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The Sky & Telescope article provides an overview of the Sky-Watcher CQ350-Pro Equatorial Mount, which is designed for advanced observers and astrophotographers. It has a payload capacity of 35 kilograms and fills a gap in Sky-Watcher's line of telescope mounts. The mount has a unique mechanical design and offers excellent pointing and tracking performance. However, it may require better software for computer use and astrophotography automation. The article concludes that the CQ350-Pro is a high-performing mount suitable for field use. [Extracted from the article]

The Celestron Origin Astrograph is a smart telescope designed for both beginners and experienced astroimagers. It automatically aligns itself to the sky, finds celestial targets, and generates high-quality images. While it is primarily designed for deep-sky imaging, it may have limited value for observing the Moon and planets. The telescope is easy to set up and use, with a controlling app that includes advanced features. It offers a range of options for image processing and scheduling, and its software is constantly being updated. The text also mentions the ease of use and foolproof nature of the telescope, making it suitable for beginners. It is compatible with software updates and is modular in nature, suggesting it will remain at the forefront of amateur astronomy for a long time. The text also mentions the amount of work required for calibrating and processing the raw files obtained from the telescope. [Extracted from the article]

The Celestron SkyMaster Pro ED 15×70 Binoculars are highly recommended for astronomical observers. They offer excellent optical and mechanical performance, with solid construction and the ability to accept 1 ¼ - inch filters. However, the eye relief may not be long enough for some glasses wearers to see the full field of view. The binoculars have a wide apparent field of view and deliver a beautifully color-corrected view. They also come with a threaded socket for tripod use. Overall, the Celestron SkyMaster Pro ED 15×70 Binoculars are a winner and a good choice for those looking for high-quality binoculars for astronomy. [Extracted from the article]

The ZWO Seestar S50 Smart Telescope is a compact and user-friendly option for astroimaging and observing. It comes with a built-in color camera, filter wheel, and computerized Go To mount. The telescope can capture stills and videos of celestial objects and save them on a smartphone or tablet. It is affordable and produces high-quality images, although it is not ideal for observing planets. The accompanying app is easy to use and has a digital compass for object finding. The telescope has a battery life of about six hours and can be charged while in use. Overall, the Seestar telescope provides a convenient and enjoyable way to explore the night sky. [Extracted from the article]

TRUE GRIT Among the fraternity of amateur telescope makers, few are better known than the late John Dobson (the namesake of the Dobsonian telescope design), who was a frequent convention attendee until his death in 2014. FEATURES STARRY NIGHT For more than 100 years a dark night sky has attracted amateur astronomers to Breezy Hill, the hilltop home of the Springfield Telescope Makers located just outside Springfield, Vermont. Russell W. Porter By the time Porter organized his telescope makers he was already middle-aged and had packed more than a lifetime of adventure into his 51 years. [Extracted from the article]

IN NOVEMBER 1941, as a young couple stood paging through the first issue of Sky & Telescope in a small alcove at Harvard Observatory, it's unlikely their thoughts were anywhere [...]

Everything about this telescope looks top-flight--except for the price. Is there a catch? Astro-Tech 14-inch f/8 Ritchey-Chretien Telescope U.S. price: $5,795 Astronomics.com Unfortunately George Willis Ritchey didn't live to see [...]

FORK-MOUNTED Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes have been around for more than half a century. That's a sobering thought for those of us who vividly remember the first advertisements for them appearing in [...]

When software bisque, makers of highly regarded telescope mounts found in countless amateur and professional observatories around the world, announced the Paramount MyT--its first-ever mount designed for portable use--there were [...]

Tele Vue Big Paracorr Type-2 US price: $1,095, televue.com Tele Vue's Big Paracorr was key to transforming the author's 12-inch f/5 Newtonian reflector into a firstclass optical system used for [...]

Officina Stellare RiDK 300 U.S. price: $14,695. As tested with the Rotofocuser, $19,454. officinastellare.com Software Bisque Paramount ME II U.S. price: $15,000. bisque.com Everyone knows the old saying 'you get [...]

