By Gary Parkerson, Managing Editor Astronomy Technology Today If you live on the mainland U.S., and you are at all like me, you’re already counting the seconds until the August 21, 2017, total eclipse of the Sun … as in, there is literally a countdown timer in the corner of […]
With each new advancement in the technology available to amateur astronomers, the line between amateur and professional – already barely distinguishable – is further blurred. There may be no better example than the feats of the Backyard Observatory Supernova Search (with the enviable acronym, “BOSS”). Boss represents an amateur collaboration […]
The SBIG STXL series is a high performance astro imaging platform supporting large format CCD sensors. It includes support for self-guiding filter wheels, and the AO-X adaptive optics accessory. The STXL-11002M uses the popular 35 mm, 11 megapixel KAI-11002 sensor. The STXL-16200 is a 16 megapixel, APS format camera. The […]
Field Tested Systems was established by Tom Field in 1995 to work directly with leading STEM educators, curriculum experts and scientists to create learning tools that are both effective and economical. Its latest product, a Periodic Table of Spectra, is a prime example of its focus on education. The table […]
Unihedron SQM-LU-DL: The names Unihedron and have become synonymous with measurement of sky brightness. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine a Sky Quality Meter tool that has had greater impact on quantification of local light pollution. Unihedron’s original SQM set the standard and has since evolved into a comprehensive range of […]
3D printing, or additive manufacturing, has the potential of revolutionizing every industry whose products incorporate physical components, by delivering mass customization and eliminating cost-prohibitive set up and production complexity. It was only a matter of time before the benefits of 3D printing were deployed in the manufacture of custom telescopes […]
The MallinCam Micro Series camera is a small video CCD camera capable of 1/100,000 all the way up to 17 seconds exposure, making these cameras versatile with any object to be viewed live on a monitor. MallinCam has now announced that the Micro Series is now available as a complete […]
Clear Sky Lab’s AstroPiBox, a French-language autonomous autoguiding platform, is based upon the Raspberry Pi Linux platform. Recently released out of beta, the platform leverages the Raspberry Pi for autoguiding, offering several distinct advantages: (1) Power consumption of only a few watts, which makes it possible to use a portable […]
The 2017 Total solar eclipse on August 21 promises to be a once in a lifetime event and many people will lean heavily on their smartphones to participate in the eclipse. In our article – Using a Smartphone to Photograph the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse – we covered a number […]
Deep-Astro Instruments had a couple of seemingly mundane goals in mind when designing its new line of Dobs: They had to be easy to transport and to set up, plus they needed to be accurate and robust. The resulting telescopes, though, are, as you shall see, far from mundane. Indeed, […]
It’s always fun to see the astro-tech so many of us deploy nightly used in larger contexts, but sometimes those larger contexts are so over-the-top, it takes our collective breaths away, as was the case when we were treated to first reports of the Dragon 44 discovery of the Dragonfly […]
The National Eclipse website offers a wealth of information including an outline of some of the unique features, landmarks, and viewing options for each of the fourteen U.S. states located within the path of totality. The site takes potential weather for these sites into consideration, which will be a definite […]