Product Spotlight: The Orion SteadyPix iPhone Adapter

Written by Tammy Plotner

Are you ready for a really cool, new product? Then you've got to check out the Orion SteadyPix iPhone Adapter! This dandy little piece of equipment is a felt-lined clamp which attaches right to any 1.25" eyepiece (and barrels up to 1.5") and works with the original iPhone, iPhone 3, 3GS, 4 or iPhone 4S. The bracket holds the iPhone camera lens directly over the "sweet spot" of your telescope's eyepiece and allows you to take great pictures of things like bright deep sky objects, the planets, the Moon and sunspots. Now you don't have to be a professional, or have a lot of expensive equipment to do some astrophotography!



The Orion SteadyPix Telescope iPhone Afocal Adapter even lets you display a live view of the image projected by your telescope on your iPhone screen so it acts like a "real time" monitor. This is a great idea for those who like to share the view with family and friends. The monitor mode is also great for outreach and allowing those with mobility issues to easily see what the telescope sees. What's more, the SteadyPix iPhone Adapter can even let you attach your iPhone to a photo tripod for wide-field pictures without a telescope.

Be the first kid on your block to have the Orion SteadyPix iPhone Adapter! Order yours at OPT today!

Celestron CGEM DX Mount

Submitted by Tammy Plotner




Ever innovative, the Celestron team continues to produce new products... the only problem is which one to choose! This year's hottest item is a rock steady platform for astrophotography – the CGEM DX Mount!

Capable of carrying Celestron’s high-end 11" and 14" optical tubes, this CGE PRO style, 2.75" leg tripod holds even the 14" optics securely while dampening vibration, which is ideal for both imaging and visual observing. Capable of holding 50 lbs of payload and slewing at 5° per second, you will be able to instantly point to any of the 40,000 celestial objects in the database.

Ergonomic Design - CGEM DX was designed to be ergonomically friendly with large Altitude and Azimuth adjustment knobs for quick and easy polar alignment adjustment. The internal RA and DEC motor wiring provides a clean look and an easy and trouble free set up.

Innovation - The CGEM DX series has a new innovative Polar alignment procedure called All-Star™. All-Star allows users to choose any bright star- that's right ANY bright star, while the software calculates and assists with polar alignment. Another great feature of the CGEM DX sure to please astroimagers, is the Permanent Periodic Error Correction (PEC) which will allow users to train out the worm gears periodic errors, while the mount retains the PEC recordings.

Performance - For objects near the Meridian (imaginary line passing from North to South), the CGEM DX will track well past the Meridian for uninterrupted imaging through the most ideal part of the sky. The CGEM DX mount has a robust database with over 40,000 objects, 100 user defined programmable objects and enhanced information on over 200 objects.

Power Management - Redesigned electronics deliver constant regulated power to the motors making them capable of driving the telescope even when not perfectly balanced. This allows the CGEM DX to have the payload capacity of that of much larger mounts without sacrificing smooth tracking motion and pointing accuracy across the entire sky.

Rock steady? From the tips of its stocky orange feet to the top of its solid head, this mount and tripod combination is rock on! Order your CGEM DX Equatorial Mount & Tripod at OPT today!

IP4AP - Soup2Nuts....

Submitted by Tammy Plotner



No visit to NEAF would be complete without visiting with Warren Keller! What's new this year? Let's ask...

“In production is our new 2-part series S/N = Soup2Nuts. Completed tutorials of Part-1 will be posted to the site in a rolling release www.ip4ap.com/soup2nuts.htm. Early subscribers will receive special pricing prior to completion of the series."  For the first time, Warren will walk you through Pre-processing, in both MaxIm DL 5, and the yet unreleased (3/31/11) Astroart 5! "We'll also catch you up to the workspace of Photoshop CS4 and 5, filling in the gap between the latest versions and where the prior series left off in CS2." When Part 1 is completed, a DVD will be available from OPT!



Part-2 of S2N will cover Object-Specific Postprocessing with included high-res files from Warren's observatory at New Mexico Skies. We'll also see Advanced Techniques such as Ha+LRGB, and Mosaics.

Get those cameras rollin'!

NEAF Blogorama: FLI

The guys from FLI were at NEAIC, and their newest, coolest product is the CenterLine color filter wheel. We grabbed a shot of this top-of-the-line filter wheel with a Proline camera one one side (shown below) and an Atlas auto-focuser on the other side (no, not the red thing...that's Greg Terrance's laptop). With the camera attached to the very center of the CenterLine, the weight is beautifully distributed.






I was surprised by how big the CenterLine is, but when I looked at the interior, I could see why an imager would love the flexibility the double filter wheel provides. The two wheels can hold a total of ten 50mm square filters. Run LRGB in one wheel and UVBRI in another, or load a light pollution filter on one side and overlap it with other filters.

Here's another cool feature: The filter windows are masked on both sides to reduce internal reflections; a problem that is common with square filters.

While the filter wheel we saw is a prototype, the mechanical features look as they will in final production models. It is the electronics that are still in development.






Here is a bit more information on this new filter wheel...we should start seeing thee on our shelves this summer.

The FLI CenterLine color filter wheel features a centrally located aperture that presents a symmetrical mass distribution and eliminates the offset weight problems associated with virtually every other color filter wheel on the market. It is also ideal for prime focus installations where a zero or symmetric shading of the primary mirror is critical. The CL1-10 CFW presents an easier load to handle vs. a normal color filter wheel and it will not change a telescope’s balance as it tracks across the sky. The FLI CenterLine also allows for combining filters which is not possible with traditional style filter wheels. The FLI CenterLine model CL1-10 holds up to ten 50mm x 50mm square filters in two independently operated wheels. It is powered by two internally mounted stepper motors and two TruMotion synchronous belts. The internal wheels are supported by radial ball bearings that provide a smooth, quiet and repeatable operation.

• Number of Filter Wheels: 2
• Filter Positions: Eight + Two Open Positions
• Filter Size: 50 mm square
• Filter Thickness: 3mm - 5 mm
• Body Thickness: 1.1"
• Camera Coupling Pocket: Zero-tilt Adapter
• Filter Cup: 2" Square
• Telescope Coupling: Zero-tilt Adapter
• Internal Wheel Material: Aluminum
• Interface: USB
• Power: 12v
• Weight: ~ 4.5 lbs

Contributing Astrophotography - Storm on Saturn Has Grown Into A Monster!

Written By Tammy Plotner



Just before the holidays, UT reported about about the Growing Storm On Saturn and showed us the Cassini images. Now more than a month has passed and the white scar of the raging atmosphere has escalated to an incredible size... Nearly 10 Earths wide!