Niels Haagh hosts the website Astronomical Telescopes and Mounts Explained for Amateurs. He recently posted the second article in a series covering astrophotography using an Alt-Az telescope mount. The article, titled Alt-Az Mounts for Long Exposure Astrophotography – Camera Rotators, offers insight into the most advanced type of Alt-Az astrophotography […]
We’ve all learned that you should only clean a telescope mirror when it is absolutely necessary, for fear of harming those delicate coatings. If you’ve got a reflector and you want a clean a telescope mirror, there’s no lack of recommendations for solutions to use – and the techniques are […]
With the Vixen Polarie, 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 […]
Astronomy Light Pollution Filters from Chroma Technology solve a big problem – 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 […]
Reasons to use the Hubble Artificial Star for Collimation? 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 […]
I have been involved with astronomy for a number of years and building my own artificial star came naturally. 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 […]
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 William Optics Zenithstar 61. In a previous article, I reviewed the Fluorostar 132. Here, I will review the William Optics Zenithstar 61. 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 […]
Astro Imaging Processing – 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 […]
In understanding my approach towards creating SkyTools 4 Imaging, its worth considering how 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 […]
10Micron AZ-HPS Mounts offer a line of premium altazimuth mounts based on the company’s popular GM-HPS line of super-accurate, absolute encoder German equatorial mounts. The 10Micron 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 […]