You can enjoy practicing astronomy in many different ways, from simple visual observations with the naked eye, to viewing with veritable light buckets like the big Dobsonians.
Then there’s astrophotography, which ranges from simply pointing a camera up at the sky to delving deeper with autoguiding systems and capturing far-flung galaxies or even pushing the planetary limit with the latest webcams.
This is the beauty of exploring the Universe, there’s plenty out there to suit everybody.
Just like our reviews in the latest issue.
On the one hand, we have my review of the iOptron Sky Tracker that allows you to capture wide field tracked images without the need for an elaborate and complicated mount.
Once upon a time you piggybacked your camera on your telescope whilst manually tracking on a star using the telescope and slow motion controls.
Now you have a compact unit, smaller than most smart tablets to do all the work for you - just add a tripod and camera!
Then the we have Martin Lewis's review of the Orion SkyQuest XX16g Dobsonian (pictured above) which, with just its light grasp will bring thousands of deep sky objects into view and reveal a wealth of detail in the brighter objects and it’s a GoTo system as too!
Finally, we have a sophisticated and heavy duty GoTo equatorial mount in the Mesu-Mount 200.
Stability and superb GoTo accuracy are just some of its excellent traits if you want a solid performer for your observatory, as Steve Richards discovered.
From one extreme to another, we always aim to cater for everyone who reads our magazine, pick up our latest issue today.
