Astrophotography
Observational Astronomy looks at the the more practical aspects of astronomy, including the basics of astronomical telescopes and instruments, observation tips, photography and imaging, how to guides and tutorials and a guide to the nights sky. You will also find information and news about the various space telescopes such as Hubble and Spitzer.
Astrophotograpers are often concerned with making small objects in the sky look big, but the constellations are often overlooked.
The Moon illusion makes the Moon appear much larger when it is closer to the horizon. Find out why the moon is larger when it's near the horizon.
Find out how to photograph the Moon with your DSLR camera and a small telescope and capture amazing views of the Moon.
How to get the most out of your first night observing with your first telescope, including what to observe, when to observe, how to find things and which eyepieces to use.
Both Barlow lenses and Powermates act as image amplifiers by increasing the effective focal length of your telescope, thereby increasing the magnification achieved with any eyepiece.
In order to gaze successfully around the starry skies, you need to take into account a very important factor to do with your eyes. This is called dark adaptation. Read on and get some tips on how to make this process quicker and easier.
What you need to know in order to take long exposures greater than 30 seconds with a Canon DSLR and "bulb" mode.
This article will show you a few methods for polar alignment of an equatorial (EQ) mount, how to use the drift method for alignment without Polaris and how to use setting circles. The article was written using a Skywatcher HEQ5 mount, but the technique should be the same for all equatorial mounts.
What's the optimum magnification for my instrument? Is the field of view of a given eyepiece too small to see all of the Moon? Is there a minimum magnification for my scope? What sort of limiting magnitude should I expect with an instrument of a given aperture? You can find answers to all these questions and many more besides with this interactive telescope calculator.
On Monday, May 11th, Space Shuttle Atlantis with its seven-member crew launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. In this article, we will look at some of the best images that Hubble has produced since it's launch in 1990 and what they mean for astronomers.
