Tag: sun

2019: Solar and Lunar Phenomena Overview

From Tele Vue’s patio, the Mercury Transit of May 9, 2016 was imaged in white light with our FoneMate™ adapter using a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 attached to an 18.2mm DeLite eyepiece and Tele Vue-76 scope. Mercury is in the lower-right quadrant and forms a diagonal line with sunspot regions 2542 and 2543 as it passed nearest to the center of the solar disk. Mercury was 12-arcseconds in diameter then and will be just 10-arcseconds for the November 2019 transit. Photo by Jon Betancourt.
Mercury Transit
The premier event of 2019 awaits the end of the year when Mercury appears to pass over the face of the sun (as seen from Earth) on November 11th from 12:35 to 18:04 UT.  Due to its diminutive size — only 10-arc-seconds in diameter —  eclipse glasses over your eyes will not do: you’ll need a properly solar filtered telescope, binocular, or telephoto lens to view it (see Viewing/Imaging Resources at bottom). Don’t miss it as the next transit of Mercury won’t be until 2032.

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Tele Vue-85: Portable, Powerful, Photo-Visual APO

Imaging a rare celestial event requires advanced planning, the right equipment, and often a lot of post-processing.  Tony Cook traveled from the UK to Paphos on the southwest of  coast of Cyprus (we suppose for the over 300 sunny days a year) to image the 2004 Transit of Venus with his Tele Vue-85, Coronado SM60 hydrogen alpha filter, Canon 10D camera, and Losmandy GM-8 mount.  The 85’s optical capabilities and airline portability often makes it a favorite for amateur astronomers chasing down rare events like this.
 
Transit of Venus – 8th June 2004 by AstroBin user Tony Cook. License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons. Used by permission. Tele Vue-85 APO refractor with Coronado SM60 hydrogen alpha filter and Canon 10D camera. This is actually a synthetic color image created from the luminosity of the green channel of the photos.  Click image link to read how post-processing was carried out to create this detailed composite image.

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Tele Vue Telescope Shows and Indoor Solar Viewing

Astrofest 2018

If you’re in the New York metro area the third week in April, we’ve got a lot to show you at two back-to-back shows we’ll be at: the annual Northeast Astro-Imaging Conference (NEAIC: April 19 & 20) and Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF: April 21 & 22) — both in Suffern, NY — about an hours drive northwest of New York City.

We’ll exhibit an updated night vision demonstrator to show you the benefits of using our visual and smartphone accessories designed for the Tactical Night Vision Company (TNVC)  night vision monocular. This is the system that just won a Sky & Telescope 2018 Hot Products Award. In the coming months, Sky & Telescope will be publishing their test review of the system. You can get a preview of this review on page 63 of the April 2018 issue and looking at the image below.

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