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Celestron Powerseeker 70AZ telescope review

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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

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Explore Scientific Diagonal DD02-00CF Review

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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

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The Virgo Supercluster, a neglected jewel in the night sky

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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

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Moon globe from Sky & Telescope review

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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

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

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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

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Orion XT8 SkyQuest 8″ Dobsonian Telescope Review

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I have had an Orion XT8 SkyQuest 8″ Dob for a few years now and it has held up well. This telescope has offered up a nice view of a lot of objects but for some reason I have never written about it. Let’s change that. Here is a short Orion Skyquest XT8 review. I bought this telescope several years ago and paid less than the Orion Skyquest XT8 price on Amazon, but like most things, prices have gone up a little and they have changed the scope a little. My old Orion XT8 came with a couple of eyepieces and… Continue reading

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Astrophotography image storage and backup

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Astrophotography image captures can add up quickly. They also tend to not be very small. Once you add in darks, bias and flats, you can have quite a mess on your hands.  Organization The fist problem is figuring out how to store the files so that it makes sense and you can get the files you need in a hurry. I started off with just a folder where I threw everything in and thought my naming convention would keep my astrophotography image collection organized enough. I was very very wrong. What I recommend now is a different method, and I… Continue reading