How to Find the Sun

This seems a bit of a strange blog post title, but I was finding it difficult to get my LX200 telescope to actually find and track the sun when I was undertaking some solar observing. The first time I found the Sun it was by chance, as it’s difficult when you can’t actually look at

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Introduction to Astronomy – Week 3

This week at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge we had a talk by Ken Day entitled “A Cook’s Tour of the Solar System” as part of the Introduction of Astronomy course I am partaking in via the Cambridge Astronomy Association. Ken took us through all of the planets in the solar system, plus comets

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Children’s Astronaut Costumes

 Does your child dream of beng an astronaut with NASA? Well I found these Astronaut costumes for kids on the web in Orange and in White. “Take one giant leap for mankind in our astronaut flight suit costumes! These high-quality flight suits are replicas of those worn by the astronauts and NASA flight crews, and feature

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Introduction to Astronomy – Week 2

Week 2 of the Introduction to Astronomy course was presented by Peter Howell entitled “Sunshine and Green Cheese”. Peters talk covered details on the Moon and the Sun. Peter started by talking about the Sun, and gave a great talk on every aspect of the Sun, including information that sunspots appear in magnetic pairs. Also that charged

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Astrophotography for the Amateur

This is the second edition of Michael Covington’s Astrophotography for the amateur book.  It is nice to find a book solely on astrophotography, as that’s what interests me most, I always like to come in from the cold with some images or video to work on. Although the title of the book is astrophotography for

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Introduction to Astronomy – Week 1

Tonight I attended the first night of the Cambridge Astronomy Associations Introduction To Astronomy course which was held at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge. Tonights talk was entitled “Things that go bump in the night” by Brian Lister. Brian took us through the basics of the solar system with some very interesting images of

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Space Junk in Earths Orbit

I was amazed today to see these images on the internet depicting how many pieces of space junk or should I say satellites there are in Earths orbit. This image shows a view of the Earth from over the North Pole. Apparently the number of objects orbiting the planet is increasing by two hundred per

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15×70 Astronomy Binocular Review

I have never owned my own pair of binoculars before, even though it seems that as an amateur astronomer having a pair of binoculars is a must. The binoculars being reviewed are from Telescope Planet and they are their own make, and are 15×70 (15x zoom with a 70mm lens diameter). They have a nice feel

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New Young Astronomer Born

Not posted for a while as last Friday my first son was born at 9.30pm on Friday 4th April weighing in at 7lbs. Mother and baby boy came home from the hospital on Tuesday. Although he sleeps most of the time, I’m sure his eyes are getting ready for viewing the nights sky.

My Meade Telescope Power Supply

I saw from my web logs that a few people have been finding my site whilst looking for a power supply for their telescope, and I have no main information on that, so I am adding some. When I purchased my LX200 I did not purchase the official Meade power supply, but instead used a

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