Samyang Lenses for Milky Way season -  options for Nikon, Canon and Sony cameras

Celestron NexStar Evolution 5 now $1999 - fully computerised "GOTO" telescope

$750 Cash back on all Unistellar telescopes- save even more on the $3999 Unistellar eVscope eQuinox

Celestron LandScout Spotting Scope $149 - includes tabletop tripod

Updates on ZWO Seestar S50 - introductory YouTube video

Power for your astro gear - cost effective ways to get the electrons flowing

NASA presentation on UAPs  - unsolved puzzles and more research needed

The Fighting Dragons of Ara. Photographed by Andrew Riley and sent to us via the BINTEL Website. Andrew used a Sky-Watcher E80, an iOptron CEM60 mount and a ZWO ASI1600MM cooled camera.  You can submit your photos here.

Samyang Lenses at BINTEL - perfect companions for Milky Way season

We've covered several mount options for capturing the dense and complex star clouds that swirl above our heads during winter, or as we like to call it - Milky Way season.

When tossing up what's the best lenses to fit to your DSLR for value to money, wide field astro imaging, the discussion will often loop back to Samyang. 

The Milky Way taken with a Samyang lens by Daniel Gangur

BINTEL stocks Samyang lenses in several focal lengths, including the popular 14mm wide angle. They also come in Nikon, Canon and Sony camera body fittings.

Celestron NexStar Evolution 5 now $1999 - Fully computerised GOTO telescope

The Celestron Evolution 5 is of our more popular telescopes for serious beginners or more experienced astronomers who are after a powerful but portable rig. 

The Celestron Evolution 5 features a fully computerised mount that can be controlled over Wi-Fi by apps on your phone or tablet/iPad or via the included hand controller.  This lets you discover astro objects on your devices, have the telescope move to what you want to look at and track it across the sky.  The mount has a built-in rechargeable battery that will power your Celestron Evolution 5 through a night's observing. 

The Celestron Sky-Portal app showing the sky from NSW

The Evolution 5 features a 5" SCT main optical tube. This is the famous Celestron "Schmidt-Cassegrain" design that been used by astronomers across the world for many decades. It effectively shortens the physical size of the telescope tube while keeping a decent focal length. 

You'll get to see the rings of Saturn, bands across Jupiter and its moons as well as viewing vast numbers of deep-sky objects like nebulae, star clusters and even galaxies outside our own Milk Way. 

BINTEL stock a range of add-on accessories for the Celestron Evolution 5 to help you get more from the telescope as your interest and experience grows, but everything you need to get going is included in the box. 

Highly recommended. 

$750 Cash back on all Unistellar telescopes- save even more on the $3999 Unistellar eVscope eQuinox

As we've mentioned before, the Unistellar eVscope Smart Telescope range has become popular with astronomers of all ages and levels of experience right across the world. 

Unistellar are now offering $750 cash back on any of their eVscope telescopes purchased from BINTEL until the 25th of June. 

The applies to the entire range of Unistellar telescopes, including the $3999 Unistellar eVscope eQuinox.  It would end up costing you $3,249 after you receive your cashback from Unistellar.

You can observe the night sky live, take deep-sky astro photos or get involved in citizen science projects. Here's an eVscope image of the supernova in M101 we mentioned in last week's newsletter.  

Celestron LandScout 60mm w/12-36x Zoom - cool little spotting scope for $149

The Celestron LandScout Spotting Scope is now back in stock at BINTEL

This is a small and portable, but very sharp, spotting scope. It has a 60mm main lens for bright views and magnification that "zooms" from 12 to 36 times.  This is typically higher than what you can get from a pair of binoculars for distant views. 

It includes a tabletop tripod and can be used with any photographic tripod. 

Power for your astro gear - cost effective ways to get the electrons flowing

Most astro gear runs on 12 volts.

This includes mounts, cameras, heaters and more. There are also a number of commonly used items that are powered by USB.

A solid, reliable rechargeable option is the PowerTech Lithium Power Tank for $269. This has multiple outputs at 12v and 5v/USB plus other features.  We have a large of customers using these and the feedback has been fantastic.  One of our best-selling accessories. 

Some telescopes and mounts, especially those from Celestron, had a 12v "Cigarette Lighter" style plug. The PowerTech Lithium Power Tank can handle these, but if you want an affordable option for connecting the 240v mains, the PowerTech 12VDC 7.5A Adapter will work just fine, 

There are also the Celestron PowerTank Lithium models. These feature higher capacities - the Pro model being able to power your telescope for up to 17 hours - as well as outputs for charging and powering a wide range of USB devices such as phones and tablets. You'll find full detail of these in the Power, Torches & Cables section of the BINTEL website.

Updates on ZWO Seestar S50 - more sample images and introductory video

The release of what's possibly the most anticipated astro product for many years, the ZWO Seestar S50 Smart Telescope, is getting closer. Our latest info is that it will be in August. 

This new video covers what are some of the Seestar's main features, who it's aimed at and what it will be able to do on day one.  Click on the link below to watch the video. 

The special introductory pricing of $745 on the Seestar S50 finishes soon, so if you are thinking about one, you can order via the link below or call BINTEL on 02 9518 7255. 

Some "interesting" news from NASA- Presentation on their programs looking at Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs)

A major piece of space news this week was the NASA presentation on their progress studying what are now called Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs).  This is a contentious issue to say the least, but as NASA states in their briefing, this is not a reason to ignore it. 

Among the highlights, the NASA panel stated:

• While most of the observed and recorded events have been able to be resolved and explained, there are a number reported that defy even the best efforts of experts to understand.  This was a about 4-5% of reports or about 40 encounters.  
• Several videos of these unexplainable encounters were played. 
• The study team was formed to create a roadmap of how to properly record and study these events, with the focus on current and future observations.
• Ridicule and harassment of researchers is a problem and serves no purpose. 

Interesting times ahead for sure!