And don t kid yourself, even a hobbyist with a limited telescopic set up can see some amazing things in the stars. So let s be sure you invest in a solid piece of equipment that you can continue to grow with as your knowledge and ability as an astronomer grows. But how do we do that? Meet the Geeks. Now we use the term telescope geeks lovingly because any of us who are devoted to our love of astronomy eventually become telescope geeks. The three designs of telescopes that most people use are the Refractor, the Reflector and the Schmidt Cassegrain telescope. - The refractor telescope uses a convex lens to focus the light on the eyepiece. - The reflector telescope has a concave lens which means it bends in. It uses mirrors to focus the image that you eventually see. How beloved Superman has become in our culture and the worldwide fascination with extraterrestrials and all things cosmic only emphasizes that there is a deep curiosity in all humans about nature and astronomy, even if many people would not know to call it astronomy. Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences of all time. It is not only primitive societies that ascribe mood swings, changes in social conduct and changes in weather to the moon. Even today, a full moon can have a powerful effect on these forces which we acknowledge even if we cannot explain them scientifically. The most obvious physical phenomenon that is directly affected by the gravity of the moon are the tides of the ocean. It is easy to find artists who render their vision of the planets that make up our society of planets near our sun. The names of the planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are all from our cultural past being gods from Greek and Roman mythology. But the solar system is not just made up of these planets. Now when you look up in the night sky and it is so overwhelming, when you then that we are seeing just a tiny amount of what is actually going on up there, again, our minds can get pretty overwhelmed. Radio astronomy uses sophisticated sensor equipment to study ALL of the frequencies of energy coming to us from the cosmos.