The JMI hard shell case for Celestron AVX mounts is another product that continues the unique approach that Jim Burr and JMI Telescopes created in offering novel products for the telescope industry. These innovations included Wheely Bars, the Motofocus, and others which became household words to the amateur astronomy community. […]
Author: Stuart Parkerson
PixInsight Astro Imaging Workshop to Be Held in Dallas in March
Warren Keller and Ron Brecher with IP4AP are teaming up again to present a three-day PixInsight workshop in Dallas, Texas on March 22-24, 2019. The workshop will be held at Spring Creek Academy, 6000 Custer Rd., Bldg. 5, Plano, TX, 75023, USA and is limited to 30 attendees. If you’re […]
Southern Cross Astronomical Society of Miami to Host 2019 Winter Star Party
The 2019 Winter Star Party “WSP” will be held at Camp Weesumkee in 2019 from February 4 – 10. The upcoming event will feature its long-awaited return to the Florida Keys as it was displaced in 2018 due to the devastating effects of Hurricane Irma. It has taken a tremendous […]
Southern Skies Releases New Version of iOS App for Tracking Satellites
Tim DeBenedictis with Southern Stars has announced that Orbitrack, its iOS app for tracking satellites, is now updated to version 2.1. Orbitrack is a thorough rewrite of Southern Stars’ 2013 Satellite Safari app offering a brand-new, augmented-and-virtual-reality satellite tracker and spaceflight simulator. Orbitrack will tell you when spacecraft pass overhead, […]
To Process or Not to Process, That is the Question!
“By Matt Harmston” I Want to Image the Skies, But Do I have to Process My Images? I used to think to myself, “Everything we see in the magazines and online (that isn’t sketched) shows processed images, but what is the big deal with all of this processing?” What did […]
Beginner Telescope Eyepiece Choices
Most beginner telescope packages come with a single eyepiece. Thinking that most beginners would want something more in the way of power than the lowest possible power (which yields the largest true field of view), the manufacturers provide an eyepiece that, charitably, is a “jack of all trades and master […]
Orion Widefield Eyepieces
Orion Widefield Eyepieces: If you’re ready to swap out your standard Plossl eyepieces for oculars that will take your observing game to the next level, you should check out the Orion Telescopes & Binoculars EF Widefield 1.25″ Eyepieces. The “EF” stands for Extra Flat, which means that Orion’s EF Widefield […]
Orion CT80 Compact Refractor
Orion CT80 Compact Refractor: The Achilles’ heel of rich-field achromatic refractors is chromatic aberration, but when you goal is scooping up ultra-wide, low-magnification views of the Milky Way, who cares about chroma. Witness Orion’s versatile new f/5 CT80 80-mm Compact Refractor ($109.00US) which is designed to excel at wide-field observations […]
Sky Guide App Adds Gaia Data
Fifth Star Labs’ Sky Guide app enjoys a near perfect score of 4.9 from the almost 70,000 users who have taken the time to rate it … which is, well, astonishing. There is ample reason for its popularity, though, given the WOW! factor of its thousands of breathtaking celestial images, […]
Orion Pro Lanthanum Zoom Eyepiece
With greatly improved optics over its predecessor, the Orion Pro Lanthanum Zoom eyepiece ($199.99US) now features high-end lanthanum glass lens elements, which greatly minimize chromatic aberration. The result is clean, crisp images free of color fringing. Ideal for both astronomical and terrestrial visual applications, this new zoom eyepiece can go […]
Cosmic Watch App
The Cosmic Watch app for iOS and Android marries the functions of a world clock and an astronomical clock into a beautifully-rendered, uniquely-instructive interface. Celestial Dynamics, the apps developer, refined the functionality of the app in Version 2.0 and has produced a short video that highlights the recent improvements. The […]
Orion RedBeam LED Headlamp
Orion RedBeam LED Headlamp with“Motion Sensing,” means, no more fumbling in the dark for a tiny switch. You wear a headlamp to keep both hands free, but how free is your dominant hand when its priority is turning your headlamp on when needed and off when not. In addition to […]