Amazing new astro news - Gravitational Waves spread throughout the Universe

New features added to the upcoming ZWO Seestar S50 smart telescope - making it even more suited to the city and suburbs  

Celestron Advanced VX mount celebrates 10 years - popular visual/imaging system now $1499

 Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro kit price drop- just in time for Milky Way season

Winner of our Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson comp - special offer on for BINTEL customers continues

Cool gizmo from the BINTEL labs- 3D printed accessory for the ZWO AM5

Artist's impression of an array of pulsars being affected by gravitational waves produced by orbiting super massive black holes in a faraway galaxy (Image credit: Aurore Simonnet for the NANOGrav Collaboration)

Amazing new astro news - Gravitational Waves spread throughout the Universe

Major new astronomy news this week is the announcement of the discovery of a background "hum" of gravitational waves that spread throughout the Universe.

Murriyang - The CSIRO Radio Telescope outside of Parkes NSW - was key in providing pulsar timing observations.  Image via Alex Cherne

This is not just happening somewhere "out there" - space is rippling all around and even through every part of us. The discovery was made by observing changes in the rate of fast spinning stars called pulsars scattered across our Milky Way galaxy.  There are strong indications that these gravitational waves are caused by supermassive black holes. 

You can read more about this amazing discovery via the link below - 

New features added to the upcoming ZWO SeeStar S50 smart telescope  - makes it even more suited to the city and suburbs

The latest update to the ship date to BINTEL of the new ZWO Seestar S50 Smart Telescope is end of August.  

Part of reason for this of slight delay is the addition of several new features which were suggested by astronomers after its initial showing by ZWO a couple of months ago. Announced this week is the inclusion of a Duo-Band filter with every Seestar S50. This lets through specific wavelengths of light that many astro objects are seen in, while keeping out much of the local light pollution and background glow that effects those in the city and suburbs. 

While this doesn't cure light pollution, it's an extremely helpful addition!

For example, here's an image of the nebula M8 taken by a Seestar S50 beta tester without the Duo-Band filter:

And here's one with the Seestar S50 Duo-Band filter being used:

We consider confirmation of this feature to be a major upgrade to Seestar's already impressive specifications. The $745 early bird special for the Seestar S50 has also been extended until the 31st of July.

Celestron Advanced VX mount celebrates 10 years - popular visual/imaging system now $1499

One of our favourite telescope mounts for visual observing and astrophotography - the Celestron Advanced VX - has just celebrated its 10th birthday!

This have proved robust and reliable mount over the years in the hand of many our customers. 

You can watch a YouTube video from someone who's extensively used a Celestron Advanced VX here.

Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro kit price drop- just in time for Milky Way season

We've reduced the price of the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro Pack to $599 

This is a star tracker mount like those mentioned some recent newsletters that's ideal for taking photos of the Milky Way with your DSLR.

Image by Cory Keating – Nikon D5100 and Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer mount

One point to note is that is the Star Adventurer 2i Pro Kit. This version has all the bundled accessories such as a wedge and counterweight that you'll need to get going. 

Congrats to the winner of the Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson tickets - special offer for BINTEL customers still on

Congratulation to Maria Gauci in Melbourne for entering and winning our Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson ticket giveaway! Hope you enjoy the evening. 

If you're planning to see Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson at his upcoming live appearances in Australia and New Zealand, simply use the discount code:

THANKYOU20

when you check out for 20% off ticket prices.  You can make bookings here.

Just bear in mind when booking there's another "star" with tickets on sale the at moment that's bogging down ticketing system around the country.....

Cool gizmo from the BINTEL labs- 3D printed accessory for the ZWO AM5

Our 3D printer elves working away in the BINTEL skunk works have been at it again and this time they've come up with a bracket for the ZWO AM5 mount to attach a QHY Polemaster. 

Polemaster Adapter – ZWO AM5

These simple, $45 adaptors allow you to easily connect the QHY Polemaster to the ZWO AM5 mount to take the hassles out of polar alignment. 

Venus and Mars conjunction- Together in evening sky just after dark

Our two closest planetary neighbours - Mars and Venus - appear close to each other in the evening sky this weekend. (1st and 2nd of July.) Just head outside when it gets dark and look towards the north-western direction. 

The brilliant white "star" is Venus and the dimmer red one nearby is Mars. 

Events like this where astro objects line up in the night sky are called conjunctions.   

Next week - some major new telescope releases and the Celestron StarSense Autoguider for $1399.  Plus the other big astronomy news - first map of the Milky Way in neutrinos.