Category: Resource

The Newtonian telescope is very simple – Two mirrors, one curved and one flat. But to work, it needs to be set up properly with those mirrors and the eyepiece/focus tube aligned. Hanging wallpaper in your house is easier when the walls, floors and windows are square! Collimation is a very simple process made complicated by the…

The view through the eyepiece tube of the reflector telescope can be confusing, hence this page. A sheet of yellow paper has been placed behind the secondary mirror to help identify its edge. The view through the focus tube of a typical 200mm (8″) f/6 Newtonian Reflector Showing n reflections in the sight/focus tube >…

I find a height-adjustable chair or stool an essential accessory when observing. The longer you look through the eyepiece the more you see. This is especially the case for clusters and galaxies. I would also find sketching impossible without a chair. The Lybar Simple, lightweight and cheap, the Lift Your Butt and Rotate seat is…

I keep a log of observations in a spreadsheet (download here). This is uploaded to the cloud so that I can update it when I am away from the desktop computer. The log has four main sections (sheets), Binaries (double and multiple stars), DSO (Messier and NGC objects), Solar System and Other (everything else). The…

So what about the other 1%? I said I was a 99% visual observer who prefer “live” views, but once in a while to use a smartphone to capture an image. The Dobsonian mount is very limiting and imaging with a smartphone is fiddly and with no stacking or processing (I have better things to…

Over time dust will build up on the mirrors of a reflector telescope and the amount will depend on the conditions where you live and how you store your telescope. Dust can be minimised by keeping the aperture capped when not in use and storing the OTA with the primary mirror facing down. Dust will…

A solar filter made using a sheet of Baader AstroSolar Safety Film. Important – Do not point a telescope or finder at the sun as this will result in permanent eye damage. When using the filter ensure caps are on the finder. Use tape to ensure the filter is secure. The film comes with instructions for…

A file of over 500 double stars selected and recommended as targets because they are a sight to behold. Double stars make brilliant targets for light polluted skies Download The data file is in a spreadsheet for ease of sorting and modifying in Excel, Google Sheets, Libre Office etc. The fields include object name(s), location…