Jupiter and Saturn are visible all night and many will want to take the opportunity to image these giant planets. Trying to get a small planetary image onto the centre of an imaging camera’s sensor can be difficult. You can move the telescope around tring to find the planets, or you can centre it in…
The effects of image tilt can ruin a great astrophoto. Image tilt (or image plane tilt) happens when an area towards the edge of the field exhibits out-of-focus or imperfect star images and is caused by the image sensor not being pefectly perpendicular to the light path. A mis-aligned focuser tube, flattener/corrector lenses, extension adaptors,…
Baader Planetarium have a slogan in their company: “Finding the way”. This slogan got created by the company founder Claus Baader in 1966, when the Baader Planetarium-Orrery was presented to the world and they have always tried to find ways for our technical solutions – and for their domes – to stand the test of…
Its hard to believe that a year has gone by since Venus seemed to be around for ages and was riding high in our evening sky during the late winter and spring months. This year, after its superior conjunction on March 25th 2021, Venus will once again start to become part of our evening sky…
Having multiple eyepieces at your telescope means you can swap between them to get different (more or less magnified) views of the Moon, planets and deep sky objects. However you have to think about where you are going to safely place the eyepieces when not in use. You also have to identify the eyepiece you…
Barlow lenses are a very useful addition to any visual observer or Lunar/planetary imagers’ “tool-kit”. If you have a set of eyepieces, by using a barlow you can immediately expand the magnification range that they offer. For a Solar system imager you can increase the image scale so the target is larger on the camera…
Keep your eyepieces, telescope lenses, corrector plates, camera lenses and filters clean this during this observing season with Baader’s Optical Wonder fluid and microfibre cloth. Baader Planetarium’s FineOptical Cleaning Fluid is a very effective cleaning solution that is less aggressive than other cleaning solutions, but is extremely effective at removing dirt, oils (pollen and fat) and…
Firstly, we would like to wish you all a happy new year. This website was maintained by David Hinds Ltd but that company has now ceased trading. The Baader-Planetarium.co.uk website is now owned, operated and will be maintained by Baader Planetarium GmbH. We will continue to write regular blogs, update you on new products and…
We now have a small quantity of the very high quality Baader Mark V Großfeld (Giant)-Binocular Viewers in stock (as of 12th November 2020). These all-metal housing German-made models are the fifth incarnation of the Carl Zeiss giant binocular viewers with 30 mm prisms with 7-layer anti-reflective multi-coatings on all air-glass surfaces. The binoviewers feature…
At this time of year and during the winter months there are many amazing nebulae to observe. One problem however is light pollution that may affect you observing them. Baader offer their Ultra-High Contrast (UHC-S) nebula filter which blocks light pollution from streetlights and increases the contrast of the nebula(e) against the background sky. The…
In order to take a photo through your SCT you need an SCT-to-T adaptor. A one that is often used is Celestron’s T-adaptor for Schmidt Cassegrains (their 93633-A). However currently there is a shortage of some accessories (due to Covid19) including this useful and popular item. An alternative to the Celestron accessory is Baader’s Universal…
The T-2, M48 and M68 connection system are threaded methods of connecting many cameras, filter wheels and other accessories together. There may be some occasions when you connect items together and find that either one item is rotated “too far” (e.g. camera is just at the wrong angle) or you may need just an extra…
A lot of telescopes can be powered from batteries, but during the winter the cold and affect their performance and life often leading to a malfunctioning mount. If you spend more time doing astronomy at home it makes sense to make use of the mains power to run your telescope. Baader’s 60W Outdoor Telescope Power…
We’re not too far away now from the 2020 Mars opposition which will occur on October 13th where it will be just over 22 arc seconds in apparent size and shine at magnitude ~-2.6. Unlike other recent oppositions, Mars will be higher in the sky at ~40 degrees altitude from the UK so that will…
Baader’s ND5.0 AstroSolar film can be used to safely view and image our Sun. The most popular size is their A4 variant which allows you to make a full aperture filter for small camera lenses or telescopes or a sub-aperture filter for larger instruments and in some cases still have some of the film left…
The Celestron RASA 8″ was designed with small CCD cameras, colour astronomical CMOS cameras, and mirrorless cameras in mind. Of course one can use Mono cameras too. If you have multiple filters and want to swap between them during an imaging run, to take LRGB or narrowband (e.g. with Baader’s F/2 filters) taking the camera…
With Jupiter, Saturn and Mars in the night sky (and Mars’ upcoming opposition in October) many want to image these planets. Trying to get the small planetary image of onto a small imaging camera’s sensor by trying to centre it in an eyepiece, removing the eyepiece, inserting a camera, to find that planet is not…
The Andromeda Galaxy is an amazing sight to behold. It is the nearest galaxy to our own at nearly 2.5 million light years distant and has around 1 trillion stars. It can be seen as a “small smudge” with the naked eye and through binoculars it has a “squashed” elliptical appearance. With the Andromeda galaxy…
On the 13th October 2020 Mars will be at opposition meaning that the Earth lies between Mars and the Sun, and Mars will appear larger than usual meaning its a great time to observe the Red planet! Mars will be visible all night and has an altitude of approximately 40 degrees above the horizon so…
We are now heading into August and those lovely Autumn skies are not that far away now, and what is often referred to as the “start of the astronomy or observing season” when the nights start to “cut” (it gets darker earlier) and get longer, are just about upon us. It could be time to…
We now in our summer season. The weather is warm and pleasant, the days are long and the Sun is high in the sky, and Solar observing is a popular astronomical activity. To observe or image the Sun without proper safety equipment can cause permanent blindness and/or damage to photographic equipment. Baader Planetarium offer a…