Steve Ringwood – Astronomy Now

Omegon’s Advanced X N 152mm Dobsonian

13 February 2025 Steve Ringwood

A new series of Dobsonians are now available from Omegon. Steve Ringwood took the 152mm-aperture model for a spin, and found that as an all-rounder, it handled expertly.

William Optics Redcat71

21 November 2023 Steve Ringwood

The RedCat71 from William Optics is the new kid on the block aiming to serve this need, and courtesy of First Light Optics, I looked forward to seeing if it delivered.

Sky-Watcher Virtuoso GTi SkyMax 127

29 July 2022 Steve Ringwood

Steve Ringwood reviews a tabletop beauty with a healthy aperture that is also just as home on a tripod, and has Go-To to boot.

ScopeTech’s STL-80A Maxi, f/15 refractor

1 July 2022 Steve Ringwood

Steve Ringwood goes back to the future, for the new STL-80A Maxi f/15 from ScopeTech is a self-confessed, unabashed return to the classical achromatic refractor.

The ScopeTech Mount Zero, highly portable single-arm fork mount

29 June 2022 Steve Ringwood

Steve Ringwood trials ScopeTech’s new Mount Zero, which is a highly portable single-arm fork mount that is both compact and simple to use.
refractor

Baader Planetarium flip mirror II Star Diagonal

3 June 2022 Steve Ringwood

This latest flip-mirror star diagonal from Baader Planetarium offers high-quality views for imagers who want to use a guiding eyepiece, as well as a revolutionary third port for off-axis autoguiding, writes Steve Ringwood.

RVO Horizon 72mm ED: The future of refractors is on the Horizon

29 April 2022 Steve Ringwood

Steve Ringwood checks out a new offering from Rother Valley Optics that raises the bar for compact refractors.

Binocular vision: Helios Lightquest HR 28 x 110

22 April 2022 Steve Ringwood

Helios’ new large and extremely powerful binoculars are like twin light-buckets that give wide and deep views of the night sky, but does their design match their optical capability? Steve Ringwood finds out.

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.

Sky-Watcher’s Sun-seeker

28 July 2019 Steve Ringwood

Steve Ringwood reviews the Solarquest goto solar mount that helps observers track and image our nearest star.