Tag Archives: Telescope

Telescopes

ZWO SeeStar S30 Smart Telescope

ZWO SeeStar S30
The ZWO SeeStar S30 all-in-one smart telescope.

The ZWO SeeStar S30 is a compact all-in-one smart telescope that makes capturing the night sky simple while still delivering impressive results. Keep in mind that ZWO introduced the SeeStar “S30 Pro” in 2025 and started shipping that unit in early 2026 but this review pertains to the original S30.

The entire unit stands about a foot tall with the included mini tripod and weighs a touch over 3.5 lbs. It comes with its own soft sided carrying case, and it’s super portable. It can easily fit into a carry on bag or backpack. It uses a 30mm (1.2″) apochromatic triplet lens with ED glass and a 150mm focal length at f/5, producing sharp images with good color correction for its size. The S30 is built around a Sony IMX662 sensor and features fully automated pointing, tracking, and live stacking, allowing me to focus on framing and enjoying the sky rather than setup and alignment. Everything is controlled through the Seestar mobile app, which makes finding and imaging deep sky objects fast and intuitive.

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Telescopes

Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ

Overview

The Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ Newtonian telescope and tripod.

I’ve had the Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ for about a year now, so I thought I’d share my thoughts on this telescope, my experiences using it both at home and at public star parties, and a few drawbacks that potential buyers should know about so there are no surprises.

Let me start with my 30,000-foot take. It’s a good little scope that’s beginner-friendly, portable, and easy and fun to use. While it does have some flaws, which I’ll get into shortly, I think it works very well as an entry-level telescope for those new to the hobby and looking to explore the night sky.

Design and Features

Looking down the DX 130AZ’s optical tube.

The Explorer DX 130AZ is a 5-inch Newtonian reflector mounted on an alt-azimuth mount and enhanced by a smartphone-guided system. It uses Celestron’s proprietary StarSense Explorer app on your smart phone, which allows you to easily locate objects in the night sky. That feature alone is what makes this telescope especially appealing and accessible to both newcomers and seasoned amateurs.

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Telescopes, Travel

The Leviathan of Parsonstown

Back in May of this year we enjoyed beautiful weather while  visiting the “Emerald Isle.”  A couple of hours drive generally west of Dublin, Ireland is the town of Birr, and Birr Castle Demesne.

The Great Telescope at Birr Castle
The Leviathan of Parsonstown.

We took a guided tour inside the castle itself which is only offered during certain months of the year. The castle is not just an unoccupied museum piece but is the home of Brendan Parsons the 7th Earl of Rosse and his wife. The Parsons family have lived at Birr Castle since 1620. They celebrated their 400th anniversary last year.

We were able to walk and explore the extensive surrounding grounds or demesne (domain) which included award winning gardens, historic science center, I-LOFAR radio telescope, lake, river, waterfall, huge treehouse playground and the main attraction I was there to see, the The Great Telescope.

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Telescopes

Meade’s LXD55 + 20 Years

Meade LXD55 10″ Schmidt-Newtonian

I realized recently that I’ve  been a Meade LXD55 Schmidt-Newtonian telescope owner for just shy of two decades now. Wow! “That’s hard to believe,” I thought. It got me to thinking about the telescope, and it dawned on me to write about the LXD55 scope & mount.

Meade’s LXD55 line of scopes, and maybe more importantly, the GOTO German equatorial mount (GEM) was all the talk back in late 2001 and 2002 when the company began advertising it in the usual magazines. However, Meade had an issue getting the units to market and in the hands of eager amateurs chomping at the bit to have a GOTO mount that wasn’t going to break the bank.

I’m not entirely sure why the promised release date was pushed back. Maybe it was manufacturing delays or there was something else afoot but only a smattering of scopes and mounts were initially released. What I painfully knew at that time was my order had not been filled and the delivery date kept getting pushed back. If I recall correctly, (this was 20 years ago) I think I ended up waiting an additional 6 agonizing months before my shiny new telescope finally shipped. Receiving the scope was another tragic story entirely which you can read about here.

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Astrophotography, Telescopes

An LPS Filter Rabbit Hole

The Problem

Shooting from Bortle 8 skies with an f/5 scope means exposures get blown out or go white fairly quickly. Shooting long exposures is doable but with my skies and setup I’d greatly benefit by using a light pollution filter. But what type of filter would work best for my rig a 2″ round or clip-in, etc.  What’s available for my older Nikon D5100 DSLR and where would the optimum location for a filter reside in my light train?

With these questions in mind I ventured to find out. My first stop? A quick scan of the owner’s manual for my Meade Series 6000 70mm Quad APO Astrograph but surprisingly this revealed no information at all. There is this in the owner’s manual:Meade OM

Not much help really and the “picture” mentioned above is not actually on the whopping 2 page owner’s manual. So after searching online for information on adding a filter to my specific scope and even calling Meade Customer Service for assistance; I got nowhere. I felt sure that a filter could be added I was just seeking assistance with the best approach.

The Test

I didn’t have a 2″ filter so I bought an inexpensive 2″ Solomark Moon & Sky Glow filter for $20 bucks off Amazon mainly as something to test with before taking the plunge and buying a high dollar LPS imaging filter. I’m glad I decided on that route. I very quickly found out that the 2″ filter did fit nicely between the 48mm to 42mm adapter that is used to connect the DSLR to the telescope. The line up goes like this:  DSLR, Nikon T-Ring adapter, 48mm to 42mm adapter, Moon & Sky Glow Filter, telescope.  Success!  Not quite. Adding the filter at this point in the light train increased the distance that the camera was from the back of the scope. By pushing the DSLR back slightly I was then unable to achieve focus. The focal point with this telescope is very close to the end of the scope with the focuser almost fully racked in. There is hardly any travel to work with. Back to the drawing board.

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SAP Site, Telescopes

Telescope Instruction Manuals

There’s nothing like getting a new telescope! The anticipation of the delivery and then once it does arrive the pure excitement of unboxing your new instrument. Yes, it’s like Christmas and your birthday all wrapped into one.  After the boxes have been cast aside and a rough assembly takes place we turn our attention to the instruction manual for all the “hmm, I wonder where this fits?” or maybe “I know this is the thing that goes on here but why is it not staying on?” We’ve all been there at some point. Time to consult the manual. My Dad always used to say “If all else fails, read the directions!”

I myself enjoy instruction manuals for all things electronic and of course that means telescopes to. You know you’re a nerd when you actually look forward to kicking back with a nice cup coffee and reading through the entire instruction manual page by page whether it be a hard copy or online in PDF form.

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General

Light, Distance and Time Travel

How far can we see into space? A very long way indeed. But not only are we seeing objects that are far away we are also seeing them as they existed (past tense). Why? Because as much as we would like to think light is instantaneous it actually travels at a measured or finite speed.

How fast is it? Light travels at 186,282 miles per second or roughly 300 million meters per second. Pretty darn fast but when you start talking astronomical distances the speed of light becomes apparent. Once you know the distance to an object you can then calculate how long it takes light to reach it.

1st Quarter Moon

The light reflected from the Moon takes 1.255 seconds to reach us here on Earth. Light emitted from the Sun takes over 8 minutes to get to us. And so on. The most distant galaxies in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field image are 13 billion light-years away.

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