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Archive for January 2020

Good conditions for observing Venus

January 20 2020, Jan Ströher

In the coming weeks Venus, our “sister planet”, will become a good object for observing. The planet is a bright, easily detectable object in the morning or evening sky, but it is usually located very close to the horizon with corresponding atmospheric disturbance and rather short observing times. This will improve from around the end of January, when Venus will become progressively brighter and visible for longer in the evening sky. Then the planet will be found easily with the naked eye immediately after sunset and can be observed for almost four hours.

Even good binoculars, such as the Omegon Nightstar are suitable for observing. In telescopes with an aperture from around 90mm, Venus can already be identified as a small disc. Just like the Moon, the planet exhibits different phases, although details of the surface remain hidden owing to its very dense atmosphere. The cloud structures can be distinguished very well with telescopes from 130mm aperture. The use of a suitable filter (violet, dark blue, blue) is recommended to improve the contrast.

Credit: EXAME/JAXA/Divulgao, Brazil

Venus is the second innermost planet in our solar system and is a similar size to Earth. Its atmosphere consists of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, sulphur dioxide and various noble gases. This composition, combined with its proximity to the Sun, makes our neighbouring planet a hostile and mysterious world. As it orbits the Sun, Venus rotates backwards, that is in exactly the opposite direction to our Earth. Therefore on Venus the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east. After the Moon, the planet is the brightest object, but, just like Mercury it is only visible in the morning or evening sky – hence it is also given the designation “morning-” or “evening star”.

From mid-January, Venus dominates our evening sky immediately after sunset on the southwestern horizon. Between then and the end of March it changes its position from about 25° to 46° and reaches a brightness of -4.7mag by the end of April. During this period it moves towards the western horizon and passes through the constellations Aquarius, Pisces and Aries. In April it reaches Taurus and can even be found close to the Pleiades (M45) at the beginning of April.

From January to May it’s best to track Venus using a star chart.

Credit: Planetarium Bochum

Have fun observing Venus in 2020!

Star Theater Pro: Bring the stars into your living room!

January 10 2020, Marcus Schenk

Admittedly, it is nice when we can stand outside under the starry night sky and gaze at countless real stars in the countryside away from the cities.

But what if that just isn’t possible? Perhaps clouds are moving across the sky like an infinitely long caravan, whilst the weather is only beautiful above them. Or the city is masking the stars with its own light – so that even the people of Alpha Centauri can see something of Berlin. Oh dear! Astronomy and space fans will need something to comfort them in such circumstances.

That means it’s time for the Omegon Star Theater Pro.

Space from the comfort of your couch

You can bring the night sky down into your living room and easily project it onto the wall or the ceiling. You observe your own little universe in complete darkness. Or you can view the planets just like from a spaceship and pay a visit to the Helix nebula. You could almost believe that you were really floating in the Universe while lying on your couch – perhaps with a blanket and some soft ‘space music’ playing.

So the night sky looks particularly realistic

Additionally-available discs can be inserted to project the Milky Way and an actual night sky onto the ceiling. We recommend the impressively beautiful image on the Milky Way slide. This disc gives you a very realistic impression.

Omegon Dia Milchstraße

This slide provides an impressive viewing experience

Sleeping under the firmament with no mosquitos or cold

The Star Theater Pro lets you relax after a hard day’s work and imagine yourself in the Universe. That is why our customers like to use it as a compact mood lighting or night light with a 30- or 60-minute timer that can be used to gently lull you to sleep.

How about making it a Christmas present for a good astronomy friend or your children this year? They will thank you with a sparkle in their eyes.

The Omegon Star Theater Pro has all these advantages:

– compact home planetarium that relaxes you and shows you the stars from your couch.

powerful lighting: the stars projected onto the ceiling are so bright that you can even make out the dimmer ones.

– perfect for falling asleep to – switches off automatically after 30 or 60 minutes if desired.

freely adjustable projection distance of the night sky up to 7.5 meters.

rotation of the night sky – makes the night sky look even more interesting.

– a journey into the Universe – the optionally-available star slides let you travel to Saturn, to the Lagoon nebula or even far out to the galaxies.

– attractively designed gift packaging.

The Star Theater Pro home planetarium is a superb gift for anyone who wants to while away some time under the stars. And what are you giving away this year? Perhaps the entire Universe!

The SkyGuider Pro camera mount from iOptron is now available with an electronic polar finder

January 8 2020, Stefan Taube

The SkyGuider Pro is a very light mount on which you can set up a camera with interchangeable lenses or a small telescope. This approach allows longer exposure times and so you can create fascinating wide-angle shots of the night sky.

iOptron Montierung SkyGuider Pro iPolar Set

iOptron Mount SkyGuider Pro iPolar Set

The SkyGuider Pro is now also available as a set together with the iPolar electronic polar finder, which has been built into the mount. With this accessory, you can easily and very precisely polar-align your mount.

The electronic finder has a built-in camera. This shows the position of the northern celestial pole and the location that the polar axis of the mount is pointing at, on your laptop. Simply bring the two points together by turning the adjustment screws for the azimuth and altitude axes of the mount – and you’re done!

SkyGuider Pro mit iPolar

SkyGuider Pro with iPolar

The location of the celestial north pole differs somewhat from the location of the Pole Star. The electronics calculate the exact position using the date and time. Thanks to the sensitivity of the camera and the large field of view, this so-called polar alignment is successful even when the mount has been only roughly positioned. This also works in the southern hemisphere and even takes into account atmospheric refraction at low latitudes!

If want to do without iPolar, you can of course still purchase the SkyGuider Pro mount without the electronic polar finder here.

Omegon DigiStar: The easy way to make small things really big.

January 7 2020, Achim Mros

With 4.3″ LCD display

 

This digital reflected-light microscope offers really good observing possibilities. The ease of use and the fascinating observation results are absolutely amazing. The tiniest subjects such as minerals, minute creatures, electronic assemblies, coins and much more are reproduced, highly magnified, on the 4.3″ display. Here you get a device that offers lots of fun for a very reasonable price.

Images can be saved onto an optional SD card and processed on a PC. Even short demo videos are possible. The aluminium stand is of high quality and neatly finished. The actual microscope head with LCD display is raised and lowered using the rack and pinion drive. The closer you lower the LCD head to the sample, the higher the magnification. You can adjust the focus using the control dial under the display. A full magnification of 200x can be achieved manually in this way. If that’s still not enough, you can digitally increase this in two steps up to 600x by using the two arrow keys under the display. The eight super-bright LEDs ensure that the sample is perfectly illuminated. Of course, the brightness is infinitely adjustable.

The built-in battery is charged using a power supply plug. The microscope can therefore be used outdoors for many hours, far away from any power source.