March 2022 – Astronomy Now

APM HDC-XWA 7mm, 100-Degree X-Treme Eyepiece, a real eyeful

25 March 2022 Steve Ringwood

Steve Ringwood got his hands on APM’s new HDC-XWA 7mm, 100-degree X-treme eyepiece, and found out how its large field of view and powers of magnification fill an important gap.

Webb optics alignment achieves near perfect focus

21 March 2022 Astronomy Now

In another milestone, the 18 segments of the James Webb Space Telescope’s primary mirror have been aligned with near-flawless precision.

Beating the LED streetlights: IDAS light-pollution suppression LPS-D2 filter

18 March 2022 Ade Ashford

The LPS-D2 filter is the world’s first filter designed specifically to combat LED light pollution. Ade Ashford took a close look at the data to see how effective it will be.

TS-Optics Photoline 60mm, F/6 FPL53 APO refractor

15 March 2022 Ade Ashford

Ade Ashford explores the history of lens making to establish the lineage of TSOptics’ versatile grab-and-go 60mm, f/6 photo-visual telescope.

Gamma Leonis: split a bright and beautiful double

12 March 2022 Mark Armstrong

Gamma (γ) Leonis (Algieba) is one of the best double stars in the entire sky and makes a superb introduction for beginners yet to sample the delights of double-star observing.

StarAid revolution

11 March 2022 Ade Ashford

This year sees the launch of new astrophotographic technologies spearheaded by StarAid, an eyepiece-sized autonomous autoguider, easy polar-alignment tool and platesolver. How does it work? Impressively, writes Ade Ashford.

Observe contrasting galaxies M108 and M109

9 March 2022 Mark Armstrong

Early spring sees the return of the galaxies, monumental rotating structures of many millions of gravitationally bound stars amid interstellar dust and gas that span tens of thousands or more light years in diameter.

Messier 95 & 96

8 March 2022 Mark Armstrong

Early spring heralds the rise of the galaxies, when over the next three months or so the prime-time night sky is overflowing with a veritable treasure trove of bright and beautiful targets.

Reviewed: Tele Vue Apollo 11mm Commemorative eyepiece

8 March 2022 Astronomy Now

As a huge fan of Tele Vue’s eyepieces, Richard Deighton couldn’t wait to get his hands on their new commemorative Apollo 11mm eyepiece, but despite its exclusive nature, does he find it stacks up as well as Tele Vue’s other wide-angle eyepieces?

Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys marks 20th year in space

7 March 2022 Astronomy Now

The Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard the Hubble Space Telescope has provided many of the observatory’s most spectacular – and scientifically valuable – images. NASA and ESA present samples of its work in a 20th anniversary collection.