If you have a computerised observatory, you might know about dome slaving, the process of keeping the shutter on the dome right in front of the telescope. Not only is there a lot of mathematics in this, but also it’s a complicated task to set up the different components of your system. This is the first article in a series on different ways to do this.
PegasusAstro focus, power and dew heater controllers use a range of temperature and environmental sensors. Knowing which one goes with what product can be confusing. Bill’s written a handy list for you.
Taking monochrome images of a galaxy in red, green and blue light allows you to make a full colour image, in a similar way to your eyes detecting the three colours and your brain combining them in the colour image. But you add exposures taken through a Hydrogen alpha filter, which draws out emission nebulas in the galaxy.
For the Lunar Eclipse of September 2025, Bill used a remote facility that Sidereal Trading had installed at a club in Victoria to get a sequence of images. It didn’t go quite to plan, but he got the shots anyway.
Lunar eclipses, or blood moons, are really cool, and people love getting photos. But during the eclipse the Moon is dark and a photo doesn’t show the same details as a normal full Moon. This tutorial shows how to capture the sharpness of the full moon and still get the colour of the blood moon.
Have you had troubles pointing your telescope at the zenith? It’s especially difficult if you’ve got a long refractor, because the eyepiece or camera end of the refractor can run into one of the tripod legs. You can use a pier extender, but better still, you can use a pier tripod, which has a cental pier from close to the ground. No tripod legs, not obstructions.
The Sidereal Trading Telescope (FAQs) blog page provides answers to commonly asked questions that customers might have about telescopes.
USB-C is becoming an industry standard in astrophotography as it can use fewer cables by sharing power and data. However, some components need higher voltages through that USB-C cable. If you plug a 12V cable into a component that needs 5V you can cause damage. Please be careful!
Getting deep images of the Milky Way can take a lot of power from your DSLR’s battery. Using a dummy battery to power your camera means you can leave it running all night and you won’t have to change batteries. You power the dummy battery with a PegasusAstro DSLR Buddy, and that means you can also run a dew heater strap from the mains, or a big battery.
An infinity corrected objective is a lens used for macrophotography. It looks very much like a microscope lens, and when you pair it with a tube lens it has quite a few advantages over more traditional macro lenses.
If you have a computerised observatory, you might know about dome slaving, the process of keeping the shutter on the dome right in front of the telescope. Not only is there a lot of mathematics in this, but also it’s a complicated task to set up the different components of your system. This is the first article in a series on different ways to do this.
PegasusAstro focus, power and dew heater controllers use a range of temperature and environmental sensors. Knowing which one goes with what product can be confusing. Bill’s written a handy list for you.
