Steve Ringwood takes a look through a range of 1.25-inch seven-element eyepieces of a design optimised for high contrast, flat-field performance on the planets and likes what he sees.
Steve Ringwood appraises a veritable light bucket in the form of Sky-Watcher’s Stargate-450P — an 18-inch f/4.1, all metal truss tube Dobsonian designed to be easily transported and assembled ready for use in less than 20 minutes.
Looking for a high-resolution, high-speed camera for imaging Saturn at opposition with your telescope? Steve Ringwood appraises the one-shot colour Celestron NexImage Burst, capable of capturing 120 frames/second — and it comes with image-processing software too!
Now that many of us are turning our thoughts to holidays, possibly to darker skies in foreign climes, Steve Ringwood appraises a versatile 62mm aperture, 4-element refractor that could fit in our carry-on luggage.
Steve Ringwood investigates a 4-element, 3x Barlow lens that’s designed to provide efficient field correction and apochromatic performance that can match other highly specified optics in the light path.
If you fancy drinking up views of the universe from a light-bucket, Orion’s SkyQuest XX12g GOTO Dobsonian will leave you drunk on celestial wonders, writes Steve Ringwood.
Steve Ringwood appraises Sky-Watcher’s computerised yet easy-to-use starter ‘scope that features FreedomFind™ dual-encoder technology, allowing you to move the instrument manually or electronically without losing alignment.
Astrophotographers seeking an ultra-fast refractor designed for exquisite digital Imaging may wish to consider this 100mm aperture, 5-element f/3.8 system from Vixen, appraised by Steve Ringwood.
For truly immersive deep-sky views, it’s hard to better the high contrast, wide-angle images delivered by a large aperture refractor of short focal ratio. Refractor expert Neil English takes the 8-inch f/6 iStar WXT 204-6LT through its paces and likes what he sees.