By David Snay Vixen offers this neat little device that looks kind of like a camera. In fact, it’s actually about the same size and weight as an old Leica M9. It even has a flash shoe! Doesn’t look like much, does it? However, if you own a basic camera […]
By David Snay Light pollution – every astronomer’s nightmare. Unless you’re lucky enough to live beneath a nice dark sky or have access to a remote observatory, you’ve had to learn to deal with unwanted light intruding on your pastime. I don’t even bother trying visual observing from my home […]
By David Snay Reasons to use an Artificial Star You can do it during the day. You can’t do it at high noon, but early morning and twilight hours are fine, twilight is best. You don’t have to worry about keeping a moving star in the field of view. I […]
By Paul Grunwald I have been involved with astronomy for a number of years. As in so many hobbies, there are countless gadgets and doodads that can make your astronomy setup, alignment, and viewing much more enjoyable. Unfortunately for most of us, without the benefit of a winning lottery ticket, […]
By Dr. James R. Dire In 2017, I picked up two new William Optics telescopes: a Twentieth Anniversary Edition Fluorostar 132 (132-mm f/7 triplet Apo) and a Zenithstar 61. In a previous article, I reviewed the Fluorostar 132. Here, I will review the Zenithstar 61 (hereafter referred to as the […]
By William E. Rison I needed an easily-removable focus motor for my Stellarvue SV80S and came up with the following design that uses a 12-volt DC motor, a wheel for building robots, a 3/4-inch x 3/8-inch x 7-inch section of aluminum bar, and a Vixen/Orion-style dovetail finder shoe. The basic […]
By Mark Zaslove Finding the right set of binoculars is like finding the right car. Or the right fast food hamburger. Or the right spouse. It can take a lot of trial-and-error, some near-misses, and some total junk, but in the end, if you persevere, sometimes, just sometimes, you find […]
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 it mean to […]
By Greg Crinklaw Major professional observatories, such as ESO, use mathematical models of their telescope and instruments to plan their observations. It is useful to know the image scale, what exposure times to use, whether a star will bloom or if the signal will become nonlinear, and how many exposures […]
Barcelona Spain based AstronSCIENTIFIC, in collaboration with Tele Vue Optics and Optique Unterlinden of France, introduced the patented Rotarion Cam SC, a universal motorized wheel for exchanging imaging devices remotely, at the Le Salon de L’astronomie at Rencontres du Ciel et de l’Espace 2018 in Paris France. The Rotarion SC […]
HOBYM Observatory is a South Korean based manufacturer of telescope mounts. It produces the Crux line of equatorial mounts which utilize a harmonic drive system. The latest addition to the mount line is the Crux Mini, an ultra-light -5.5 lbs (2.5kgs) mount that can carry payloads almost 4 times its […]
Astrel Instruments, based in Rome, now offers the AST16200B camera system which eliminates the need for a computer or smart device as it offers a built-in 1GHz microprocessor for stand-alone operation. The camera is based on 16-megapixal Monochrome or Color KAF-16200 CCD Sensor (class 2) and is equipped with an […]