Launchpad Day 3: Amateur Astronomy (Jerry Oltion)

In writing when someone talk about an amateur writer, it’s often a pejorative term. In the astronomy world, that’s not the case at all. The word amateur comes from the word “amore” to love. So amateur astronomers are people who love astronomy. That’s a distinction between the writing world and the astronomy world that he loves. It’s something you can get into as deeply or as lightly as you want. Essentially it involves looking at the night sky. Looking and learning what’s out there. Most of what he shared about the solar system, came from looking through telescopes and binoculars and being interested enough to learn more about it. He’ll talk about the things you can do with simple things. Even without telescopes or binoculars. Two basic ways to focus light and make an image. The point of a telescope is not to make an image bigger, but to gather more light. Lenses - Refracting telescopes. The lightwaves cross over each ...