There are recommendations all over the web comparing, evaluating and recommending astronomy equipment and accessories. A good portion of this website talks about equipment suitable for an inexpensive telescope program.
This page contains my personal recommendations for or comments about "fun" equipment. I share what I'm liking, suiting my interest and perhaps narrow needs. It's not intended to be a comparison of a product and its competitors. My intent it to highlight items that unique and without direct competitors.
I refrained from calling this page the "Toys" page, because, if I'm being honest, every piece of astronomy equipment falls into the "Toy" category. My focus here is for "non-essential" stuff that is primarily "fun". For example, I love my Nagler 31, but that eyepiece is essential and wondrous. It is fun, but it is fundamentally a serious thing.
My initial recommendations are:
- Astro-Devices Nexus: Direct Encoder-to-Wireless adapter
- YesWatch "Astronomy" Solar/Lunar Watch
- Dark-Skys Home Planetarium
- Wood Wonders Eyepiece Case
- "Window Scopes"
Planetarium App Guidance
Hand-held, character-based menu navigators are obsolete; immersive, telescope-tracking sky map navigation is the future.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then look at this picture below and answer this question:
which interface is more intuitive?
Celestron, Meade and Orion have WiFi adapters so that you can augment their command-line handcontroller interface with Planetarium App Guidance (I use SkySafari).
AstroDevices.com offers a WiFI adapter for dob/encoder-based scopes.
I've had good luck with their inexpensive Nexus II adapater.
Below is a video (poorly shot with my phone, sorry) demonstrating SkySafari on iPad navigating a Meade Lightbridge 12 via the Nexus.
AstroDevices offers a full computer-plus-wifi Nexus DSC. It's more expensive, but it's a far more robust solution, eliminating the need for a standalong computer (like SkyCommander, ArgoNavis, etc.). I like the interface quite a bit more than most handheld computers. I don't need a manual to know how to use (the last thing you want to do in the dark is have to read a manual). It turned my Obsession/ServoCAT/ArgoNavis/SkySari system from something torturous to use to something fun again.
Yes Watch "Astronomy" Solar/Lunar Watch
| This is another "lifetime" piece of equipment. I really expect to be wearing one of these watches when I die (hopefully that won't be for a long time).
I really love this watch. Just from the information shown on the picture at the right I can see a crazy amount of information:
It really put me back in touch with the sun and the moon, and it's useable everywhere 24/7 (unlike the rest of my equipment). I'm so impressed with the interface, I devoted several pages to it. Here's my review on CloudyNights.com |
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Dark-Skys DS-1 Home Planetarium.
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I don't own this yet, but it looks amazing. Imagine a realistic representation of The Milky Way - in your house! This is considerably more expensive than other home planetaria. Some of that is because they built an amazingly beautiful piece of hardware - see the Nightlight Mode. Part of it is because it's Chrome Disk show over 4 million stars! They do sell their 4-million+ star disks for the cheaper alternatives, but the bulbs of the cheaper are considerably dimmer. |
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Wood Wonders Eyepiece Case
| Almost all frequent observers have some way to carry their eyepieces around. I convinced my wife that I should have Ron from Wood Wonders build one of his custom cases for me and that she should pay for it as a Father's Day present. It's beautiful and very, very functional. I rotate through a lot of equipment, but knew I'd be keeping it for the rest of my life.
It was a great gift, I think of my wife and son every time I use my telescopes! |
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