PHOTO (COLOR): Sharpstar's Mark III German equatorial mount and optional tripod form a highly portable system for use in the field. S&T TEST REPORT Sharpstar Mark III U.S. Price: $2,899 mount, $499 optional tripod Sharpstar-optics.com What We Like Extraordinarily rigid mount Often no need for a counterweight Zero-backlash drives What We Don't Like Relatively slow slewing Unusually short cables IT SEEMS LIKE HARDLY a month goes by when there isn't a new telescope mount debuting on the market. While it will be a moot point for those controlling the Mark III with planetarium software, accessing the numerous object catalogs contained in the hand control's database also involves scrolling, which can be a bit tedious for the larger catalogs. The reason being that, rather than the worm-gear drives typically used in today's telescope mounts, the Mark III's axes are driven with strain-wave gears, often called harmonic drives. [Extracted from the article]

THERE ARE MORE ACTIVE deep-sky astrophotographers today than ever before. We have digital imaging and an abundance of commercial gear to thank for that. But there are also many would-be [...]

Long-time amateur astronomers certainly know that the equipment side of our hobby is always evolving. Over time, even once-dominant companies such as Unitron and Criterion have faded away to be [...]

From my perspective as a reviewer, the new Paramount MX from Software Bisque is a little bit of a paradox. On one hand, it's a very nice German equatorial mount [...]

If The Definitive History of telescopes ever gets written, you can rest assured that there will be many chapters devoted to telescope drives. While the concept of a clockwork drive [...]

The David H. Levy Comet Hunter from Explore Scientific is more than a run-of-the-mill telescope out of Asia rebranded with a celebrity endorsement. A lot more. For starters, the 6-inch [...]

The Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF) has come a long way in the past two decades. What began as a 'crazy idea' during a casual conversation among Rockland Astronomy Club members [...]

SINCE LANDING ON the astronomical scene in late 2007, iOptron has continually introduced products aimed at an ever-more sophisticated audience. And two of the latest--a 150-mm (6-inch) Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope and [...]

With apologies to younger readers, I have a quiz for those of us old enough to have watched the Apollo 11 Moon landing and who also have been amateur astronomers [...]

IF YOU THINK 49 years of experience photographing the starry sky makes me a good candidate for introducing beginners to astrophotography, you're wrong. Digital photography has so revolutionized the way [...]

Meade LS-8' ACF U.S. price: $1,900 Meade Instruments 27 Hubble, Irvine, CA 92618 949-451-1450; www.meade.com Meade's LightSwitch telescopes have taken Go To performance to the next level with a fully [...]

PlaneWave's 12.5-inch f/8 CDK Astrograph U.S. price: $9,900 PlaneWave Instruments 1815 West 205th St., #303, Torrance, CA 90501 310-787-9411; www.planewave.com IT WAS A PLEASANT midsummer night testing equipment, memorable for [...]

WE THOUGHT THE 2OO9 Northeast Astronomy Forum (a.k.a. NEAF) was big. Well, this year's event was even bigger. The 19th annual astronomy extravaganza held in April at Rockland Community College [...]

THERE WAS VERY LITTLE, at least on paper, preparing me in advance for the experiences I'd have testing Atik's new 314L CCD camera. There are no written rules for classifying [...]

Starizona's HyperStar US price: from $595 (model tested costs $1,295) Starizona 5757 North Oracle Rd., Suite 103 Tucson, AZ 85704 520-292-5010 http://starizona.com 'FUN. It almost seems unfair to summarize something [...]

SAY THE WORD ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY to even casual amateur astronomers, and chances are they'll conjure up scenes of whirling galaxies and colorful nebulae, for it's these iconic deep-sky images that let [...]

NEWS SEEMS TO BE dominated by extremes. In the world of astrophotography, cameras with the newest monster chips or the most advanced features, and telescopes with the biggest apertures or [...]

IT TOOK A NASTY SMACK on the head to remind me how nice it is to work with a robust telescope mount. New England's abysmal weather last summer completely disrupted [...]

POPULARLY KNOWN AS NEAF, the Northeast Astronomy Forum is the world's most prestigious trade show for astronomical products. Telescopes, cameras, software, and accessories overflow scores of exhibits staffed by equipment [...]

From the night sky's brightest star and most-illustrious nebulae, to large sweeps of glowing hydrogen that few readers have ever seen before, there's a tremendous range of deep-sky detail visible [...]

