TELESCOPE FAQ PART 5 - Accessories! Accessories!

by admin

In Part 4 we covered your telescope’s mount and how to choose one. In this part we will discuss all of those things that come with, or are added to your telescope to make it function, make it function better, or just do something nifty!
The sign of a lower quality telescope: If you buy […]

New Wood Puzzles/Models

by admin

We’ve had good success with our wood dinosaur puzzle models, such as the T-Rex, so it is only natural to add a few new wood puzzles to our product line! These are all fun to build, and most are suitable for ages 5+.
The models include the Manta Ray

The Penguin (and baby penguin!)

The 13.5″ Long […]

Just a Little Astronomical Reminder: August 12th, Perseid Meteor Shower

by admin

We’re going on vacation, so there won’t be any updates next week. So we’ll take this opportunity to let those who are also camping (hint hint) that the Perseid Meteor Shower will peak on August 12th! Get to some dark skies and watch the show. At the peak there are dozens of meteors per hour, […]

TELESCOPE FAQ PART 4 - What about the mount?

by admin

So we covered some nifty telescope math in Part 3, but now we come to the part of telescopes that doesn’t involve optics or optics math: The mount.
We have to confess: The most frequently asked question we get about telescope mounts is: “does the price include the mount/tripod?” (it does). But then we get asked […]

TELESCOPE FAQ PART 3: Telescope Math!

by admin

In Part 2 of our telescope FAQ series we described a little formula for telescopes where you determine the magnification you get: The telescope’s focal length divided by the eyepiece’s focal length = The Magnification.

But there are other factors to consider, such as Field of View. Field of View is how much of the […]

SolarBeat

by admin

Not only is this a great demonstration of the relative speed of orbits between the planets (and dwarf planets) but it is also a great little music-maker as well! Gives you a sense of how long a year is for the further solar system objects. Sure, the orbits aren’t ellipses but this is art, dangit!

SOALRBEAT
http://www.whitevinyldesign.com/solarbeat/

If […]

TELESCOPE FAQ Part 1: “How far can this telescope see?”

by admin

When we help customers choose a new telescope they naturally have a lot of questions about the telescope they plan to buy. We’ve already done a Telescope Buyer’s Guide
but that doesn’t answer a lot of these questions directly. This entry hopes to be the first part of a series where we answer and cover […]

Powers of Ten - Computer Age Versions

by admin

Powers of Ten was a classic science education movie that dealt with scale. It starts with some folks in a park, then moves further and further out, by powers of 10 (At firs the scale is 10 meters on the screen, then 100, then 1000, etc.) very soon you have left the Earth and the […]

Pentultimate Space Shuttle Discovery Flight Ends

by admin

The Space Shuttle Discovery has landed, ending STS131, the next-to-last flight for the Space Shuttle Discovery. There are still three more missions for the Space Shuttle, one last for the Discovery, and one for the Endeavor and Atlantis, but they will be the last flights for the shuttle fleet. Very soon. Barring a dramatic change […]

A Touch of Brass

by admin

We got in a few new nifty items that are not only neat and science-y, but also look great because they are made (mostly) of brass! We’ve already had great success with our Small Brass Sextant, and these items promise to be good gifts as well!
Let’s start with the Small Brass Equatorial Sundial

This is a […]