Telescope Buying Guide For Campers (Part 7)

Telescope
Celestron SkySync GPS

GPS for Your Telescope?

Many years ago, back before I had a cell phone with a GPS chip, I bought a dedicated GPS unit for my telescope. Even though I can use my cell phone to enter the time, latitude and longitude into the hand controller of my scope, I continue to use the Celestron GPS unit only with this particular mount and only when I am visually observing.

When I am taking pictures the mount is connected to a computer and it is easier to just enter the coordinates into the computer. I have two other telescope mounts that I only use for taking pictures. I don’t use a GPS unit with them either.

So the bottom line is you don’t need one. For somethings it is a “nice to have” item. For what it costs there is probably some other piece of equipment that would provide more value for the money, such as an eyepiece, a filter or a Bahtinov Focusing Mask, such as the one I bought for my Celestron 8″ telescope.


Farpoint Bahtinov Mask for the Celestron 8" SCT with Hyperstar / Fastar ready system. Simple to fit, easy to use lifesaving focus tool, end your focus struggles. Bahtinov focus masks make focusing for astrophotography fast and easy. Ends the pain of ...
Farpoint Bahtinov Mask, FP410H – fits Celestron 8″ SCT with Hyperstar/Fastar. | Fast Easy focus for your astrophotos a lifesaving tool for focusing your astro camera or dslr.

Now retrieving the rating.

Available for Amazon Prime $24.99 (as of February 22, 2025 06:14 GMT -08:00 – More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)

Farpoint Bahtinov Mask for the Celestron 8" SCT with Hyperstar / Fastar ready system. Simple to fit, easy to use lifesaving focus tool, end your focus… read more

In this post I’ll discuss how this doohickey works. Continue reading Telescope Buying Guide For Campers (Part 7) →

Seventy

Hiking,

Some Thoughts on Aging and Petroglyphs

Last Sunday I turned 70 years old.

My son, Joe, called the day before and suggested we go for a hike together, which was an excellent idea. No better way to celebrate any milestone of holiday than going for a walk out into the desert.

Joyce’s ankle is healing. Although she can’t walk on it, she has a scooter and a wheeled walker enabling her to get around without any assistance. So no problem for me to take off from home for a day. Continue reading Seventy →

Telescope Buying Guide For Campers (Part 6)

Telescope
A “red-dot” finder scope is mounted on the top of the telescope towards the rear.

 

Finder Scopes

The higher the magnification a telescope has the more difficult it is to locate objects in the sky.

To overcome this, a finder scope is often mounted on the telescope to make it easier to locate objects. A finder scope has low magnification and a field of view much wider than a telescope. Finder scopes make it easier to locate objects, and are useful when aligning the scope to the night sky and are especially useful with computerized “go-to” telescopes.

What follows is a brief explanation of finder scopes and what I use. Continue reading Telescope Buying Guide For Campers (Part 6) →