Tag Archives: Astronomy

Celestron NexStar Evolution at CES

February 1, 2015Android, Astronomy, ces, Interview, smartphone, Special Media, tablet, video, wifi, wirelessAndroid, Astronomy, Celestron, ces, Interview, IOS, smartphone, Tablet, Telescope, video, wifi, wirelessAndrew

A few years ago I was lucky enough to visit Kitt Peak in Arizona for an astronomy night and it will be one of the highlights of my life. It was a revelationary moment when I looked up and saw the Milky Way properly for the first time; I was used to seeing a few bright stars with a few more during the cold winter. Nothing prepared me for millions of dots spread across the sky…the stars, like dust… Jamie and Todd explore the cosmos with Bryan Cogdell from telescope manufacturer Celestron.

At the interview table is the Celestron NexStar Evolution, a portable computerised wifi-operated telescope with built-in rechargeable battery. The telescope itself is a Schmidt-Cassegrain optical tube which can be controlled wirelessly from a tablet (or smartphone) using the Celestron SkyPortal app for both iOS and Android. It’s very easy to use; simply find the celestial body of interest in the app and then the telescope will orient itself to view the galaxy, star or planet of interest. The battery lasts around 10 hours so there’s a whole night of viewing without recharging.

The NexStar Evolution is available now in three variants with 6″, 8″ and 9.25″ mirrors at around $1300, $1600 and $2200 respectively.

Interview by Jamie Davis of Health Tech Weekly and Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central for the TechPodcast Network.

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Celestron unveils its Cosmos telescope

January 26, 2014Astronomy, cesAstronomy, Celestron, ces, Cosmos, TelescopesAlan

Just in case you don’t know, Cosmos is returning to the airwaves this year after a rather lengthy absence. The show, once hosted by the late Carl Sagan, is being revived by everyone’s favorite astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson. Celestron stopped by the TPN set at CES to unveil the way it’s celebrating this new TV show.

The new Cosmos telescope is a 90mm refractor model, and it’s operated by WiFi. You can control it via an app on your mobile device and easily have the lens point at any object you find. It’s a powerful scope, and the intention is to allow viewers of the new show to be able to go out observe some of the same objects they watched Tyson show off on TV. The Cosmos Telescope will be available this March and retail for $399. You can check it out now on the Celestron site.

Interview by Don Baine, the Gadget Professor and Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central for the TechPodcast Network

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Celestron

February 4, 2013Astronomy, cesAstronomy, ces, spaceAlan

Brian Cogdell of Celestron stopped by the broadcast table at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to show off some of the company’s latest products.

If you are not familiar with the name then perhaps you can gleen a bit of information from it none-the-less. Celestron manufactures telescopes and, for the amateur astronomer — and we are all space fans here at GNC, the company makes some of the better ones on the market.

The latest lineup contains robotic devices that make finding that illusive object a whole lot easier. The new lineup contains cameras for photographing that amazing image and even a remote control for pointing the telescope to whatever area of the night sky you wish to examine. The camera also works to align the device by calculating where it is pointed and moving to where you want to go.

There is a lot more to learn, but you will need to watch the video below. Given the technology involved in all of this the prices are fairly reasonable.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central for the TechPodcast Network

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Curiosity Spent Halloween Taking Amazing Self Portrait

November 4, 2012Astronomy, spaceAstronomy, Curiosity, Mars, spaceAlan

Most of us have spent the past couple of months being completely fascinated with Curiosity, the latest and largest lander to roam the surface of Mars. NASA has been regularly posting images snapped by the multiple cameras on board the rover, but the one it snapped on October 31st may be the best so far.

Astronomer Phil Plait, who pointed this image out, dubbed it “the single greatest vacation picture ever taken” and I can’t argue one bit. After all, how would you like to send this image home to friends and family? The incredible self-portrait took some work. It’s actually a composite made up of 55 different high-resolution images taken by a camera mounted at the end of a two meter long arm (the arm was edited out to improve the image).

You can get much more detailed information by visiting Phil’s Bad Astronomy blog over at Discover Magazine. The image looks much like any desert on earth, but it’s a much starker and colder location than the images belie. You can view the full resolution at the link below the image.

Preliminary self-portrait of Curiosity

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

A Possible Big Night Sky Show Coming in 2013

October 5, 2012Astronomy, nasa, spaceAstronomy, Comet, spaceAlan

If you haven’t heard, a new comet was recently spotted. Even better, it’s expected to pass ridiculously close to earth in 2013 and, if those predictions prove true, it will put on quite a show in our night sky. The new object goes by the catchy name of of C/2012 S1, but is generally being called ISON.

The projected orbit should take ISON directly towards the sun in November 2013, causing melting which will result in a very defined tail. By January 2014 it should pass 60 million kilometers from Earth, and that combination of large tail and proximity to earth could result in a night sky object approximately as bright as the moon. That would make ISON the brightest comet ever seen.

According to a NASA report, “comet researcher John Bortle has pointed out a curious similarity between the orbit of Comet ISON and that of the Great Comet of 1680. ‘Purely as speculation,’ he says, ‘perhaps the two bodies could have been one a few revolutions ago.'”

All of this is still somewhat unknown because, for one thing, the brightness will depend on the composition of materials making up the comet and how much melting actually occurs. However, the best estimates at this point are leaning towards a best-case scenario for anyone interested in the night sky.

Image: NASA

Astrononomy Photographer of the Year

September 20, 2012Astronomy, Photography, spaceAstronomy, photography, spaceAndrew

The winning images from the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2012 were announced today and as you might expect, they’re absolutely stunning. Organised by the Royal Observatory in conjunction with the Sky at Night magazine and Flickr, every single one of the pictures is fantastic.

Nearly 700 pictures were submitted to Flickr for 2012 and you can see them all in the Flickr Group Pool for the Astronomy Photographer of the Year. There’s an endless supply of background images when you include the previous year’s entrants.

Milky Way Reflected in Tioga Lake — Photograph by Rick Whiteacre. Licensed under Creative Commons.

The BBC is showing off some of the photographs from the competition in a narrated presentation that’s well worth a watch as well.

The photographs are on show at the Royal Observatory through to 17 February 2013.

Astronomers Spot Oldest Galaxy, Has Crazy Fast Star Birth

June 14, 2012Astronomy, hubble, spaceAstronomy, hubble, space, Ultra Deep FieldAlan

More than a decade ago the Hubble Space Telescope snapped an image that has since been referred to as “the most important picture ever taken”. It’s real name is the Hubble Deep Field (you may want to watch this video before reading on). While the image may seem old in this fast moving world of technology, it’s not even an eye-blink when compared to it’s subject matter – the farthest astronomers have seen in the universe, and into the past.

The folks at the Max Planck Institute have been studying the image almost since it was taken in 1995. Mostly they have been focusing on the brightest galaxy in the picture, known by the catchy name of HDF850.1. That galaxy represents the furthest object, and consequently the oldest, ever seen. The fact is, HDF850.1 is 12.6 billion light years away, meaning that in the Hubble image we see the galaxy as it was 12.6 billion years ago, which is a mere 1.1 billion years after the universe began.

The galaxy, known as a starburst galaxy, is (or was) producing stars at the staggering rate of about a thousand suns per year. The Register points out that the Planck institute, “had to use IRAM interferometer, and the Jansky Very Large Array, a giant compound radio telescope in New Mexico, USA” to verify their findings. The official announcement of the discovery will be published in the next issues of Nature.

Source: Space.com

Photo Credit: M16 Eagle Nebula from Big Stock Photo