King's Birthday Long weekend special -  $699 our best price ever on the Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130

Going beyond binoculars - Celestron TrailSeeker 80 Spotting Scope $499 

DWARF II Smart Telescope review by Astronomy Now magazine - independent opinion

Connecting ZWO cameras and DSLR lenses - DSLR astrophotography without the DSLR???

BINTEL Clearance Store - check out the latest savings!

Milestone reached on the Vera C. Rubin Observatory  - Why do we need to photograph the entire night sky every few nights?

Another take on the "Hamburger Galaxy", NGC5128, visible in the far southern sky. Captured by BINTEL customer Daniel Wilson from Burrill Lake on the NSW south coast using an Orion EON 130 f/7 triplet refractor. 

King's Birthday Long weekend special -  Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130 - now just $699

It's the first time we've celebrated a King's Birthday Long Weekend for a while in NSW and other states in Australia to put it mildly! To mark the occasion, we're dropping $100 off the price of one the best telescopes for "serious beginners" - the Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130

Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130 on display at BINTEL

Not only is this a great 5" (130mm) aperture reflecting telescope, but it's also extremely easy to move around and uses the Celestron StarSense Explorer system to show you exactly where to point your telescope to discover the wonders of the night sky. 

There's a more detailed article about this highly recommended telescope here and what you can see through it, or you can find out more on the BINTEL website from the link below. 

Celestron TrailSeeker 80 Spotting scope now $499 - Great for whale watching!

The little Celestron LandScout $149 spotting scope we mentioned last week proved popular with our nature and bird watchers, so this week we have the Celestron TrailSeeker 80 on special for $499

This larger spotting scope will give you closer and clearer views of distant objects than those you can achieve using a pair of binoculars.  It features 20 times to 60 times variable magnification to let you quickly "zoom" in to see the things in more detail.  The Celestron TrailSeeker 80 mounts onto any sturdy photographic tripod and if you don't have one, we have options listed on its BINTEL product page that start from $199. 

This means a complete package of a Celestron 80mm spotting scope and tripod is now under $700.

Image via Cronulla Whale Watching

Spotting scopes like the Celestron TrailSeeker 80 are great for keeping an eye on boats, distant scenery and of course - whale watching from the shore.  

Highly recommended. 

Connecting ZWO cameras and DSLR lenses - DSLR astrophotography without the DSLR???

Widefield image of the Carina Nebula by Geoff Wyatt

One upgrade to astro photography with a DSLR is to ditch the DSLR!

Well, maybe not entirely.  If you're already taking great photos with your DSRL camera and lens on a star tracker mount like the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTI or Benro Polaris, then replacing your DSLR camera body but not your lens might be an effective way to dramatically improve your astro photos

A ZWO astronomy camera attached to a DSLR lens in the BINTEL Showroom

BINTEL carries a complete range of ZWO Astronomy cameras and the low-cost adaptors to connect them to your Canon, Nikon and Sony DSLR lenses. 

Dedicated astro cameras like those from ZWO are more sensitive to low light than DSRL cameras, especially for long exposures. The means they're much better suited at revealing the fine details of the night sky. Have a chat to us about how to improve your DSLR astrophotography by leaving your DSLR camera at home. 

DWARF II Smart Telescope review by Astronomy Now magazine - "The D2 is one of the best conceived and implemented imaging devices I’ve encountered in a long while."

The DWARF II Smart Telescope was recently reviewed by the folks at Astronomy Now magazine in the UK. They were pretty keen on the little gizmo to say the least and we fully agree with their conclusions - and we know plenty of our DWARF customers who feel the same way as well.  You can read the full review here . We have a small number of DWARF II Deluxe Edition Smart Telescopes - the version with all the accessories - still available in our current shipment due soon. More are arriving all the time if you miss out this coming week. 

BINTEL Clearance - Check out the latest savings!

Don't forget we have BINTEL Clearance online store. Stock there is always changing. We normally feature "Open Box" specials where packing boxes have been opened or damaged. 

The products themselves are unaffected and we offer fully warranty on them. Please note - they're not demo items or returns!

Milestone reached on the Vera C. Rubin Observatory  - Why do we need to photograph the entire night sky every few nights?

A major milestone in the construction of the Simonyi Survey Telescope at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory was reached recently with the completion of large sections of the mechanical components of the telescope and installation of dummy weights in place of its mirror and camera.

When completed in the next couple of years, the instruments at the era C. Rubin Observatory (named after famed American astronomer and lifelong advocate for women in science) will image the southern skies at high resolution every 2-3 nights. The Universe doesn't change that much, so why the rush?

Read more via the link below.