Your partner for astronomy
Subscribe to RSS Feed or ATOM Feed

Celestron Astro Fi: beginner telescopes with App

January 16 2017, Stefan Taube

It all started with the NexStar Evolution: Celestron had this telescope series equipped with WIFI. This enables you to connect your tablet or smartphone with the telescope. This not only gives you the opportunity to control your telescope without cables, you can also utilize all functionalities of the free-of-charge App Celestron SkyPortal: Your display screen uses an appealing planetarium view to show the current view of the sky and provides you with a lot of background information. The most popular objects are available as images and even an Auto-Guide (in English).

Celestron now offers this technology also for reasonable starter telescopes. At present this series Astro Fi consists of four different instruments:

Newton telescope N 130/650 AZ GoTo Astro Fi 130

Refractor N 90/910 AZ GoTo Astro Fi 90

Maksutov telescope MC 102/1325 AZ GoTo Astro Fi 102

Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope SC 127/1250 AZ GoTo Astro Fi 5

astro-fi-5

Our tip: The Astro Fi telescope with SC optics.

The model Astro Fi 5 mentioned last is particularly interesting. With its aperture of 5 inches it is already relatively fast. However, the telescope is very compact and thus only has a minor leverage effect on the tripod. The closed tube protects the main mirror against contamination. Moreover, SC optics show a high adjustment stability. Despite their compact design and the high focal length, SC optics are highly suitable for taking photos of moon and planets – a well suited camera is the NexImage 5.

As already described before, all four Astro Fi telescopes generate a WIFI for the control via the SkyPortal App. In contrast to the NexStar Evolution, Celestron delivers the Astro Fi without an additional manual control box.

Just like the bigger Celestron telescopes, the Astro Fi also come with the SkyAlign technology. This is a particularly simple technique for aligning the computer control to the actual night sky and your station. At the beginning of your stargazing session you must align the telescope to three bright celestial objects, that is all. The telescope uses the angles between the objects and the GPS-data from the smartphone or tablet to calculate the actual view of the sky. After this short procedure you can automatically approach any object that the SkyPortal-App shows you. All you must do, just touch the object on the touchscreen.

The special feature of this SkyAlign method is the fact that you even don’t need to know the names of the three bright objects you use for initializing the control. For beginners this is a great help, but it is also a useful feature for experienced stargazers, because at dawn the number of visible stars is often too low to assign the correct names.

The Astro Fi telescopes are equipped with a battery compartment. However, the best power supply method surely is the LiFePO4 powerpack from Celestron.

Skywatcher Sky Panorama Eyepieces: More economical in a set!

January 9 2017, Stefan Taube

With immediate effect the popular ultra wide angle eyepieces of the Sky Panorama series are available in an economical set:

Skywatcher Eyepiece Set Sky Panorama with focal length of 7 mm, 15 mm, 23 mm.

You save 69.90 Euro when compared with the purchase of the individual eyepieces.
The three focal lengths fully cover the sensible range needed for observations with Dobson telescopes.

The Sky Panorama ultra-wide angle eyepieces offer a large field of view of 82° – a unique viewing experience across a very flat, well corrected and almost undistorted field. The eyepieces come with soft eyepiece caps, which can be simply rotated for correct positioning. Convenient viewing and also suitable for persons wearing glasses. For high contrast and maximum light transmission the lens areas have been broad spectrum multi tempered. The thread cut into the plug-in sleeve enables the use of filters.

Sky Panorama

Omegon binocular mount: How to surf the sky with binoculars

January 2 2017, Marcus Schenk

It is simply fantastic: viewing the sky with binoculars. Hiking through the constellations of the milky way. Just take a detour to the next nebula. And then back to the Andromeda galaxy.
Exploring the sky with large binoculars is a lot fun. If their wasn’t the problem with the weight.

Das perfekt austarierte Nightstar 20x80 Fernglas

A tripod is a must, otherwise your arms will get heavy, even after just a few minutes. But most large binoculars have a weight of several kilograms and most tripod heads are thus overloaded. In practice: At an inclination of more than 45° most heads will start to slip, because friction becomes too high.

But now there is a solution: The Omegon binocular mount.

It consists of a 580 mm long rail (acc. to Aka-Swiss-Rail standard) and a 1 kg counterweight. Fasten your large binoculars on the opposite side. The mount the whole assembly on your tripod head. And all problems are gone.

Perfect balancing of your binoculars relieves the tripod head and allows any movement.

The forces are balanced
You simply float across the sky by slightly increasing the friction of your tripod head. Simply move the binoculars from one object to the next. And don’t bother with extremely tightened mount clamps. It gives you the impression as if your binoculars would surf the sky on the waves of light.

Some product recommendations for the Omegon binocular fixture:

Binoculars:
Omegon Nightstar 15×70
Omegon Nightstar 20×80
Omegon Argus 11×70
Omegon Argus 20×80

Tripods and tripod heads:
Omegon aluminium tripod Titania 800 + 3D panorama head 500 + Novoflex Swiss-Rail profile
Manfrotto aluminium tripod 475 B Pro Digital
Cullmann tripod panorama head CONCEPT ONE OH4.5V
Manfrotto video pan head MVH500AH Fluid + Novoflex Swiss-Rail profile

Infographic: The Star of Bethlehem

December 22 2016, Marcus Schenk

The story of the three kings travelling to Bethlehem is known by much of the western world. However, a number of cosmic phenomena could provide explanation to how a star could have shone so brightly to lead the three kings to the fertile crescent two millennia ago.

For more info on how this particular event may have occurred, have a look at our info-graphic below. The embed code for the info-graphic is also available.

(more…)

Omegon V-Power: toughened focusers for better astro photos

November 28 2016, Marcus Schenk

Taking astro photos means facing many challenges. One of these are sharp astro photos. It is not easy to focus on weakly glowing stars and nebulae during the night. A perfectly tracked astro photo, but blurred? Inconceivable!

However, the perfect solution for this is now available: the new Omegon V-Power focusers. Making sure that your astro photo does not end up in drama, but as a story with a happy end.

Nur echt mit dem V: Der V-Power High-End-Okularauszug

What makes the V-Power focusers so distinct?

Important parts of the V-Power focuser are made of stainless steel instead of soft aluminium. Robust V2A ball bearings and stainless steel rings ensure high precision focusing. A dual speed 1:10 reduction provides the basis for a sensitively focusedastro photo, and the laser engraving allows you to return to previous settings very quickly. And if you have planned the future use of a motorized control, this is also possible.

With the V-Power finder base you can now also connect your finder scope. Simply attach the base to the focuser – and you are ready to go!

With these sets you can simply connect the focuser to your telescope

The V-Power series is available in different versions: for Newton and Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes. A plug & play solution is available in a set with matching adapters. Easy focusing in just a few steps.

You want to learn more? Follow this link to the focuser for better astro photos.

Skywatcher: A new addition to the Star Adventurer family

November 7 2016, Stefan Taube

The Star Adventurer from Skywatcher literally is a handy camera mount. For us, a camera mount is an astronomical mount that tracks the rotation of the sky with a photo camera, not with a telescope. This way you will successfully shoot impressive wide field images of the night sky: entire constellations, the belt of the milky way, or atmospheric constellations of the Moon and planets.

A new addition to the Star Adventurer family

The Mini Star Adventurer Wi-Fi from Skywatcheris now available:

mini-star-adventurer

Just like the classic Star Adventurer we also offer this model in two variations: The Photo-Set only consists of the photo mount without any further accessories. This variation is perfect for customers who already have accessories, or want to use the Star Adventurer for applications other than astro photography. The Astro-Set variation comes with everything you need to be able to use the Star Adventurer as an astronomical mount. You only need an additional camera tripod. An excellent solution is the very light Titania 600 from Omegon.

What has changed on the new Star Adventurer?

