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THE WILLIAM OPTICS MEGREZ 120-MM REFRACTOR Image 3 - The Orion Nebula, M42 William Optics adjustable focal reducer set at 0.75. This resulted in an effective 675-mm focal length at f/5.6. Again, my first target was the double cluster in Perseus (Image 1). This cluster-pair contains stars with colors across most of the visible spectrum. The exposure was 10-minutes. Note, the stars are perfectly round across the entire field of view, and many blue, yellow and red stars are scattered throughout the image. Next I shot the Pleiades (Image 2). The entire cluster did not fit on the camera’s CCD, however it should on larger format chips with this telescope. The 30-minute exposure picked up a lot of the nebulosity surrounding the cluster. When tested under this most extreme of applications, purple halos around the brightest stars in the image are an indication that the doublet, despite using low-dispersion glass, is not entirely eliminating the chromatic aberration when combined with the adjustable focal reducer. My last test image with the Megrez 120 was of the Orion Nebula (Image 3). This image was also 30 minutes. The seeing had degraded somewhat and the guide chip had more difficulty tracking the guide star. This resulted in the larger star sizes in the image. Still, there is good detail in the nebula structure. Visually, I found this scope quite a delight to use and would highly recommend it for the following uses. The nearly 5-inches of aperture make this scope perfect for lunar, planetary and star cluster viewing. The scope is also perfect for splitting close double stars or viewing double stars with good color contrast. With respect to color correction, visually it performed as good as my more expensive, but smaller triplet APO. In general, small refractors aren’t the best scopes for faint, deep-sky observing, but the Megrez 120 certainly is the best scope in this William Optics line for use in a Messier marathon. About the only thing I can say negative about the scope is that the focuser, while certainly competent, did not operate as smoothly as the premium unit on my 4-inch APO. I had to completely loosen the focuser lock to make minor adjustments with the fine focusing knob – something I do not have to do with my 4-inch APO. However, the William Optics focuser’s 360 degree rotation allowed the eyepiece to be rotated to a comfortable viewing angle without affecting the focus, something I don’t have on my APO. I mentioned above that this model comes with a Digital Display Gauge (DDG) focuserposition readout. By the time I received the scope, the DDG would not power on and I did not concern myself with replacement of the battery; the DDG function is one I am not likely to use because it is not integral to my well-established focus routine. Some who use the DDG under widely-varying temperature ranges might find that the accessory would only be useful in obtaining a rough focus, since thermal expansion/contraction of the telescope tube with temperature can significantly change the focal point of the telescope, making a previously verified and recorded 3-digit focus value inexact. But for even those users, the DDG function should greatly speed obtaining rough focusing for imaging, leaving ultimate fine focus to be accomplished using other techniques commonly used by astrophotographers. 38 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY
Celestron SkyProdigy Stands Out at International Computer Electronics Show “The beauty of a SkyProdigy telescope, in my opinion, is that it takes another giant whack at opening up the hobby of astronomy to the public at large by lowering the intimidation factor” By Penny Distasio I am not a CES regular, but when I heard that Celestron was going to announce something special this year, I decided to hop in my car and make the drive to Las Vegas to see what all the hoopla was about. It's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it. The star of the show at the Celestron booth, and winner of two prestigious awards (the CES 2011 Innovations Award & the Popular Mechanics Editor's Choice Award) is – drum roll, please – Celestron SkyProdigy telescopes. At first glance, these telescopes don't look like anything super innovative or revolutionary. There are three scopes in the SkyProdigy line – a 130mm reflector, a 70mm refractor, and a 90mm Maksutov- Cassegrain – and they are supported by a simple-looking single-armed alt-azimuth mount. However, if you look a bit closer, you will see a small red tube projecting from the “arm” of the mount. This tube is actually a digital camera that takes pictures of the sky during the alignment process, which is cool, but if you follow the crazy world of telescope manufacturing, it still isn't revolutionary. What IS revolutionary is the software that interacts with the camera and telescope. That software is called StarSense Technology, and it is where the rubber meets the road. StarSense Technology, the true star of SkyProdigy. What is StarSense Technology and what does it do Think of StarSense Technology as facial recognition or fingerprint matching software for the Universe. I am not talking specifics here, but in broad generalities. In a television crime drama, there always comes the scene where an image of someone's face (or a fingerprint, or a bullet shot from a weapon) gets compared via computer to those available in an FBI database, right Images fly by at lightening speed until BAM!, a match is made, and the case is all but solved. Well, StarSense Technology does that. The camera takes a 5 x 7 degree image of the night sky, and then the software compares that image to the database. It does not look at magnitudes of stars, but the pattern they make – the vectors that can be created by that particular grouping of stars – and it makes a guess. Computations are made, math that I don't understand is done, and Celestron SkyProdigy 130 at CES the telescope moves to a section of the sky that it assumes will look a certain way if its guess is correct on the first image, and the process starts again, but of course the computer is learning all the time, and making deductions based on the images it sees. Three minutes later, the telescope knows where it is on the planet, it knows what time it is, and Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY 39
Page 1: ASTRONOMY TECHNOLOGY TODAY Your Com
Page 9 and 10: Contents Cover Story: Pages 35 - 38
Page 11 and 12: The Supporting CAST The Companies A
Page 13: For me, after viewing through many
Page 16 and 17: INDUSTRYNEWS ENTHUSIASTS’ EFFORTS
Page 18 and 19: INDUSTRYNEWS LUNÁTICO ASTRONOMÍA
Page 20 and 21: INDUSTRYNEWS STARIZONA Adds HyperSt
Page 22 and 23: NEWPRODUCTS SCOPESTUFF NewStuff fro
Page 24 and 25: WE SAID PLAY BIG, NOT PAY BIG. No m
Page 26 and 27: NEWPRODUCTS ORION TELESCOPES & BINO
Page 28 and 29: NEWPRODUCTS ORION TELESCOPES & BINO
Page 30 and 31: NEWPRODUCTS INCANUS LTD Introduces
Page 32: NEWPRODUCTS MAGNILUX MX-1 Telescope
Page 36 and 37: THE WILLIAM OPTICS MEGREZ 120-MM RE
Page 40 and 41: CELESTRON SKYPRODIGY it knows how t
Page 42 and 43: FIELD TESTING THE TMB-92L SIGNATURE
Page 45 and 46: AG OPTICAL SYSTEMS 18-INCH NEWTONIA
Page 47 and 48: AG OPTICAL SYSTEMS 18-INCH NEWTONIA
Page 49 and 50: Astro-Tech 8-Inch Imaging Newtonian
Page 51 and 52: ASTRO-TECH 8-INCH IMAGING NEWTONIAN
Page 57 and 58: A 3D CAD Primer From Papyrus to 3D
Page 59 and 60: A 3D CAD PRIMER than the competitio
Page 61: A 3D CAD PRIMER Image 5 do it once
Page 64 and 65: THE “HOME DEPOT” SCOPE Image 2
Page 66 and 67: THE “HOME DEPOT” SCOPE New ATT
Page 68 and 69: PROTOSTAR’S FLOCKBOARD Image 2 Im
Page 70 and 71: PROTOSTAR’S FLOCKBOARD Image 5 in
Page 72: ASTRO TIPS tips, tricks and novel s

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