers, it's also an exciting time as we move past the summer solstice in June and prepare to revisit our favourite heavenly locales. And along with the growth of technology in general, amateur astronomy has become incredibly automated. Absolutely less expensive than many hobbies in which you can participate, anyone can own and operate a telescope in their backyards that's comparable to instruments to which only the very wealthy or professional astronomers had access not too long ago. Today - or tonight, in this instance - almost right out of the box, anyone can set-up one of these modern, small telescopes and in minutes - not hours or days - see all of the amazing sights that once took years for amateurs to locate and see in person. Read more
1608 The earliest known working telescopes are credited to Hans Lippershey. The design of these early refracting telescopes consisted of a convex objective lens and a concave eyepiece
1609 Galileo improves the telescope and begins using it for astronomy, starting with lunar observations 1611 German astronomer Johannes Kepler designs a new telescope using convex lenses.