In a recent post on the Sky and Telescope website, Dave Tosteson provides a tribute to Barbara Wilson, who passed away on the evening of September 24, 2019, after battling cancer for several months. As Tosteson writes, “Barbara was very well known in the amateur astronomy community as a dedicated […]
ASTRO CNC is a new maker of custom Dobsonian components including altitude bearings, mirror boxes, secondary cages, and more that are precision cut using CNC milling. They work with various materials including plywood, wood, plastic, and aluminum. Their products are designed to be easily assembled by the end user, which […]
StoneAgeTech is now offering a custom Planet Dial that functions much like a Sundial to help to show if a planet is observable in the night sky for the observer’s location. It also shows in which star constellation the planet can be found based on the length of a shadow […]
Blandin Platforms is a new company offering equatorial platforms for Dobsonian telescopes. The company’s new Crossbow equatorial platforms track for over 60 minutes before needing to be reset and run on 2 AAA batteries for 15+ hours of tracking. The platforms are very lightweight and portable, made from durable anodized […]
By Corky Pickering – This is a great time to be an amateur astronomer. There are lots of good telescopes out there that are relatively inexpensive. Back when I was a teenager, we had no internet, so there was no online shopping, and the telescope stores were few and far […]
Tele Vue has announced they are offering Tactical Night Vision TNV/PVS-14 L3 Gen3 Un-Filmed White Phosphor night vision monoculars packaged with complimentary Tele Vue accessories for astronomical observing. Night-vision devices (NVD) like the TNV/PVS-14 are optoelectronic devices that allow images to be viewed in levels of light approaching total darkness […]
Astronomics is celebrating 40 year offering telescopes and related equipment. To celebrate, they are giving away three Astro-Tech 102ED refractors valued at $599 each. According to Mike Bieler of Astronomics, “It has been a fantastic journey for my family over the past 40 years. I remember loading up in the […]
When Steve Layman was in high school, his passions were astronomy and music. He didn’t have a lot of money, so he had a choice: buy a good telescope or buy an amplifier for his guitar. “I went with the amplifier,” he said. “I was in a rock band.” The […]
We don’t typically cover academic or mainstream astronomy news, however we thought this was cool and wanted to share it with our readers. The Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, England has been added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. What makes this really interesting is the observatory is one of […]
The Rockland Astronomy Club is well known for its schedule of astronomy related events including NEAF (Northeast Astronomy Forum) as well as its upcoming Summer Star Party (SSP), which will be held on July 26 – August 4, 2019. SSP is sponsored by Sky & Telescope magazine. The annual event […]
By Rob Pettengill, Ph.D. You’ve spent hours acquiring and processing the perfect image. It looks great on your big new computer monitor, but you have to pan around to see the whole image in full detail. You want a beautiful print for mom and dad’s living room wall to thank […]
By Matt Harmston I sometimes reminisce about my first telescope, an entry-level 115-mm reflector. My family let me pick out (but not touch) the scope and assorted accessories well before Christmas, a holiday that rapidly became an eggnog-induced flurry of unmitigated wrapping paper mayhem. When clear skies eventually put the […]