binocular

Take in the Entire Show

August 11, 2021

For the second year in a row, the night of the Perseids meteor shower peak will not be the night of my departure for the BirdFair in England. As it was in 2020, the BirdFair is again cancelled due to CoVid-19 for 2021. Consequently, I have the opportunity once again to view what is historically the most visually striking meteor shower of the calendar year.

However this year for my meteor viewing, there will be two important differences from 2020. First, and most importantly, the skies above my northwest Oregon home will be clear (last year it was cloudy). Second, I have recently acquired a very interesting new binocular that I think will be ideal for the purpose: the Vixen SG 2.1x42mm.

Beginning to Look Up

June 25, 2020

As one who added the study of astronomy to my natural philosophy repertoire rather late in life, I found it a bit challenging to get the gist of just what I was looking at whenever I cast my eyes skyward (and if I’m honest, I very often still do). Not that there aren’t a number […]

The 2017 North American Solar Eclipse

July 21, 2017

On the day this article is published, it will be exactly one month until the day of the 2017 North American Solar Eclipse; an event that is expected to cause tens of millions of people to stop what they are doing and turn their eyes (properly protected, it is hoped) skyward to witness one of […]

Stargazing with Binoculars (Fourth Edition)

May 5, 2015

Despite years with Leupold developing sports optics for bird watching and other terrestrial pursuits, prior to my taking over the product portfolio of binoculars and spotting scopes for Celestron, it never occurred to me that anyone would use binoculars in astronomy. Yet there they were; massive Porro prism models with enormous objective lenses and magnification levels far beyond what could be steadily held merely by hand.