Kowa heads back to BINTEL - Quality, 50mm Spotting Scopes from $499

Starlight Xpress- CCD cameras arriving at BINTEL

More BINTEL Streaming on the way - let us know what you'd like to see

New ZWO AM3 Mount and ZWO APO Telescopes - Pop into BINTEL to check them out

The BINTEL 2023 Astrophotographer of the Year Competition - Entries continue to roll in

Building works outside BINTEL - The BIG fish n' chips shop across the street will be worth it in 2024

This week in the Night Sky: NGC 6752 -  Great September object for backyard telescopes

The view from the South Pole all "day" as Spring Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere and dawn at the South Pole draws near. This is from the South Pole Telescope - check them out on Twitter here. 

To be featured, you can send us your Astro and Nature images here or post them the BINTEL Society Facebook Group where you can join 1.5k fellow astronomy and nature fanatics! 

Kowa heads back to BINTEL - Quality, 50mm Spotting Scopes for $499

Famous Japanese optics maker, Kowa, returns to BINTEL.

Kowa TNS-501 50mm Angled Spotting Scope with 20x - 40x Magnification - $499

We'll gradually be bringing in more spotting scopes and other optics from renowned Japanese optics company, Kowa.  To start with, their tiny 50mm TSN-500 spotting scopes will fit in the palm of your hand, while delivering superb quality views. Combined with a tripod, these jewel-like Kowa scopes will offer more detailed views of distant objects on the land or water than you're likely to achieve with most binoculars.

Kowa TNS-502 50mm Straight Spotting Scope with 20x - 40x Magnification - $499

The Kowa TNS 50mm spotting scopes are available in either straight through or angled models.  One thing that really impressed us here at BINTEL is just how little these Kowa TNS spotting scopes weigh. They'd be ideal travel companions. If you get a chance, drop into the store to check them out. 

Starlight Xpress CCD Cameras - Trius Pro-834 CCD. Great match for fast refractors

CCD cameras from Starlight Xpress will be arriving soon at BINTEL. 

Starlight Xpress Trius Pro-834 mono - $4,349 arriving soon at BINTEL. 

We're going to delve a little more into CCD vs CMOS cameras next week, as well as go through some other Starlight Xpress products on the way, but first up is their Prius Pro-834 CCD. 

The Rosette Nebula imaged with a Starlight Xpress Trius Pro-834 camera.

This high-resolution camera is ideally suited to modern fast focal ratio refractors and specialised imaging telescopes like the Celestron RASA series. 

More soon!

More BINTEL Streaming on the way - let us know what you'd like to see

BINTEL livestreams from time to time at our YouTube channel

For example, we broadcast the Sun in Hydrogen-Alpha this week. You can view a recording of the livestream here.

We also like to mention the equipment being used, along with any hints and tips used along the way. 

Let us know what objects you'd like us to show off by commenting in the BINTEL Facebook Group via the link below. We've got a few ideas, but Saturn is certainly in the right place for a decent observing session at the moment.

ZWO AM3 Mount and ZWO APO Telescopes - Pop into BINTEL to check them out!

The compact and exquisite AM3 mount, along with their new APO telescopes, are new from ZWO.  Swing by BINTEL to check them out!

The new ZWO AM3 mount builds on the success of the larger ZWO AM5 mount and uses the same Harmonic Drive system. We covered Harmonic Drives (sometime called strain wave drives) last year in some detail. You can read the article here.

The ZWO AM3 is due to start shipping to customers soon, but if you like to check one out, pop into BINTEL at any time. 

The BINTEL 2023 Astrophotographer of the Year Competition - Entries continue to roll in

Lots more entries over the last week!

More entries are arriving for the BINTEL 2023 Astrophotographer of the Year competition that we recently launched. The last few days have seen quite a few nebula images and a number of wide view nightscapes. 

As we mentioned, this competition is a great way to stretch your astro imaging skills and learn as you go along.  We're always happy to chat about questions or queries and the various friendly BINTEL online communities are always keen to help out.

To learn more and enter the competition, click on the link below

Building works outside BINTEL  - The BIG fish n' chips shop across the street will be worth it in 2024!

There's a bit of roadwork to upgrade the intersection out the front of the BINTEL retail showroom as part of the New Sydney Fish Market project.  This project aims to become a world class tourist attraction. If you see some fencing and construction on the intersection out the front of our retail shop, don't worry -we're still open.

What the new Sydney Fish Market opposite BINTEL will look like when completed next year. 

It's a bit of a pain for now, but when completed next year we reckon we'll have the best selection of fish n' chips n' sushi across the street of any telescope shop on the planet!

This week in the night sky: NGC 6752 -  Great September object for backyard telescopes

Everyone has heard of nebulae or galaxies, but did you know that one of the most spectacular deep-sky objects to view through a telescope of just about any size are globular clusters. 

These appear as a tightly clumped balls of stars. There's over 150 of them spread throughout the fringes of the Milky Way, with others likely to be found. 

The brightest and largest globular cluster in our home galaxy is Omega Centauri, which is bright enough to be spotting with your eyes alone under a dark sky and a wonderful object in a telescope or binoculars. 

But a Globular Cluster that is often overlooked is NGC 6752 in Pavonis. It is ranked as the 4th brightest cluster (after NGC 5139 or Omega Centauri, NGC104 or 47 Tucanae and Messier 22 or NGC 6656). It was discovered by astronomer James Dunlap from his observatory in Parramatta, just west of Sydney, in 1826.

It's located about 2/3rds pf the way between Alpha Triangulam Australi towards Alpha Pavonis, and is visible with just your eyes from a dark location, easily seen with Binoculars from urban backyards.

NGC 6752 is in the Celestron StarSense Explorer database, so if you have one of those telescopes, it's easy to find and you'll be viewing it quite quickly.

Another way to find it is to use an online star chart like TheSkyLive via the link below. Just remember to put in your location, date and time.