Lesson Three - Tools for Wizards and Viewing Tips:

The von Rhetics Model Telescope

It is a terrestial telescope so things appear right side up and there is a wide field of view. There are two buttons on the eyepiece, the bigger one increases the magnification and the smaller decreases it. The magnifying power is a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 250. The knob on the left of the wider tube changes the focus.

The telescope is small enough to fit in peoples pockets, with the dimensions of 15 centimeters long (six inches) and has an objective lens that is about 2.5cm (one inch) wide. The telescopes resolution is the smallest that can be observed by the naked eye. Muggle telescopes need to be 12.5cm wide to have a resolution of one arcsecond but the von Rhetics does this with only 2.5cm.

There are two charms that are used to protect the telescope's objective lens, the Scratch-Resistant Charm and the Break-Resistant Charm. There is a cap that goes over the objective lens with a string attached to the telescope with a Sticking Charm. 

You musn't look at the full moon or the sun though a magical telescope. Both hold enough magic to destroy all magic/charms placed on your telescope making it the equivallent of a one inch muggle telescope. Furthermore the sun should not be looked at through a telescope without using a sun filter as it will blind you. The lens cap protects against accidental sunlight a full moon light hitting the telescope. 

The Lunascope and the Moon Chart

The lunascope looks like a telescope but its not. You use three buttons to choose the day, month and year and will be able to see what the moon will look like that day. 

A moon chart is a piece of parchment that shows ten consecutive dates and the phases of the moon. Touching the parchment on either side will change the dates shown. It is cheaper than a lunascope. 

The Celestial Globe

It looks like a globe of Earth but shows stars and constellations instead of oceans and countries. 

Other Astronomical Tools

The orrey is a model of the solar system where planets move around the sun. In muggle versions the planets are attached by metal rods and move through electrical motors. The magical versions has everything folat and are enchanted to move.

Star charts are flat maps of the sky used to find constellations and individual stars. They hold no magical properties. 

An astronomers lamp emits pure red light which you can control the brightness of.

Viewing Tips

Don't use the highest power on a telescope to find one specific thing. 

You can use your hand to estimate how many degrees two celestial bodies are apart. By standing at arms length use the diagram in the lesson to check. 

When look at two points of light in the sky you can tell the difference between stars and planets easily. Stars twinkle because of air movement but planets do not because they have a larger angular size. 

The essay for this lesson is to write a story about buying a telescope so notes will not help unfortunately.