ASTRONONOMY

My 80mm Skywatcher Refractor telescope

My 800mm Meade 2080 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope

Link to my Moon page

Link to my summary of The Life of Stars

Some useful online links

Guide to star maps etc

Guide to Star maps etc
Printable PDF Star Charts
If you prefer traditional, physical maps to use with a red flashlight in the field, these platforms offer excellent high-resolution downloads:

• Skymaps.com Evening Sky Map: Provides free, monthly, single-page sky maps customized for the Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, and equatorial regions. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
• Eyes on the Sky Beginner Charts: Offers clean, black-and-white downloadable PDF charts plotting stars down to a magnitude of 7.25, making them perfect for binocular or small telescope navigation. [1]
• Deep Sky Hunter Atlas: A comprehensive, 110-map large-scale astronomical atlas designed for serious deep-sky observers looking for galaxies, clusters, and nebulae. [1]

Interactive Mobile Apps
If you want a digital, pocket-sized planetarium that uses your phone's GPS and compass to map the stars exactly where you stand, choose from these top-rated apps: [1]

• Stellarium Mobile: Widely considered one of the best for realism, it offers massive catalogs of stars and deep-sky objects that work flawlessly offline. Download it on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. [1, 2, 3]
• Sky Map by Google: A completely free, lightweight, open-source app for Android that easily identifies constellations and planets as you move your phone. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
• Star Walk 2: Perfect for beginners, featuring sleek 3D models of constellations, integrated satellite tracking, and beautiful AR camera overlays. Available on Google Play and the App Store. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
• Sky Tonight: Includes an observational calendar, letting you track upcoming meteor showers, eclipses, and planet configurations while monitoring local stargazing weather metrics. [1]

My Refractor telescope. [Now given to Terry Drabble's son (William)] Sky-Watcher EVOSTAR DS-PRO Series ED Apochromatic refractor. 80mm objective; 600mm focal length. It feature a doublet objective lens. One element is made from Extra-Low Dispersion (ED) glass, which virtually eliminates chromatic aberration. Top quality Schott glass is utilized for the Crown element. It has 9x50 viewfinder.

The mount is a Sky-Watcher EQ5 Deluxe Heavy-Duty Equatorial Mount.
For convenience there is a Sky-Watcher 90 Degree Polar Scope Eyepiece which is used for accurate alignmnent with the pole star and can also be used with the viewfinder for more comfortable looking at overhead objects. NB Only one counterweight is needed.

Motor drives. Sky-Watcher Dual-Axis Motor Drive for EQ5. Provides multi-speed (1x/2x/8x) motor tracking of the R.A. & DEC. axes. Battery-powered. 

Eyepieces and magnification.
Magnification is the telescope focal length (600mm) divided by the focal length of the eyepiece. The maximum useful magnification is  2 x objective diameter (80 mm)that is 160x. [So no point in using Barlow 2x magnification[

40mm. 15x. Not top quality but excellent for finding objects. Same magnification as my  Canon binoculars.
24.5 mm Meade super wide angle multicoated. 25x
12 mm Celestron X-CEL LX series.  50x.
5 mm   Celestron X-CEL LX. series 120x.
                Note:  these eyepieces give 60º apparent field of view.  The premium six-element optical set is finished with multiple layers of high-transmission coatings for clear, sharp images.   The edges of the optics are blackened for increased contrast.  16 mm of comfortable eye relief – advised as very beneficial for spectacle wearers.