How A Telescope Works

Couple lives, works in isolated BYU observatory near Benjamin

Astronomer David Laney and his wife, Gillene, live at 7862 S. 7204 West in Benjamin, but good luck finding it. The couple's home is perched on top of a mountain where David is the resident astronomer and primary observer at BYU's West Mountain Observatory.

At the age of 12, David was searching for a book to keep him occupied during summer vacation and came across his mother's college astronomy textbook. It wasn't light reading material to say the least, but David couldn't put the book down and says he read it repeatedly until he almost had it memorized.

A good number of textbooks later, David finished a Ph.D. in physics and astronomy at BYU, then moved to work at the South African Astronomical Observatory in Cape Town for the next 26 years, where he met Gillene.

In December of 2008, the couple moved to Utah, but when things didn't go quite as they planned David was happy to accept a non-faculty, part-time position working as the resident astronomer.

With that position came free accommodations -- on top of a mountain.

Come June of 2009, the couple moved their belongings up the rough, 5.5-mile dirt road to the observatory perched high above Utah Lake, with a kitchen window view stretching endlessly to the west.

The couple were the third residents to move in since the building was constructed in 1982.

Formerly, a BYU professor and his family occupied the observatory in the '80s, and an artist enjoyed an extended stay in the '90s. David is just the second astronomer to live there in almost 30 years.

From their house it's only a seven-step commute for him to get to work at the observatory next door, where he specializes in variable stars and working on the cosmic distance scale. Or as his wife Gillene puts it, "He's busy confirming how insignificant we are."

Working the night shift from first dark to first light on numerous projects for various institutions, David uses a prized piece of BYU's equipment, a 30-inch telescope made by DFM Engineering Inc.

There is no eyepiece on this telescope, and much of David's night is spent sitting behind a desk facing a number of computer monitors. Quite frequently, especially throughout the summer, he is also joined by astronomy students from BYU who make the trek up the dirt road to work with the three telescopes there.

Unraveling the great unknown is as enjoyable for David today as it was when he first opened his mother's astronomy textbook. His life's work has become studying stars, galaxies and other cosmic phenomena millions of light years away.

Q&A: How do Telescope lens work and what are the different ...

I have just come into possession of a used Telescope and am having trouble figuring out how it works. I have it assembled but can’t see anything through the eyepieces that were provided. there are 3 (25mm, 4mm, 2.5mm) and since it is winter the skies are cloudy and I can’t tell which lens is stronger so any info would be appreciated.

Best answer:

Answer by Raymond The smaller the number on the eyepiece, the stronger the magnification. Therefore, begin with the biggest number 25 mm (it will be the easiest one to focus and the smaller magnification will make it easier to point the telescope to a known object).

Take the telescope outside during the day. (do NOT point it at or near the Sun — the heat from the sun is enough to damage the scope, the eyepiece and, most importantly, your eyes).

Looking down the tube, point the telescope to so far away objects that are surrounded by other objects.

Not at the sun.

Let’s say you found a row of houses three streets away. (far enough away that people will not phone the police to report a peeping tom). With the higher numbered eyepiece (lowest magnification), try to focus until you see some detail (a wall, a door, a shrub). Remember that the image is normally upside down in a telescope.

Compare what you see (for example, the red house with the blue door) with what you get in the pointer (either a smaller scope, a tiny tube or just a notch outside the main telescope tube). This will tell you how accurate (or not) the pointer is.

Don’t do this using the Sun as a target.

When you are doing astronomy at night, always begin with the lowest magnification in order to find the object in the filed of view (telescopes have very narrow fields of view and it is sometimes difficult to get the object in the field of view). Only after you are confortable with following the object at lowest magnification should you try a higher magnification.

Higher magnifications are OK for the Moon and for planets. They will not give you much joy on stars (except, perhaps, to help you separate bright double stars).

In your case, you’ll find that going from 25 mm to 4 mm will be quite a jump (the field of view will be cut down to only 1/40 of what you started with. Make sure that the object is well centered before going from 25 to 4 mm. In time, you may want to buy yourself a 12 or 15 mm as an intermediate size.

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