No comments

Large expansion of my YouTube channel!

  By

I have been busy expanding my Youtube page at https://www.youtube.com/c/AllanHall creating a ton of new content in my renovated video studio. Current work includes quick start guides, product reviews, and general information/tutorials. You should come by the channel and take a look! Some of my new videos include: With a huge list of titles currently in the works you are sure to find interesting ones for you. Check them out and let me know what you think. If you have any suggestions, or a topic you would like to see covered, leave me a comment and let me know. I… Continue reading

No comments

Add your own articles to Allans Stuff!

  By

Do you have a story, how-to, review, or just something fun to share about astronomy/astrophotography with our thousands of visitors every month? Want to tell everyone about the furry little critter that visited you at the dark site, what you think of the new version of Pixinsight, how you captured that tiny slice of a young moon, or how much fun you had the other night doing the Messier binocular challenge? Now you can! Simply visit https://allans-stuff.com/user-submissions/ and fill out the form. I will read it, and assuming it is the awesome article I know it will be, I’ll approve… Continue reading

No comments

Celestron Powerseeker 70AZ telescope review

  By

The Celestron Powerseeker 70AZ is frequently a top recommendation when people ask me what telescope they should get their kids as a first telescope. Let’s find out why. Their First Telescope That first telescope is much more important that most parents realize as it can help foster an interest in astronomy and science in general, or completely destroy the child’s interest. You probably wonder how that could be, and that is an excellent question. Let’s look at this a different way; assume your kid wanted to play little league baseball. You went out and bought them a glove and a… Continue reading

No comments

Explore Scientific Diagonal DD02-00CF Review

  By

Quite a while back I received an Explore Scientific Diagonal model DD02-00CF with a telescope and was less than impressed. It gave terrible views and made odd noises when you rotated it in your hands. I didn’t think much of it as I had a very nice Orion 8727 2-Inch Dielectric Mirror Star Diagonal which I was using so I just chunked the Explore Scientific Diagonal in a box. Lots of time passed and I really wanted to have another nice diagonal to leave in a refractor that sits on a mount in my living room all the time. I had recently… Continue reading

No comments

The Virgo Supercluster, a neglected jewel in the night sky

  By ,

Whenever I see other people observing or imaging and ask them what they have their scope pointed towards, it is almost always some single object or a pair of objects. It might be a nebula, galaxy, or they may be splitting double stars, but few of them think of the Virgo Supercluster. The Virgo Supercluster is a group of approximately 47,000 galaxies situated just outside the constellation Virgo. Although there are a lot of superclusters in the universe, this is probably the most studied and certainly is the most amazing to view. I am not really sure why I never… Continue reading

One Comment

Moon globe from Sky & Telescope review

  By

If you are in the market for a moon globe, there are only a few real choices. One of the most popular of those choices for years has been the Sky & Telescope moon globe. Even as a child, long before becoming an astrophotographer, I was fascinated by the moon. As a kid however things like a globe of the moon was just out of the question. Now that I spend a good portion of my time on astronomy related endeavours, I found room on my desk for another little toy, my own moon globe. I wanted something that was… Continue reading

No comments

Monochrome vs OSC CCD cameras, which is right for you?

  By

So you have decided to move up from a DSLR or other regular photography camera to a CCD but not face the question of which variety to get. You have heard about CCDs that are just like a DSLR in that they shoot a color image, while you have heard others shoot in monochrome and require color filters to get a color image. What to do? Start by understanding that every camera records in monochrome, yes, even your DSLR and one shot color CCDs, and yes, even a film camera! Above you see a representation of a Bayer matrix used in… Continue reading