And with the optional Evoguide 50ED Field Flattener ($105), it's a decent wide-field astrograph that performs well with sensors as large as APS format. As a Finder and Telescope The Evoguide can also serve as a great finder, though it may be a challenge today finding a wide-field eyepiece fitted with a suitable reticle. This camera slips into the Evoguide's 1V4-inch focuser, and I ran tests with and without the Evoguide's field flattener and found no differences in the results. [Extracted from the article]

From humble beginnings in the early 1990s, the annual Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF) has become one of the world's premier trade shows for amateur astronomers. During two days last April, [...]

While the mathematically complex Strehl ratio for assessing telescope optics has been around for more than a century, it's only recently been associated with telescopes intended for the amateur community, complementing the familiar "1/4-wave" criteria commonly cited as what's necessary for diffraction-limited optics. S&T TEST REPORTS SVX127D U.S. Price: $2,995 stellarvue.com What We Like Excellent optical performance Equally excellent mechanical construction Noteworthy rotating focuser What We Don't Like Nothing REFRACTORS HAVE ALWAYS held a special place in the hearts of amateur astronomers. PHOTO (COLOR): u The scope's doublet objective is supplied with detailed Zygo test data attesting to its optical qualities and a guarantee of a Strehl ratio of at least 0.99. [Extracted from the article]

FOR THE SAKE of fairness, reviewers should approach each product without preconceived notions regarding its quality and performance. But that's easier said than done in the case of the Astro-Physics [...]

Apogee Instruments was the first company to release astronomical cameras with Kodak's new CCDs, in part because the company already had a time-tested body designed for 37-millimeter-square chips. I've never [...]

Judging by my e-mail and my conversations at amateur gatherings, most readers consider reviewing telescopes a dream job. While my opinion differs, let's just say that some telescopes are more [...]

Three new 66-millimeter ZenithStar refractors from William Optics offer a level of craftsmanship and optical performance that far exceeds most people's expectations for instruments so modestly priced. All hardware photographs [...]

WHAT WE LIKE: Excellent image quality Electric focus and collimation system Built-in dew heater WHAT WE DON'T LIKE: Heavier than Schmidt-Cassegrain of same aperture Tube is not sealed due to [...]

CASUAL READERS MIGHT HAVE missed it. Even those flipping carefully through our March issue could have passed by the advertisement on pages 14 and15 thinking it was just a new [...]

Software Bisque's Paramount ME offers one-stop shopping for a robotic mount that can be controlled from across the room or across the continent. THERE IS NO OTHER PRODUCT like Software [...]

S&T TEST REPORT Sky-Watcher Heritage 150P Tabletop Dobsonian U.S. Price: $280 - Skywatcherusa.com What We Like Great general-purpose beginner's telescope Compact design for transportation and storage Ready (and easy) to use out of the box What We Don't Like Open tube allows bothersome light scatter in the eyepiece under some observing conditions. If you can tolerate kneeling on the ground beside the telescope, the eyepiece is readily accessible at all but the lowest telescope elevations. The Heritage 150P is billed as a tabletop telescope, but when it's placed on a standard-height table, the eyepiece can become a bit too high for a typical standing adult when the scope is aimed at moderately high elevations. [Extracted from the article]

Are these new entry-level telescopes as good under the stars as they appear to be on paper? EARLIER THIS YEAR MEADE INSTRUMENTS began shipping its much-awaited LXD55 Schmidt-Newtonian telescopes--the latest [...]

After years of anticipation, Leonid watchers get their reward. While some called the 2001 Leonids a great shower, others called it a storm. Perhaps the term Leonid squall is in [...]

We've all heard that beauty is only skin deep, but it's what's inside that makes this scope attractive. IF WE ARE TO JUDGE THE PULSE OF our readers by the [...]

Autostar and an 8-inch aperture--it's been worth the wait. IT'S PROBABLY SAFE TO SAY THAT NO telescope design since World War II has had a greater impact on amateur astronomy [...]

The Tele Vue line of premium refractors grows larger with the introduction of this 4-inch f/8.6 instrument. DURING THE 20TH CENTURY amateur astronomy's love affair with refractors has waxed and [...]

IN A PERFECT WORLD PRODUCT REviewers would approach telescopes with an open mind and no preconceived notions. If there's ever been an instrument to remind me of why this is [...]