Astronomy Technology Today

ASTRONOMY
TECHNOLOGY TODAY
Your Complete Guide to Astronomical Equipment
AGENA SWA EYEPIECES • DENKMEIER SCT POWERSWITCH DIAGONAL
MEADE IMAGERS TEST DRIVE • AUTOGUIDING: AS SIMPLE AS PUSH HERE DUMMY
JMI’s Jim Burr
Builds Largest
Binoculars Yet
Volume 1 • Issue 5
October 2007 $4.00 US

Contents
Cover Story
JMI owner Jim Burr stands in front of
his new RB-22 prototype, a trailer mounted,
reverse binoculars design. The prototype, which
will be JMI’s largest reverse binoculars to date,
features a 22-inch, f/3.8 primary mirror and is
scheduled to be completed in the fall.
The background image of M51 was taken by
Joe Gafford using a JMI NGT-18 18-inch f/4.5
Newtonian telescope with SBIG ST-2000XM CCD
camera.
Editor’s Note
8 Astronomy Technology on a Budget
ASTRONOMY
TECHNOLOGY TODAY
Your Complete Guide to Astronomical Equipment
AGENA SWA EYEPIECES • DENKMEIER SCT POWERSWITCH DIAGONAL
MEADE IMAGERS TEST DRIVE • AUTOGUIDING: AS SIMPLE AS PUSH HERE DUMMY
PAGE
29
Reader Profile
68 Ted Saker, Jr.
JMI’s Jim Burr
Builds Largest
Binoculars Yet
Volume 1 • Issue 5
October 2007 $4.00 US
Industry News
11 STARK LABS
Releases Nebulosity 1.6,
PHD Guiding 1.6
12 TELE VUE
Announces
Ethos Pricing
12 OPTIC WAVE LABORATORIES
New Optics Company
14 SKYSHED OBSERVATORIES
Reports on POD Rollout
Features
26 Stray Light Revealed
A Simple Trick to See Stray
Light Paths
By Mike Jones
36 Agena SWA Eyepieces
Great Performance at
Budget Prices
By Erik Wilcox
39 Meade Imagers Test Drive
With a Little Time and Dedication,
Amazing Images can be Produced
with These Cameras
By David Snay
47 Autoguiding: As Simple as “Push
Here Dummy”
To Get More People Autoguiding,
the User Experience Has to Be
Simple, Yet Accurate
By Craig Stark, Ph.D.
57 The Denkmeier SCT Powerswitch
Diagonal with Filter Switch
You Don’t Have to be a Trekkie to
Enjoy the Experience of Taking
Control of Your Own Personal
Starship with the Help of the SCT
Powerswitch
by Uncle Rod Mollise
60 A Child of the Stars
How a Young Girl’s Encouraged
Imagination Discovered a Deep
Longing to Know the Universe.
By Lorelei Parker Power
64 Starfest 2007
Canada’s Largest Annual Star Party
A First Look at the Meade mySKY
By Ray Khan
15 AGENA ASTROPRODUCTS
Now Carrying William Optics
15 ASTRONOMY 161 ANYONE
Ohio State Professor
Offers Podcasts
16 CELESTRON
Makes $40,000 Donation
to Girl Scouts, Announces
Grand Prize Winner
17 THE JOURNEY TO PALOMAR
New PBS Documentary
Features Palomar Observatory
17 MEADE 4M COMMUNITY
Presents Interview With
Timothy Ferris
Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY 5

Contributing Writers
Mike Jones has been an optical designer and EO/IR engineer for nearly 30 years.
He is also an active amateur astronomer and ATM, having made over 55 mirrors
and several telescopes. He did the optical designs for numerous systems at
McDonald Observatory, Texas A&M University, George Observatory and others.
He is a sustaining member of AAVSO.
Ray Khan is an amateur astronomer and owner/operator of Khan Scope Centre,
a specialty telescope store located in Toronto, Canada. Ray has been in the telescope
business for over 25 years and has enjoyed watching the progress and
evolution of amateur astronomy. Ray is also a member of the Royal
Astronomical Society of Canada.
“Uncle” Rod Mollise, despite a demanding day job as an engineer with an
aerospace firm, still finds time to teach astronomy to undergraduates at the
University of South Alabama, write books and magazine articles about
astronomy, and observe. Rod’s latest book is The Urban Astronomer’s Guide
(Springer 2006).
Contents
New Products
18 WEBSTER TELESCOPES
C22 22-inch No Ladder Dob
21 BAADER PLANETARIUM
AND SBIG
Narrowband CCD Filters
21 WILLIAM OPTICS
Field Flattener III
22 ASTRO HUTECH
Now Offers Canon 40DH
Lorelei Parker Power is the co-owner of SkyShed Observatories with her husband
and astronomy partner, Wayne Parker, the creator of SkyShed Roll Off and
SkyShed POD. She also writes children's stories and is a sculptor, specializing
in art dolls and miniature arts, which can be viewed at www.loreleipower.com
David Snay is a retired software engineer living in central Massachusetts. He
graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and has been an astronomer and
astrophotographer for more than 10 years. David currently pursues fine art photography,
specializing in traditional black/white images.
Craig Stark, Ph.D. is, by day, a professor whose research involves trying to pull
faint signals out of noisy, moving images of people’s brains. By night, he is an
amateur astrophotographer and operates Stark Labs which provides software to
help users pull faint signals out of noisy, moving images of the heavens.
Erik Wilcox works for a natural foods distributor in South San Francisco,
California, and is a long-time moderator on the popular astronomy forum, “Cloudy
Nights”. He enjoys star parties and public outreach, and, in addition to amateur
astronomy, he spends his time playing in a rock band.
22 FARPOINT ASTRONOMICAL
RESEARCH
Announces Accessories for
Meade LightBridge
23 RON WODASKI
The NewAstro Zone System for
Astro Imaging
24 SCOPESTUFF
Compression Ring Visual
Back For Orion Crayford
Focuser
25 CHRONOSMOUNT
Develops New Harmonic
Drive Mounting System
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6 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY