Telescopes

Unless skilled at Star hopping, finding DSO's can be rather hard with a basic Dob platform. Using a modified mouse on each of the Azimuth & Elevation axis, both can be coordinated together to indicate actual pointing of your Dob in an Astronomy program such as Skyglobe.

Anyone who can afford one has an apochromatic refractor. And almost no one who has one wants to get rid of an apo. But no everyone would pic an apo over getting junior those braces he needs. Telescope designer Rick Shaffer presents some alternatives.

Are you ready to pay for something perfectly made?

Part Two: do perfect bodies look good in the dark?

Big aperture in a backseat size.

Stellarvue SV4 exceeds expectations!

Can the Takahashi TOA justify its huge price diffrence over the STF Mirage 180 deluxe

Here is a project for an afternoon for those who want to take their collimation to another level. For those who dare to go where others fear to tread.

This is a narrative review of the Orion Skyview Pro 8 EQ from the beginner’s perspective. So often when telescope reviews are written, they are in a language that truly ‘amateur’ amateur astronomers can hardly hope to understand. The intent of this is to review this telescope in such a way as to allow a person who is purchasing his or her first real telescope to get a good idea of what they might be buying.

<i>How did this Silly Little Scope perform under the summer Milky Way? What’s the verdict, cutting-to-the-chase-wise?</i>

The little guy sometimes just doesn't get enough credit for being a viable precence on the "real" telescope scene. Well I set out to try and see if all those nasty things I had heard about that cute short little scope were true with a vigorus work out that had us both......

Why are 4" achromatic refractors such wonderful telescopes, and what can you expect from an excellent one.

Telescope designer Rick Shaffer sharpens up his pencil and points out how you can use the Strehl Ratio as a way of analyzing the perfomance of an entire optical system.

If You Use Wheely Bars...You'll Love This Simple Modification!

This article is the first installation in a series of articles about CCD imaging and setting up a CCD imaging system. During the course of the year I travel and speak on CCD imaging and people frequently ask about how to get started and how to choose the components of an imaging system. In this series of articles I will address the most common questions. This first article talks about pixel size.