No images? Click here Vespera II due soon - new version of the most stylish Smart Telescope producing jaw dropping imagesStarstuff returns! A constellation of space, science and astronomy on the 6th July 2024 in Byron Bay - special savings for BINTEL customers Seestar S50 and the DWARF II - how do the sizes of these Smart Telescope compare?Optolong L-Quad Enhance Filter 2inch - how does this filter help with light pollution when taking colour astro photos?Sky-Watcher AZ-Go2 Explorer telescopes discounted - 10% off the entire rangeSpace News - Over a hundred missions Lunar this decade! Why is there a new rush to the Moon?A Silver winner in the in the BINTEL Astrophotography competition, Damir Maksan captured the Uriarra Pines Car Trails and the Milky Way. He tells us "While searching for a location to do a Milky way shot with car trails, I came across this place in Uriarra Forest, Brindabella Road, facing west and surrounded by pine trees." 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 more than 1.6k fellow astronomy and nature fanatics! Vespera II due soon - new version of the most stylish Smart Telescope producing jaw dropping imagesOrder now with 25% deposit - stock due in a few weeks! Vaonis Vesper II - $2999 - shown with optional tripod The Vespera Smart Telescope from Vaonis has received a significant upgrade. The camera is now uses the Sony IMX585 sensor for 8.3-megapixel images, the f-ratio has been bumped from f/4 to f/5 and the onboard storage doubled. The Horsehead region captured by a Vespera II telescope showing the power of the CovalENS panorama mode. You can see a full resolution version of this image here. Download for a background or print it out! The Vespera II also features the CovalENS mode - this is the first live, panorama mode built into a telescope offering up to 24-megapixels for live observations. This lets the Vespera II automatically assemble larger areas of the night sky into detailed and stunning portraits. We can't wait to try the Vespera 2 out on the star clouds in centre of the Milky Way as the months get cooler. Starstuff returns! A constellation of space, science and astronomy on the 6th July 2024 in Byron Bay - special savings for BINTEL customersReturns for 2024! The Starstuff festival returns on the 6th of July in Byron Bay. Hear famous astronomers and astrophotographers talk about their work. see demonstrations and new equipment and even get in some Solar astronomy and stargazing in the evening. (If the weather elves cooperate....) $10 Early Bird discounts apply until the 1st of February and BINTEL customers can receive a further $5 off by using the discounts code: THXBINTEL When you book. Register for full details via the link below. Oh, there's a video too! Clink on the link. Seestar S50 and the DWARF II - how do the sizes of these Smart Telescope compare?The Seestar S50 is compact, but the DWARF II is tiny! We had a few questions about the DWARF II following last week's newsletter (you can also read it here.) where we featured as an example the image below. A quick snap of the Great Orion Nebula (M42) taken with an updated DWARF II Smart Telescope by Jack from BINTEL from the heavily light polluted Sydney suburb of North Ryde on the evening of the Thursday the 18th of Jan 2024. The DWARF II automatically took just 57 exposures of 15 seconds each to capture this picture. No light pollution filter was used, and the image was processed in PixInsight. One thing that came up was how does the DWARF II compare to the ZWO Seestar S50? We're taking some images to get some direct comparisons between the two and more on that soon. (In a nutshell, the DWARF II has a much wider field of view.) One thing that does stand out is that while the ZWO Seestar S50 is certainly compact, the DWARF is tiny. If you need a handy travelling companion or a telescope that's ultra easy to carry around and setup, then the DWARF II is an excellent choice. They're in stock at BINTEL too. Optolong L-Quad Enhance Filter 2inch - how does this filter help with light pollution when taking colour astro photos?Cuts out light pollution from several types of street lighting, while minimising effects on overall colour. Optolong L-Quad Enhance Filter for 2" eyepieces - $330 Light pollution is a pain many astronomers are forced to live with! We'll touch on more general light pollution filters such as CLS (City Light Suppression) down the track, but this model from Optolong is a quad band filter. It's designed to help with taking full colour images of deep-sky objects that emit light across a wide range of frequencies, such as galaxies, some types of nebula, star clusters and others. The "quad band" refers to the four parts of the spectrum of visible light that the filter lets through. The parts it blocks are where common outdoor lighting sources emit light. Block out the streetlights, let through as star light as possible! The image above might look a bit detailed, but what it's showing is the light the filter lets through and the four narrow regions it blocks. The result is a reduction in the effects of light pollution while keeping a fairly natural tone in images. Light pollution reduction filters of any kind are not a replacement for dark skies, but they do help. BINTEL has a wide range of options to assist - have a chat with us at any time about this or any other topic. Sky-Watcher AZ-Go2 Explorer telescopes discounted - 10% off the entire rangeFull "GOTO" telescopes now from $399 We've reduced the price on the Sky-Watcher AZ-Go2 Explorer range of telescopes by a further 10%. The are full "GOTO" telescopes which are controlled over Wi-Fi by the Sky-Watcher SynScan app running on your phone or iPad/tablet. Once set up, you can select an object - either in the Solar System or deep-space - from the app's extensive database and the telescope will move to your selection and then track it. The Sky-Watcher AZ-Go2 Explorer range in stock and now discounted at BINTEL There's a variety of telescopes fitted to the AZ-Go2 mounts to suit different budgets and observing needs. Have a chat to use about the best model for you. Space News - Over a hundred Lunar missions this decade! Why is there a new rush to the Moon?Japan's SLIM Lunar touched down exactly where it was supposed to - its communication problems might have something to do with it being upside down.... There's been a flurry of spacecraft heading to the Moon recently. More are due to launch soon. ESA (European Space Agency) has stated that more than 100 missions to the Moon will happen before the end of the decade. Why? |