ASTRO-TECH 4 12-inch truss-tube Ritchey-Chrétien 2014 Astronomy’s fifth annual optical tube AVALON INSTRUMENTS Ritchey-Chrétien (RC) 7 M-Zero Fast Reverse single-arm Cassegrain reflectors rank among the finest instru- mount ments in their respective Made from anodized aluminum aperture classes. Perhaps the with stainless steel hardware, the most important benefit of the versatile M-Zero mount is an RC design is its total freedom from accessory you can set up in equato- image distortions, making these rial or alt-azimuth mode. It’s light STAR PRODUCTS scopes an astrophotographer’s favorite. enough for easy transport, yet by Phil Harrington But that advantage has always come at an sturdy enough to allow guided astronomical price — until now. Astro-Tech’s 12-inch f/8 truss- photography through telescopes nce again, our equipment guru tube RC instrument offers many advanced features, such as with apertures as large as 8 inches. carbon-fiber construction and a quartz mirror with enhanced In equatorial mode, the M-Zero combed the marketplace to find the coatings, at an unprecedented low price. doesn’t require a meridian flip, so most useful and most ingenious prod- you can use a relatively long optical O tube. In alt-azimuth mode, it is ucts for the fifth incarnation of Astronomy’s ASTRONOMY TECHNOLOGY TODAY perfect for both telescopes and 5 Astronomy Technology Today binoculars or to acquire automatic time-lapse sequences. Ava- Star Products. The 35 items here, presented lon’s Bluetooth-enabled StarGo go-to system controls the in alphabetical order by manufacturer, run Each issue of Astronomy M-Zero mount. features the best equip- the gamut. Some are perfect for visual ment that money can observing, while others will help you excel buy. But for hard-core BAADER PLANETARIUM equipment junkies, 8 Q-Turret at astroimaging. There’s something for there is Astronomy Technology Today. Each No single eyepiece works for viewing everything. But some- everyone — beginner to advanced ama- bimonthly issue is sin- times switching eyepieces causes a telescope’s aim to shift and a teur — and in a wide price range. gularly devoted to pro- faint object to be lost. The Q-Turret makes changing eyepieces filing the current state easy because you don’t remove them. Instead, after inserting of the astronomical four 1¼" eyepieces of your choice in the turret, you simply dial marketplace by survey- between them. Although Baader makes the unit out of plastic, APOGEE IMAGING SYSTEMS ing new equipment as the quality construction ensures years of service while keeping 1 Aspen CG16M CCD camera well as product evalua- weight to a minimum. tions written by owners. With improved baffling to minimize internal reflections, a durable shutter, and advanced cooling to reduce image-distorting elec- ASTRONOMERS WITHOUT BORDERS ASTROZAP tronic noise, Apogee’s line of 3 OneSky tabletop Newtonian 6 Light Shrouds for Sky-Watcher Dobs Aspen imagers are ideal for seri- ous astrophotographers. The Have you ever been asked to recommend a good starter tele- Open-tubed Newtonian Aspen CG16M contains the scope for a child? I have. Astronomers Without Borders’ reflectors are becoming Kodak KAF-16803 full-frame CCD OneSky 5.1-inch f/5 tabletop Newtonian is one of the best sold more and more popular chip. The Aspen line has other mod- today. No bells, whistles, or electronics. Just good optics in an these days, and for good els with a variety of monochromatic and color CCD chips. easy-to-setup, user-friendly package. Place the telescope on a reasons. Not only does All come standard with two interfaces: a network interface with picnic table, extend the collapsible tube, and the one-armed, the design cut down on a built-in Web server and 1-to-16 MHz 16-bit digitization. alt-azimuth-mounted instrument is ready to explore the sky. weight, but it also helps optics cool more quickly than solid-tube ASTRO HUTECH models. Still, light 2 Flat-top Orthoscopic Eyepieces entering the optical path from the side can Eyepiece design is one of the most fluid aspects of amateur astronomy. And while many come and go, damage image contrast. one that has stood the test of time is the Abbe orthoscopic. Recently, Astro Hutech introduced a line of To solve the problem, Astrozap sells a line of custom-fit cloth these eyepieces in eight focal lengths from 4mm to 25mm. Eye relief and apparent field of view may not shrouds for 8- to 16-inch Sky-Watcher Dobsonian telescopes Phil Harrington is an Astronomy contributing editor and author of be as great as some modern designs, but image sharpness is second to none. That’s why orthoscopic eye- that prevent stray light from washing out the view. Cosmic Challenge: The Ultimate Observing List for Amateurs (Cambridge pieces continue to be a favorite for lunar and planetary study. University Press, 2010). 