The site of the Memphis Astronomical Society is mostly for amateur enthusiasts in that metropolitan area, but it also has a free resource of interest to anyone who wants to get into stargazing. “Getting Started With Your New Telescope,” by longtime member Bill Busler, explains how telescopes work, defines basic terms such as magnitude and magnification, and shows how to mount a telescope, align the finder scope, use a sky map, and find several common sky objects. The seven-page article is a quick PDF download located on the organization’s home page.

“We are amateurs in the basic sense of the word,” says the home page. “We study astronomy because we love it.” They have been going strong for 54 years, and the Memphis Astronomical Society is still sharing the love. For example, member Bill Wilson took this image last fall by holding his digital camera up to a telescope’s eyepiece.

Mercury transits the Sun, November 8, 2006.