Useful Links.

[General] [Equipment] [Imaging] [Object Search] [Practical] [Software] [Video] [Camps] [Maidenhead Links] [ Discussion Groups]

General Information:
An Atlas of the Universe - From 12 to 14 billion Lyrs. You must look at this !
Apollo Landing Sites - The Lunar and Planetary Institute
Astronomy Now - Magazine site for subscriptions
BBC Science and Nature - SPACE...
Cloudy Nights Telescopes Reviews - A good review site
English Telescope Makers - An interesting summary.
Heavens Above - Excellent site for observing satellites and astronomical objects
Journal of the BAA index - Instruments and imaging section. (Some members have the journal-pls ask)
NASA Eclipse home page - For planning you next eclipse trip
QCUIAG - Quick Cam and unconventional imaging group
SEDS Messier database - Index of all the Messier objects with images and data
SOHO - The NASA homepage of the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory
Spaceweather.com - An excellent site worth checking out
Taki's Star Atlas - Printable Observing tool

 

Equipment Suppliers:

Astro buy and sell - UK Second user equipment

UK Manufactures (Custom):

Alexanders Observatories - Supplier of roll-off observatories
Astroparts - manufacturer of adapters, threads, rings, counterweights etc
David Lukehust - Telescope Maker e.g. dobsonians
Epsilon - Astronomical accesories and custom parts
Orion Optics - Low to mid range telescopes based in Crewe
Rays Rings - Astronomical parts and one-off accessories
Starlight Xpress - CCD cameras
Switched Systems Ltd - focusers etc

Suppliers
Ace Astronomical - Cameras, binoculars and telescopes
Altairastro - SkyShed Pod Observatories, Kendrick and more.
Astronomik - CCD and visual filters,
Astronomiser - Connectors, cable and CCD cameras
(BC&F)AstroEngineering - All sorts of parts. See Telescope House
Coronado - Solar filters and solar telescopes
David Hinds - Main Celestron dealer at Tring in Herts.
Evergreen Optics - Konus dealer
Galaxy Products - Imagers, motor drives, laser pointers etc
Green Witch - Telescopes, binoculars, courses.
Ian King Imaging - Online shop for astro imaging equipment and courses
Losmandy Mounts - from Venturescopes.
MC2 Telescope Shop - Dealer in Frome, telescopes, binoculars, accessories etc
Meade - The dealer finder page for Meade UK
Modern Astronomy - Telescopes, mounts and accessories, video.
Opticstar - FLI, SAC Yankee Robotics CCDs
Oldham Optical UK - Mirrors and optical components.
Orion Optics - Low to mid range telescopes based in Crewe
OVL Optical Vision Ltd - Importers web site for Sky Watcher, TAL, Intes etc.
Phil Dyer Astrophoto - Telescopes, cameras and video
Pulsar Optical- Domes and more
QHYccd cameras - UK supplier is Modern Astronomy.
Rother Valley Optics - Telescopes, binoculars, accessories and more
Scopes'n'Skies - Antares telescopes and eyepieces, night vision.
SCS Astro - Online store of major brands
South West Optics - Online store of binoculars, telescopes etc
Starlight Xpress - CCD cameras
Strathspey - Supplier of binoculars
Telescope House - Telescope dealer now based in Tunbridge Wells, Ken
TelescopePLANET - TAL, Celestron, Meade, Skywather etc
Telescope Service - motorised focusers, mounting plates, accesories
True Technology Ltd - Interesting astro items and technical information
Venturescope - Telescope dealer based in Hampshire
Widescreen Center - Telescopes-direct have a range of products

Imaging and Image processing

Astrophotogallery.org A growing image collecton - varied equipment (added 13-11-07)
Canon EOS 350-D reviewed (added 12-11-07)
Canon by M.Covington - Useful starters page to DSLR imaging
Coma Correction - Using a Baader MPCC
Dave's Astro - Tutorial for Deep Sky Image Processing
DSI imager - Meade Imagers and users' image gallery.

LRGB imaging - By Robert Gendler in S&T 2001
Photo Shop Tutorial - Rick's astropics blogspot archive
Photo Shop Tutorial - Waid Observatory articles
Practical Hints - A useful starting place

Object search and retrieval
Digital Sky Survey - Download areas of the sky
Minor planet and NEO ephemerides from Havard
Super Nova Checker - SNChecker searches for asteroids near galaxies
Distances to 1200 galaxies and links to the NASA Extragalactic Database (NED)
NASA Extragalactic Database Data on galaxies.

Practical Stuff
Autoguiding and tracking - Helpful introduction
Astronomical Filter Transmission Curves - a comparison
Focal reduction - A method of calculation on line
O-III filters compared - transmission line specra.

Collimation, Basics - Sky & scope - How to collimate a Newtonian by Nils O Carlin
Collimation, A Treatise - Features the CatsEye collimator by Scott McCluney
Collimation, AndyShotglass - Good explantion with movie (best with Broadband)
Collimation, Adventures in - Bryan Greer
Collimation, Barlowed laser - A useful method for Newtonians (pdf)
Collimation, Laser collimation - Howie Glatters Page
Collimation, Myths - A collection of missunderstandings
Collimation, Schmidt-Newtonian - Diagram of a home made collimation tool
Collimation, The - An overview with diagrams

Telescope Optics - a nice summary with useful diagrams. (added 11/01/08)

The Antoniadi Scale - Judge the quality of atmospheric seeing on a I to V scale
The Pickering Scale - Precise method based on star images - with animation

Software selection and telescope control
Astronomy Sofware Links - Free software in additon to this list.
Midnightkite - a long list of software, free and commercial (added 13-11-07)

ASCOM-standards - Interface for telescope control.
AstroArt - MSB software for image processing and CCD control (commercial)
Bitmap-2-Avi - bmp2avi converstion utility
Cartes du Ciel - CDC Celestial atlas
CCD calculator - Wadaski's on-line software from Adirondack

EQMOD documenation project - for EQ6 mount users opting for direct (EQDIR) contol from the PC, and not the Hand Contoller. More info from the Yahoo! group.

GuideDog - Auto guiding software from barkosoftware
GuideStar LX200- Emulator for non LX200 mounts
K3CCD Tools - Now a mature product (commercial)
Nexstar Observers List - Observing aid with telescope control. Useful for non Celestron users also
PHD guiding - From Stark Labs, easy auto-guiding interface
Project Pluto - Guide (commercial)
Project Pluto Manual- HTML guide
RegiStax - Now version 4
SkyMap - Software and catalogues (commercial)
Software Bisque - The Sky and other products (commercial)

Video and Web cameras
WATEC 120N comparison - The ultimate low light cameras compared
StellaCam II images - Examples of what can be done with integrating video
Steve Chambers - Modified web cams for long exposure
ToUcam Pro - Philips USB specifications for the best known web cam
ToUcam Pro - More spec here

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Astro Camps and Holidays
cedepa , COAA, Equinox, Fieldview, Kielder, Madog's Wells,

Local Societies
Aylesbury, Basingstoke, Herschel, Newbury, Reading, Wycombe

Maidenhead Links
Maidenhead.net

Braywick Nature Centre
Maidenhead Heritage Centre - the home of Maidenhead History
Sheargold - The Specialist Music Company.

Yahoo Technical / disscusionGroups

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/astro_narrowband/ Narrow Band Imaging