REVIEW Starry Night Pro 5

2006-06-16T08:44:00.000-07:00

I just got Starry Night Pro 5 to control the scope in the backyard while I sit indoors and watch images pop up on a screen. Yeah - it's astronomy the way the bigshots do it.

Go check the Keck observatory- are these folks looking thru eyepieces and freezing their tails off? No! They have imaging devices that plug into the scopes and they sit and review the data, and no you can do this too!

Starry Night allows you to remotely control the scope with any computer, easily.

I actually took a 360 degree image of my backyard and when I use starry night I can actually see the big tree blocking the ecliptic on the side where the planets rise- and I can tell the scope to not bother looking at the tree. It knows not to look at obstacles. The shed and my house to the nw just dont offer much stargazing.

I can set up the scope in alt-az and do hour long exposures of deep sky objects, and I can track satellites that are zipping across the night sky.

Starrynight is an A+
more reviews to come....

Meade Lx200 series

2006-06-16T08:29:00.000-07:00

MEADE LX200 GPS or without GPS

product rating: A+

Picture Quality GREAT for deep sky imager but only really good for the eyeballs
Reliability 100% I never had a a problem
Durability superior
Ease of Use takes a bit to get used to
Quality very high q
Value for Money there are other telescopes out there that are cheaper, but you might get a junker

Advantages: Easy to use and good for beginners
Disadvantages: Quite expensive for a larger size

Recommend to potential buyers: yes

Full review
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I've used a 12" LX200 Meade as part of my astrophysics classes in college. It's easy to use and simple for the beginner who knows nothing about hte night sky. The input of the lat and lon takes a while but with the new GPS models you can basically put up the scope and start looking at amazing stuff.

It can be set up with an adapted mechanical camera or with a CCD for the serious amateur. It's a fairly robust telescope and fully motorized. This means you can put in a star's coordinates and hit 'goto' and it will locate the star. It comes with a catalogue containing the coordiantes of many stars, planets and deep sky objects. You simply enter a code for the object and the telescope will locate it. This makes for quick and easy viewing but can take out some of the fun of optical astronomy.

It has good resolution, optics and a variety of accessories that come with it, although these are similar to those supplied with any telescope.

The Meade's design (Schmidt-Cassegrain) has advantages over a reflector, namely that it is smaller and has a higher magnification power for the same diameter. However, a 10" Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain will cost you more than a 10" reflector. This telescope is,theoretically portable but you'll need a car and a willing friend to lug that 10 or 12 inch beast. Forget about moving the 14 or 16 inch. Besides, would you really want to chance dropping a 20 thousand dollar 16" investment? Put it on a steel post in your backyard and forget it!.

The 8"
It's a good telescope to begin astrophotography on, also if one wants to start sketching lunar features or the position of planets and their satellites. A good but fairly expensive option. Expect to pay about $2500 for the 8 inch meade lx200 gps with all the eyepieces and goodies that make it really worthwhile, and for the 10 inch it's gonna be a grand more.

Now Meade makes this new "hubble telescope" for the back yard. It's called a Ritchey-Chrétien design, and it's the same water white glass, and the same OHTC 20% extra, but man this thing has reach and contrast like never before. I looked thru one a few weeks ago at a star party and the colors you can see will expand your mind. You'll see "depth" in the night sky you never saw before.

Mike

A partial list of large Ritchey-Chrétien telescopes
The two 10m components of the Keck Observatory
The four 8.2m components of the Very Large Telescope in Chile
The 4m Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory
The 3.5m WIYN telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory
The 2.4m Hubble Space Telescope currently in orbit around the Earth
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See also
Maksutov telescope
Newtonian Telescope
Schmidt-Cassegrain

Welcome to the French Deep Field.

2006-05-14T16:08:00.000-07:00

If you dont understand that title, just search Hubble Deep Field. You'll get it.

Anyway, I will be posting my astronomy images here once I get my hands on some astronomy equipment! In other words, a telescope and an astro imager- but I have Starry Night Pro 5 already so I'm kinda doing this ass-backwards.

Enjoy.

Mike

Telescopes are Neato!

REVIEW Starry Night Pro 5

Meade Lx200 series

Welcome to the French Deep Field.