74 ASTRONOMY • SEPTEMBER© 2014 Kalmbach 2014 Publishing Co. This material may not be reproduced in any WWW.ASTRONOMY.COM 75 form without permission from the publisher. www.Astronomy.com BAADER PLANETARIUM CELESTRON HOWIE GLATTER MALLINCAM 9 Steeltrack Crayford focusers 12 Off-Axis Guider 15 Parallizer 18 MallinCam Jr PRO Often, the stock focusers that An off-axis guider is an Many observers view through 1¼" From Procom Electronics in Ottawa, Canada, comes this addi- come with low-price telescopes accessory imagers use with eyepieces in 2" focusers by using a tion to the MallinCam line of video cameras. The MallinCam Jr leave something to be desired. long-focal-length telescopes step-down adapter. But unless PRO is similar to the company’s more expensive Mallincam Baader solves the problem with a because such instru- machining tolerances are strictly Xtreme, but without some of the fancier features. Junior’s stan- line of Steeltrack Crayford-style ments require the most followed, the unit can sit badly in dard CCD chip, the Sony ICX418AKL, is the same, while a more focusers, available for telescopes as accurate guiding. the focuser, and that will affect sensitive EXview HAD chip is also available. You can order small as 2 inches. These focusers Celestron’s Off- image quality. Howie Glatter’s Parallizer step-down adapter either as color or monochrome. Both feature exposures you can use internal ball bearings riding Axis Guider prevents this by maintaining three equally distributed points of set to last anywhere from 1/12,000 second to 99 hours. on hardened stainless steel inside uses an adjust- contact on the inside of the focuser’s drawtube as well as on the an aluminum base for smooth able, multicoated eyepiece’s barrel, keeping everything square. operation. Both coarse and fine 12.5-millimeter adjustments are standard on all prism that allows models. you to locate a guide star. The 48mm clear aperture supports ISTAR OPTICAL full-frame cameras without vignetting. The guider comes with 16 Phoenix WFT 204–6 a fixed-orientation helical focuser and includes all needed spacers and adapters for most imaging configurations. From Czech telescope maker Istar Optical comes three refrac- CELESTRON tors billed as “comet hunters.” That’s just one enticing aspect of 10 COSMOS 90GT WiFi Telescope these scopes. The largest, the 8-inch f/5.9 Phoe- DENKMEIER nix WFT 204–6, offers wide fields of view The COSMOS 13 Solar observing Optical Correctors that are ideal for studying expansive star 90GT 90mm clusters, glowing nebulae, and, yes, f/10 refractor Observing the Sun in comets. Fully multicoated optics is the first Hydrogen-alpha (Hα) promise images with fine con- WiFi-enabled tele- light is always excit- trast that also are sharp scope for amateur astrono- ing. And viewing it thanks to an oversized mers. Rather than use a hand with two eyes adds a rotatable focuser. controller, the COSMOS 90GT’s dimension that one- go-to function operates from eyed sungazing your smartphone or tablet. never achieves. The 3.5-inch telescope uses Unfortunately, most Celestron’s free Navigator Hα telescopes don’t planetarium app. The link have the added focusing will work everywhere, distance needed by binoview- even without WiFi or a ers. To fix this, Denkmeier now offers Optical Correctors that cell signal. let their binoviewers focus through all popular Hα solar scopes. Prepare to be astonished. EXPLORE SCIENTIFIC CELESTRON 14 152mm Achromatic Refractor 11 Skyris CCD imagers LOSMANDY Explore Scientific built the largest member of its AR Doublet 17 StarLapse Designed with Germany’s The Imaging Source, Celestron’s line Series of achromatic refractors around an air-spaced, crown- of Skyris solar/lunar/planetary video imagers combine popular and-flint, doublet objective lens, just like its 102mm and You’ve probably seen online videos showing time-lapse views of CMOS and CCD chips used for planetary imaging with super- 127mm models. At f/6.5, this 6-inch scope shows some color the sky rotating above a striking terrestrial foreground. How do fast USB 3.0 con- fringing around bright objects, even with the fully multicoated the videographers record such scenes? They use a tracking plat- nections for optics. But given the high-end aluminum and stainless steel form like the StarLapse from Losmandy. Based on the same rates up to 120 construction, as well as the price, which is a fraction of a similar right ascension drive system as the company’s GM-8 equatorial full-resolution apochromatic refractor, it’s easy to forgive that flaw. mount, Losmandy’s StarLapse tracks MYCASEBUILDER frames per the sky at both sidereal and solar rates, 19 Custom cases second. The and pans the camera at nine different Skyris lineup speeds up to 240° per hour for the It’s important to keep our precious eyepieces and accessories safe includes three duration of the exposure.