All the astronomy equipment "lingo" can be overwhelming at times. But fear not! We've compiled this handy list of astronomical definitions to help clear the fog!
Astronomical Terms
- Seeing
- Setting Circles
- Spherical Aberration
- Spotting Scope
- Star-Hopping
- Transparency
- Twilight Factor
- Highest Useful Magnification
- Interpupillary Distance
- Limiting Magnitude
- Magnification
- Magnitude
- Maksutov-Cassegrain
- Newtonian Reflector
- Number of optical elements
- Phase Coatings
- Ritchey-Chrétien
- Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope (SCT)
- Right Ascension
- Aperture
- Fork Mount
- Photographic Focal Length
- Photographic Focal Ratio
- Rayleigh Criterion
- Astigmatism
- Averted Vision
- Blooming
- Declination
- Diffraction
- Diffraction-Limited
- Eyepiece
- German Equatorial Mount
- Ghosting
- Curvature of Field
- Dawes' Limit
- Distortion
- Dobsonian Telescope
- Equatorial Mount
- Exit Pupil
- Eye Relief
- Field curvature
- Focal Length
- Focal Ratio
- Objective
- Optical Type
- Recollimation
- Refractor
- Relative Brightness
- Resolution
- Rich Field Telescope (RFT)
- Aperture Mask
- Apochromat
- Astronomical Binoculars
- Cassegrain
- Catadioptric Telescope
- CCD Point, Cluster, and Column Defects
- Close Focus
- Collimation
- Color correction
- Coma
- Crayford Focuser
- Airy Disk
- Altazimuth Mount
- Armored