astrobiscuit
The Sky-Watcher CQ350 Mount Review
Skywatcher’s new CQ350 astrophotography mount claims to allow you to image with a massive and I mean MASSIVE 35kg telescope for just £2.5k. Wow. A potential game changer. But can it really do it?
Orion in Iron (and other weird narrowband filters)
I’ve been experimenting with unusual narrowband filters. In this pic BLUE= iron and methylide emission lines (aka the G band) , Green = Mg and Orange= Sodium. I wasn’t sure what to expect but it turns out to be most interesting. A bit like an onion there seems to be layers. The green magnesium hangs…
Naked Astrophotography
This is not a new clique of naturist astrophotographers who enjoy parading around star parties in their birthday suit. Not that I am against taking your kit off for a good cause such as performing the ancient Hopi Indian rain dance backwards around your telescope to ward off the clouds. This is more about having…
Best Value Telescope for Astrophotography
I think that 8 inch Newtonians hit a massive astrophotography sweet spot. Proof of this are seen in the astrophotos of Lyaphine and other members of my discord server as well as tests that were done in Big Amateur Telescope last year.
Es Reid’s Top Telescope Picks
Es Reid designs optical systems. He’s currently working on a very high powered and fancy microscope for an important company in Cambridge. On the side he bench tests commercial telescopes for First Light Optics and makes sure the telescopes they sell are up to scratch. As a result he is uniquely placed to give an…
OOOPS I got a C14😲
The Celestron 14″ Edge HD Optical Tube costs £9k – GULP! My suggestion of donating a few of the kid’s less important organs to pay for a C14 fell on deaf ears so rather than buying one, I’m hiring one for a few months. On Monday I picked up a C14 from Alex Gill’s farm…
Choosing a Mount for astrophotography
Choosing a Mount For Astrophotography – which mount is right for me – best performing mounts – best budget mounts All a mount has to do is hold the telescope and camera perfectly still so that the camera and telescope can take long exposures of the really dim and distant galaxies and nebula. Sounds simple…
Best All Round Telescope
What is the Best All Round Telescope? The best all round telescope would zoom into the planets with ferocious detail and be fat enough to reveal the huge faint whispy deep space nebula and galaxies whilst being small enough to put on a tracking mount for astrophotography. I asked fellow nerds from all over the…
Deep Space Lucky Imaging
– theory – gear Lucky imaging gives us amateurs the possibility of shooting deep space targets at resolutions hitherto only seen in multi million dollar professional observatories. The basic premise behind lucky imaging is explained in the first five minutes of my video: 300 Amateurs take on NASA Benefits DRAWBACKS Lucky Imaging Theory The Enemy…
Smart Telescopes
Smart Telescopes Good or bad?… In February 2021 I got asked to review a fully automated telescope for CH5’s the gadget show. They gave me 20minutes to review Vaonis’s Stellina before the cameras started rolling 😂. Not long but as I went through the specs it dawned on me that if she does what she…