The Mini Star Adventurer Wi-Fi is no replacement for the classic model. As indicated by its name, the load capacity of the new version is lower. The classic Star Adventurer is able to carry approx. 5 kilogramme; for the Mini Star Adventurer the manufacturer recommends an additional load of maximum 3 kilogramme. This low load gives you the opportunity to operate the Mini Star Adventurer via an integrated powerpack, which is charged via Mini-USB. You no longer need any batteries.

Another major difference is the control via app: The Mini Star Adventurer Wi-Fi generates its own WIFI network. You can wirelessly connect your smartphone or tablet to the camera mount. For this purpose, Skywatcher provides an app for Android and iOS free of charge. The advantage of this app is the fact that no additional manual control is required because you already own a smartphone, including the convenience of the graphical user interface and touchscreen. You can actually use the app to control your camera via the Mini Star Adventurer Wi-Fi and to make a vast variety of settings. This all takes place without touching: no camera movement, no disturbance of the polar alignment.

By the way: With camera mounts like the models of the Star Adventurer series you will also be able to take panorama and time lapse images. Camera mounts are highly versatile tools for ambitious photographers.

Winter clothes: The nights are getting cold again!

October 24 2016, Stefan Taube

Fashionable clothing actually is not our core competence, but we know exactly how the temperatures can drop during these autumn nights! This is why our outdoor range offers a selection of cold protection clothing.

The following items have been very well received:Planam

You can even get your hot tea from a Thermos flask from us! Just add the hot tea.

Celestron Inspire: New ideas for starter telescopes!

October 17 2016, Stefan Taube

My first telescope was a small, 60 millimetre refractor on a very wobbly azimuthal mount with a wooden tripod. Even though it was only a very simple piece of equipment, I had fun with it right from the beginning. I can still remember the fascination when looking at the Orion nebula for the first time. Even today I gladly use this simple achromatic telescope to watch sunspots – obviously through a solar filter!

However, such reasonable starter telescopes do not have to be wobbly! Telescope manufacturer Celestron shows that even budget-priced refractors on azimuthal mounts can feature exquisite product design. The new Inspire series features a few really innovative improvements.

Inspire

This starts with a solid steel tripod. The accessory plate, which also stabilizes the tripod, no longer needs to be unscrewed after a star gazing session (the screw required for this purpose will sooner or later be lost in the grass anyway). Just simply open the interlock instead and fold down the tripod including the accessory plate. It has never been more convenient to set up or disassemble a tripod!

Apart from this, the clamping screws for the extendable tripod legs point inwards to make sure that you will not accidentally get entangled with your trousers.

Stativ InspireFurther features of the Inspire series:

  • The newly developed red dot finder comes with target circles instead of an annoying centre mark.
  • The Amici prism ensures an upright image, so that daytime nature observations are also possible.
  • The focusing screws of the focuser are big and have a good grip to allow the use of gloves.
  • The dust protection lid for the eyepiece also serves as a smartphone adapter. All eyepieces included in the scope of delivery can be clamped into this lid, just like the smartphone. This allows you to use your smartphone to take magnified photos of the Moon and planets through the eyepieces.
  • The mount is equipped with an integrated red light lamp. The diffuse light of this lamp illuminates the accessories plate without dazzling the eyes. However, you can easily pull the lamp out of the mount to use it as a pocket torch.

Currently, Celestron offers three models of the Inspire series

Each of these three models is far better than my first telescope, but I still had a lot of fun with it!

 

Omegon apochromatic telescope 102 mm and 127 mm Triplet: The “People’s Apo” has been improved

October 10 2016, Marcus Schenk

Whoever looks through an apo for the first time is usually thrilled. Twin stars, star clusters or planets: for these objects, an apo – without any doubt – takes the pole position. The two best-sellers from Omegon are the 102 mm and the 127mm Triplet apos – part of our product range since 2010! Now they have been revised and considerably improved. And best of all: The price has not been changed.

