While Galileo’s profound discoveries with his first telescope in 1609 are rightly celebrated in the annals of science, the optical design of his first telescope is not. Based on a simple convex objective lens and a concave eyepiece, Galileo’s early telescopes gave drinking-straw-narrow fields of view and and image brightness that dropped off drastically at the edge. His design was quickly replaced by the so-called Keplerian telescope which we all use today. So imagine my surprise when I discovered a relatively new set of binoculars from Vixen Optics that are based on a modern version of Galileo’s original telescope design. These Vixen SG 2.1×42 binoculars, which magnify just 2.1 times and have objective lenses 42 mm diameter, give extraordinary wide-field views of entire constellations, and some say that observing with these binoculars is like having ‘super vision’ [Read more…] about Vixen’s Astonishing SG 2.1×42 Wide-Field Binoculars
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In many ways, August is the best month for stargazing. For northern-hemisphere observers, the weather is still warm but much of the unsettled and humid summer air dissipates and skies become, on average, drier and clearer. Observers in the southern hemisphere enjoy warmer weather as winter nears an end, and the center of the Milky Way, the starriest part of the night sky, still lies just past overhead. And of course, the Perseid meteor shower peaks this month, with some reports suggesting it could be spectacular this year. There are also plenty of planets to see in the evening sky. Here’s what’s going on in the night sky this month:
