I recently did a spot of observing with my trusty 20x60mm binoculars. It was also an opportunity to reacquaint myself with some of the familiar celestial sights after a winter of little observational activity.
Just past the meridian, as soon as darkness falls during April evenings, is the zodiacal constellation of Cancer, the Crab. Though dim, and literally a footnote … Read the rest of this article
I am relatively new to amateur astronomy. I’ve had a Meade ETX-125 for about 6 years, but it is only within the last 2 years that actually I found time to use it. Although it is a very capable telescope for its size, I wanted a bigger light bucket that was better suited for deep sky objects. I spent several … Read the rest of this article
The human eye’s capability of discerning patterns in detailed scenes or images (where sometimes such patterns do not exist) is well known. A recent personal instance involving the Moon and a southern hemisphere feature which, while real, took the shape of a readily recognisable Earth-bound object is a case in point.
I was testing a newly introduced black and white … Read the rest of this article
We are asked nearly every day: “What are your best binoculars?” And every day we answer: “How do you plan on using them?” We are not trying to be evasive with our answer, but the truth of the matter is – the best binoculars for one purpose may be the worse binoculars for another. We want you … Read the rest of this article
By Gary Nugent
Google launched the highly anticipated full version of Google Earth, the search engine’s stand-alone global map utility on June 28th. The application [~10Mb] is available to download from http://earth.google.com.
This geographic search tool combines local search with satellite images and maps from around the globe.
Google Earth is a standalone application that’s essentially an enhanced and … Read the rest of this article
by Charles Vane
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The Roadblocks
There will, naturally, be hurdles to overcome, especially in the next two to five years. We are, after all, talking about … Read the rest of this article
by Charles Vane
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On June 21 of last year something extraordinary happened. A 63-year-old test pilot by the name of Mike Melvill took a small craft … Read the rest of this article
On a visit to Australia last summer I took the opportunity to look up Rudi Vavra, who contacted me on the Internet a couple of years ago in order to look for my opinion on Televue telescopes. We have been in contact for a couple of years now and there has been a standing invitation to visit each others country … Read the rest of this article
By Kevin Berwick
Introduction|
SolarMax 90 Etalon |
I recently decided to buy a SolarMax 90 filter from Coronado. Before I launch into the review proper, you may be interested to hear about the process which lead me to the purchase of this filter, and my current ‘observing lifestyle’ for want of a better phrase.
I live in Dublin, Ireland and … Read the rest of this article
Drift alignment seems to be a major stumbling block for amateurs who want to move up to serious astrophotography (i.e. photography through a telescope).
Here is good method to align your telescope to the pole using the star drift method. This is a classic method from the 1980s when electronics for telescopes was just a drive corrector.
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The Sun Now (Visible light)
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The Sun Now (H-Alpha light)
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Aurora Oval
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Aurora Oval
(Southern Hemisphere) |
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