Just learn what has been changed to make this equipment more impressive than ever for amateur astronomers:

1. Adjustable lens cell

In the past telescopes were obviously adjusted, but any re-adjustment was very difficult. At least, you really needed to know what you were doing. This has now changed! We have developed a completely new and temperature compensating lens cell, which makes adjusting as simple as riding a bike – okay, maybe almost as simple. Four adjustment and fixing screws help you to adjust the eyepiece. This is easily done with an open end spanner, using the North Star as a reference.

triplet-blog

2. Finder base

The finder base with double-T profile was swapped for a standard Vixen-style base. You can now mount almost any finderscope or LED finder. This gives you more freedom of choice, because in the past only a few models fitted correctly.

3. Suitable for binocular attachments

Not everybody uses them, even though they really elicit a WOW-effect during observation. Binoculars allow you to watch with two eyes and give you plastic impressions. They are particularly fantastic for watching the Moon and planets. For problem-free use of a binocular the tube has been slightly shortened to provide more focusing space for the connection. Now you can use a binocular with diagonal mirror.

4. Reinforced prism rail

During the constant assembly and disassembly of a telescope, the prism rail suffers a lot. The screws of the mount repeatedly dig into the soft aluminium and leave scratches and sometimes even deep notches. We have now reinforced the prism rail of your apo with a stainless steel plate, so that it can still be used for many years to come. Scratches and deep notches are a thing of the past.

5. Retractable dew-shield

The dew-shield is now extendable and retractable and no longer attached.

By the way: Each apo now comes with a measurement protocol as a standard. Furthermore, we check the adjustment of each telescope and include a test image of the adjustment. But did you know, that, on request, we will also check your telescope on our optical bench? From the star test in autocollimation up to the interferometric test.

 

New: SkyTracker Pro from iOptron

September 26 2016, Stefan Taube

You do not need very much to be able to take long exposure photos of the night sky. Even with a system camera or a DSLR with interchangeable lenses you can take photos of large regions of the sky, such as constellations, special constellations of the Moon and planets or even the belt of the milky way.

All you need besides the camera is just a little piece of accessory to be mounted between tripod and camera. This accessory, referred to as camera mount, makes your camera rotate with the starry sky. This makes sure that stars will not appear as dashed lines after a longer exposure time. The SkyTracker from iOptron is the mount that has set standards. This narrow and light piece of accessory fits into any photo bag – ideal also for travelling!

With the Sky Tracker Pro, iOptron now launches a new version of this popular camera mount:SkyTracker

  • You no longer need any batteries! The integrated powerpack can be simply charged via your computer or via a mobile power supply, sufficient for approx. 24 hours of operation. You can obviously also use a Powertank to supply the Sky Tracker Pro continuously with electric current via USB.
  • The polar finder for aligning the equatorial wedge (Alt-Az base) with the North Star is illuminated with eight selectable brightness stages. A rough alignment is made through a peephole and a height scale on the wedge.
  • The equatorial wedge is mechanically considerably more stable than the classic SkyTracker. It has a large height adjustment wheel with a non-slip clamping lever and adjustment screws. The wedge can be separated from the tracking unit. This way it may stay on the tripod and the SkyTracker Pro can be simply plugged on.
  • You can choose from four speeds: stellar, solar, lunar and 0.5-times. Half the stellar speed is quite useful if you want to photograph landscape details in the foreground together with the stars.
    Due to the reduced tracking speed, these elements remain sharp. By the way: You can also reverse the sense of rotation of the motor, so that the SkyTracker Pro also works in the Southern hemisphere.
  • With a weight of slightly more than one kilogram and dimensions of 12 cm x 12 cm x 10 cm, the SkyTracker Pro is quite compact, despite its high quality mechanics, and will surely fit into your travel luggage.

Besides the tripod, you also need a ball head in order to use the SkyTracker Pro in the most effective way. Since many photographers already have a ball head in their possession, it is not included in the scope of delivery of the SkyTracker Pro. Under the “Recommended Accessories” tab on the SkyTracker Pro product page you will find a highly suitable example.

By the way: At Astroshop.eu we also offer astro modified system cameras. These cameras are highly sensitive in the red range of the spectrum and enhance the image quality of cosmic nebulae.