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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
It’s a busy day and getting near the holidays, so we figured it would serve all well to reprint our Telescope Buyer’s Guide:
There are several telescope buyers guides available on the Internet, some good, some not so good. At Spectrum we are writing from our experience with customers and hope to make this simple and […]
On August 11th, Saturn’s rings disappeared from Earth’s view. This is because from our perspective the rings appear to ‘wobble’ over the period of years; showing us their tops and bottoms from differing angles.
But part of that ‘wobble’ is that every 15 years or so the rings are edge-on the earth and disappear from […]
Continued from Part 1
OK, Now you can look at the Moon!
OK, having gotten a quick glimpse you can take your telescope to the Moon! If you’ve chosen wisely, the Moon will only be half full, waxing or waning. The Full Moon looks like it might be a great target, but it lacks the shadow detail […]
So you read our telescope buyer’s guide, you did even more online research, you chose a telescope, you took it home, you went managed to put it together, you aligned the finderscope, heck you may have even taken the time to collimate it if you got a reflector! Now the skies are clear tonight and […]
….if you are on the opposite side if the world from where this is being written.
That right, if you haven’t heard there is a total eclipse taking place this evening at 8:50 EDT. Sadly for us, it is visible in India, China, and other nearby nations.
So for the rest of us, no Eclipse for […]
Many filters are available for telescopes these days. Each of them does something different to get a different effect. Some filters are used to reduce light, others to reduce light pollution, others to bring out other colors of The Planets, etc. Filters can help enhance a viewing session to make it more pleasant […]
In less than one month, one of the keystone events of the International Year of Astronomy will take place: 100 hours of astronomy. This takes place from April 2nd through the 5th, which is some of the best viewing times for astronomy. During this 100 hour period new and experienced amateur astronomers alike are encouraged […]
