Pack-up Brunton Camping supplies for a weekend of fresh air and nature

May 30 • News • 3451

The summer weather is upon us. Flowers are blooming, the trees gave way to all the green leaves, the grass is vivid green, and the bright sun brings days of warmth and happiness. All this beauty outside makes you wish you can drop all the stress in your life and take a weekend off in a beautiful forest preserve or along the shore of a lake, river, or ocean. In order to get the best experience out of a camping trip you’ll need good-quality equipment that won’t let you down and will help you enjoy yourself to the maximum.

You’ll be relieved to know that we have taken the step in finding the great quality camping gear, Brunton‘s high-end, high-tech family camping equipment. Check out the world’s brightest camping lanterns, cooking tools and utensils, camping stoves like the burner stove, camping cookware, Wind River Range, grills, and much more!

Please, visit our Brunton Camping Supplies page soon for the full product line.

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Magnification in astronomy

May 28 • News • 3731

The idea that you can make deep-sky (faint objects) more visible by increasing magnification (and decreasing exit pupil) has been circulating for sometime. The idea is that increasing magnification will darken the sky background, thereby making faint objects stand out more. How much truth is there to this notion?

In my experience, it does work – sometimes. In other words, it is like many other observing techniques. It works, but not all of the time. There are simply too many variables in observing for a one-size fits all approach.

I’ve had my best luck with this when observing with large telescopes. Large apertures give you more light to work with and using a telescope gives you access to many different magnification and eyepiece options. Typically, I’ve found there will be one combination of magnification and telescope aperture that gives the “best” contrast between the sky background and the object and that, true to form, this is sometimes at surprisingly high magnifications. Of course, this is sometimes at lower magnifications, too. It depends on so many things – the type of object, it’s magnitude, your telescope, your eyepieces, your skill as an observer and, perhaps most importantly, observing conditions. We all know those change night by night and even hour by hour. Then, too, what constitutes “best” in terms of contrast is largely subjective. It’s as much your call as much as it is the next observer’s.

Tomorrow, I will look at this notion of increasing magnification to darken sky background and apply it to binoculars.

Joanie

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Meade mySKY GPS System- a Sky Tracking GPS & your personal Space Tour Guide

May 25 • News • 4040

Lately, there have been a lot of buzz around the office. We have finally got our hands on the new Meade mySKY Space Exploration Guide Device and let me tell you, many, many have been eager to try one of these out. Why not? If we’re going to be selling one of the new gps sky guides, a relatively new idea, why not get a taste and feel of what these are made of. Our product specialists couldn’t wait to take the mySKY GPS Device home and put them through all kinds of tests: from our jaded astronomers to our grizzled personal firearms expert. After hours of tests on various constellations, stars, and planets, our astronomy guru concluded:

As far as additional information on objects, the MySky is definitely a winner. It could keep you entertained for hours with all the excellent additional information on objects and astronomy in general. The MySky definitely gets the nod here.

After a night of testing under a stormy sky, our firearms specialist derived that:

It’s [Meade mySKY GPS Device] so easy to use, anyone can do it, even a techno-challenged person like me. I’ve always wanted to know what a few of the regular night lights were, either stars or planets. With the descriptions given to me by My Sky, now I’ll know.

Of course, we wanted some feedback from let’s say the ‘average consumer’ and gave other employees a chance to test this item. The end result? They are all thrilled and even wanted another night under the stars with the mySKY. Meade my SKY not only appeals to astronomy enthusiasts but the general public as well. In addition to being a great educational tool, Meade Sky Exploration Guide definetely deserves a place under your recreational activities. As one of our marketing analysts said, “It is one of the most unique date ideas that you just can’t wait to repeat over and over again!”

Preorder your Meade mySKY today and in no-time you will know the celestial charts better than the back of your hand.

To read a full review written by our firearms expert please visit the following page.

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