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 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 […]
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 […]
10Micron has created an entire new line of premium altazimuth mounts based on the company’s popular GM-HPS line of super-accurate, absolute encoder German equatorial mounts. The AZ-HPS series of mounts use the same absolute encoder technology as the GM-HPS mounts with instrument capacities from 55 to 330 pounds. The capability […]
“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 […]
By Donald Pensack Most beginner telescopes 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 […]
By Austin Grant: I decided that I would dive into astrophotography long before I’d purchased my first telescope. In fact, my first foray into this dark art involved a DSLR, a 50-mm lens and a secondhand Orion EQ-1 mount with a motor drive. It was a modest start, but it […]
By Gary Parkerson If its broke, fix it! I used J-B Weld for years to repair minor cracks and breaks in metal components when I couldn’t justify the cost of a proper brazing-machining repair. It’s great stuff, but it sets quickly – within four minutes – and requires mixing the […]