| Waning Moon Waning Moon Movie |
The two week period from a Full to New Moon when the light across the surface of the moon is decreasing. | |
| Wavelength | The distance between two successive peaks of a wave. | |
| Waxing Moon Waxing Moon Movie |
The two week period from a New to Full Moon when the light across the surface of the moon is increasing. | |
| Wedge | A metal plate system which fits between a tripod and an altazmuth telescope mount to convert it to a equatorial system. | |
| White Light | Visible light that includes all colors and, therefore, all visible wavelengths. A mixture of all wavelengths of the visible spectrum. | |
| White Light Filters | The most common type of solar filter, composed of Mylar or glass, that rejects almost all light across the entire spectrum. These filters work well for viewing the sunspots, photosphere granulation, solar limb darkening, calcium clouds in the solar chromosphere, the twenty-five day solar rotation period and events like solar eclipses and Mercury and Venus transits. | |
| Wide-Field Astrophotography | Astrophotography with a camera alone which is either mounted stationary for short exposures or is mounted piggyback on an equatorially-mounted telescope to take advantage of its clock drive for long exposures. | |
| Wolf Moon | The name of the Full Moon usually in January. Specifically the first Full Moon after Yule (December 22 by "The Maine Rule"). Sometimes known as the "Moon after Yule" or the "Old Moon." | |
| Worm Moon | The name of the Full Moon usually in March. Specifically the Full Moon before Ecclesiastical Vernal Equinox (March 21). Sometimes known as the "Lenten Moon," "Sap Moon" or the "Crow Moon." | |
| Wratten System | A numbering system, developed by Kodak, for specifying color filters. | |
| The "Stars and Scopes" Glossary was compiled by Peter Ue from various sources on the internet. I tried to correct and edit as much as possible, but I can make no claim or warrenty to the information here. If you find any errors just contact me and I'll try to fix it - Thanks , Peter. |
