Shinning star what secrets do you hide? Shinning star what beauty do you contain. It is funny looking up at the sky. We see these points of light. We are told that this is astronomy, and each is many times bigger than Earth! Can astronomical telescopes help us peer into space and discover the beauty?

The sky is scattered with more stars, it would take a lifetime to count them, and still you would not have scratched the surface. Look at all the specks of sand on every beach, and you still would not have the amount of stars in our universe!

The universe is immense, and do we can see a portion of them when we look with the naked eye, they only appear as points of light. Looking at Jupiter for example will show a bright point of light, and the only reason you would tell it is a planet, is because it doesn't twinkle!

I look at Jupiter but it just looks like a big point of light. I can't see the bands, the big dot, nothing. Bring an astronomical telescope into the equation and everything changes. I get to see the powerful Jupiter, and its moons. Suddenly a new understanding comes.

Astronomical telescopes allow the universe to be opened up. It allows you to see what those points of light are. Some are spectacular and some are just the same, only a little bigger.

There is a lot to learn with astronomy, and even searching daily, you would need many lifetimes to get the most out of astronomy, so now is really the best time to start!

To get into backyard astronomy, you will need a few things. The first is the astronomical telescope. This is a scientific instrument whose sole purpose is to bring in more light. More light you can gather the more you can see. This is why owls have bigger pupils, as they need to gather more light to see in the night.

The owl may see more of Jupiter than what we can, but luckily telescope transforms all that. A telescope gives you a bigger pupil in essence!

There are 2 types of telescope, the first is the reflector telescopes and the second is refractors. Refractors are the type we often think about telescopes - a long tube where you look from the back.

The reflectors utilize a mirror and have a much wider tube. You view the image from the side of the telescope.

Reflectors are better when they are bigger. Refractors are great but at larger sizes they are very expensive, due to the requirement for high quality lenses.

For beginners a small refractor can be a great way to learn about astronomy, however if you want to do deep space viewing, a reflector may be the best option to go with.

Another option is the Meade ETX type of telescopes which work automatically. They have a computer which you input the code and it zooms to Jupiter or whatever you want to see in its big database. These save you from having to learn how to navigate the heavens.