This page is a beginning on what we hope will be a page for the hobby of star gazing, and astronomical observation, and history.
Basic Star Gazing: To begin this wonderful, and exciting hobby of amateur astronomy you may obtain some basic tools. An inexpensive, but effective telescope can be obtained from any number of companies that publish catalogues that cater to the amateur astronomer, such as Edmund Scientific. It is more than possible with some basic tools, and initiative to build your own telescope with designs readily available on the net. One such site I found was www.geologyone.com/atm.htm . You can obtain parts for the telescope via the same aforementioned catalogues, or if one is so inclined, manufacture them yourself. Two basic types of telescopes exist. The first is the refractor telescope, which uses lenses to capture, and magnify available light, and focuses it on the eyepiece lens to enlarge the light onto the retina of your eye to make distant objects appear larger. The other type of basic telescope design is the refractor telescope, which uses mirrors to collect and focus light into the eyepiece lens. The refractor (lens type) telescope is good not only for nightime observation of the sky, but is also usable during daylight as a spyglass. The refractor (mirror type) telescope is better for amplifying dimmer objects in the night sky due to its larger aperatures which can collect more light. The reason we cannot see distant objects more clearly with our naked eyes is that light from distant objects only strikes a very small portion of our retinas. If you had more light from an object available, you could use a lens to magnify it, and would thus be able to see the object more clearly. Telescopes do this by taking a small section of the sky and collecting the light into a long tube. A refractor type will take that light and focus it onto the eyepiece lens, and amplify the image. The more light you can collect, the more enhanced the image will be. Sort of like taking a picture with a good resolution, and blowing it up. An analogy of this would be using a photo program like adobe photoshop to zoom a small image to say 200% of the original thumbnail. The image quality will be much better if you begin with a larger image with the same resolution (fine detail) visible. Telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope have tremendous ability to collect light. That, and very large, and error free mirrors to collect and magnify images than are available to the amateur astronomer.
However one does not need to spend a lot of money to begin to enjoy this fine hobby of amateur astronomy. Obtaining a good, basic star chart of the sky in the hemisphere you live in, and a good clear view 
away from light polution that can mask dimmer stars, one can discover much of the wonder that has made this one of the best hobbies for people of all ages throughout human time. Many books are available that can assist in finding the various constellations more popularly known to pagans in the area of astrology. Some books will describe the location of various stars, and planets in terms of degrees away from a well known marker in the night sky such as the North Star. You may wonder..."without tools, how can I measure say 10 degrees east?" With some basic knowledge this will not be a problem. In the following paragraph I will explain how to do this.
In the Northern Hemisphere one can readily look into the night sky and find the big dipper. The Cup of the dipper is made up of 4 stars and the handle is made up of 3 stars. The distance between the 2 stars connecting the top and bottom of the end of the cup measure 5 degrees. The stars that mark the top of the cup measure 10 degrees. The distance between the end star of the cup, and the star in the handle closest to it is 15 degrees. The distance from the star at the end of the cup to the second star in the handle is 20 degrees. And to the star in the handle furthest away from the cup is 25 degrees. "But, what if I cant see the Big Dipper?" Then you may use your hands to measure basic distances. Holding your hand outstretched at arms length hold up your pinky finger as viewed from the back of your hand. This measures 1 degree, or twice the width of a full moon (½ degree). 3 fingers measures 5 degrees. Your fist measures 10 degrees. And the distance between your outstretched pinky, and index fingers measures 15 degrees. Being able to use the accuracy of the Big Dipper to check the use of your hand to measure distance will aid you greatly during the times of year that the Big Dipper isn't visible.
Basic History. We can be quite sure that ever since man has been able to look into the sky, stars have held a tremendous fascination for him. Not until man began to record his activity have we had any ability to know what advances he made in astronomical endeavors. We know that the Sumerians used tools to keep track of star positions in the sky, and record other astronomical phenomenon.
This page will recieve regular updates. Next will be a section adding historical information on Greek Astronomy, and then the contributions of men such as Copernicus, Galileo, Tycho, and others to the field.
~DUNEtraveller
