Re: Seeing opposite in a refractor telescope

Chris L Peterson wrote:
On Sun, 30 Sep 2007 15:50:16 -0700, yr <yaronlandes@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi,

I usually use binoculars or just the naked eyes to watch. I have just
bought a 70mm aperture short tube refractor telescope. I'm very new to
telescopes. I had no problems finding Uranus and Neptune with wide
angle binoculars. In a partly light polluted place I navigate my sight
with the binoculars and compare it to what I see in the Stellarium
software where I can zoom to simulate what I see in the binoculars (I
have my laptop beside me). So what I see in the software is very
similar to what I see with the binoculars. But with the telescope this
doesn't work. In the telescope I see the stars opposite to each other
- what is on the left of the view filed appears in the right, a star
that is actually in the right appears in the left. Is that normal or
there is something wrong with my telescope?

Thanks for the answers

That's normal. You can either learn to read your charts backwards, or
you can use software capable of flipping the charts for printing (most
programs can do this). Whether you use a diagonal, and the type of
diagonal, also affect the orientation of the image in the eyepiece.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

Want to add that the reason this is normal is that in Astronomy, we don't care what is no up or down, left or right, relative to Earth. What we care about is image clarity, and the less glass in the way the better. Passing light through glass cuts down a little on the light that passes through, not a lot, but some, for various reasons. Same for reflective surfaces. So the less glass the better. Not needed an erect image means you don't need to correct for the inherent way lenses and mirrors can flip or invert the image.

--- Dave N.
.

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