New Gear at the Northeast Astronomy Forum

Once again it’s April, and with that comes Sky & Telescope’s annual pilgrimage to Suffern, New York, to attend the Northeast Astronomy Forum & Space Expo — a show where enthusiasts can see some of the latest and greatest astronomy equipment. The theme this year seemed to be “smart telescopes” — integrated systems that automatically align themselves and take images that are sent to a smartphone or tablet. Many vendors had some form of smartscope, with some new names making their debut.

While tariffs were very much on everyone's mind, several manufacturers noted that product imported before tariffs were imposed are not subject to these additional costs, and some have been stocking up since the new year. So it's a good time to purchase before they begin to affect the astronomy marketplace.

Several smartscope manufacturers were in attendance, including Dwarf Lab, Vanois, and ZWO, each showing off new models of smartscopes. Vanois showed off its Vespera II as well as its Hestia device. Dwarf Lab displayed its Dwarf 3 that features larger lenses and detectors than its Dwarf II model. And ZWO unveiled a Seestar S30 Pro model that includes an 8-megapixel sensor. (By the way, did you know all Seestars can now operate in equatorial mode?)

Newcomer Spectrum Optical Instruments made a big splash with its Mirrosky modular smartscopes, including the first smartscope capable of visual and planetary observations. The series includes tabletop models all the way to large, strain-wave-driven mounts. Each component of the Mirrosky series are upgradable, from the camera to the telescope or finder used for pointing and plate solving, to the Go To mount it rides on.

Sadly, clouds and rain kept solar telescopes from vendors Daystar Filters and Lunt Solar Systems indoors. In the same category, Sky-Watcher unveiled its first dedicated chromosphere system, the Heliostar 76Ha telescope, which boasts a 0.5-angstrom bandpass. The company also brought along a larger 100-mm prototype. Another eye-catcher in their booth was a neat little 5-inch astrograph, the Honders Advanced Catadioptric, or HAC125DX Minigraph, that boasts a fast f/2 focal ratio and pairs well with small detectors.

Of course, many long-established manufacturers were also in attendance and showing off tantalizing new gear. Celestron’s full booth included its full line of Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt-Astrographs, with the newest addition of the 6-inch model from the Origin smartscope now available as an optical tube assembly (OTA) only.

Astro-Physics celebrated its 50th anniversary by donning 1970’s attire and unveiling several new products, including 155- and 190-mm “Christen Superachromats” as well as a new 1150GTO mount. Can you dig it?

 Across the aisle, Stellarvue had several of their triplet APO refractors on hand. Also of note was the Rowan AZ100 mount, designed to carry large refractors with ease.

Mount manufacturer iOptron had several new strain-wave and hybrid models on display, including the HAE16 I reviewed in Sky & Telescope’s June issue. Most interesting was its large fork mount, the HAZ130 Dual SWG Altazimuth mount, capable of bearing a payload of 160 pounds. It also demonstrated its iAFS robotic focusers and a new filter wheel. The company is also expanding its telescope line to include large Ritchey-Chrétien OTAs of up to 20-inches. Sharing the same booth was ToupTek, a Chinese gear manufacturer that demonstrated its app-controlled computer as well as several scopes and imaging cameras.

PlaneWave Instruments had a fleet of robotic mounts and huge CDK telescopes on hand as well as a tow-able observatory (they may have won the unofficial largest aperture of show category). The guys at Software Bisque had a sample of their Paramount Series 6 GEMs. Our friends at Explore Scientific had several giant binocular models on display, all the way up to a 150-mm pair that turned a lot of heads. While visiting their booth, I marveled at the new iEXOS-200, which breaks into multiple parts for easy transport and setup. I noticed some Unistellar smartscopes at the ES booth, too.

Speaking of binoculars, it was hard to miss the huge range of models offered by Oberwerk that accept 1.25-inch eyepieces. many were riding atop elegant, wood-legged tripods.

PegasusAstro was also on hand with its SmartEye electronic eyepiece device that’s just about ready to ship to customers. They also displayed two strain-wave mounts and several accessories for astro-imagers. Starpoint Australis drew a lot of attention with its large tent-style observatories — look for a review of these in an upcoming issue of the magazine.

Tele Vue unveiled its new Nagler Type 7 eyepieces at the show and once again sold “blemished” eyepieces at steep discounts. Vernonscope was also on hand with their Brandon eyepieces, premium Barlows, and mirror diagonals.

Finger Lakes Instrumentation was back this year (in more ways than one) with its new Aurora and Kepler lines of cooled CMOS cameras as well as their large-format filter wheels. QHYCCD was also on hand with several new products, including the Minicam8 with a custom filter wheel and a variety of filters, and a imaging control system called the QHY Quarc.

Kinghtware demonstrated its latest version of its observing/imaging planning software, Deep-Sky Planner 9. Lunatico Astronomia was also on hand showing its many observatory control products and weather sensors. They also unveiled the Lanternfish sky-quality meter.

Some additional products that caught our eye were StarPX, an image-processing software that automatically processes your data, and Michael Dempster’s Galactic Context Models, which show Earth’s position in the Milky Way in a simple and elegant way (an excellent classroom tool).

Another startup that grabbed my attention was Astro Labs-USA who demonstrated a lightweight 12.5-inch f/4 Travel Truss Dobsonian that was loaded with clever, weight-saving features.

There were several vendors including Woodland Hills Camera & Telescope and Camera Concepts & Telescope Solutions, as well as Baader Planetarium, each with a host of scopes, filters, mounts, and most anything else you might need to advance your hobby.

More than Gear

Last weekend's forum also included a series of workshops and lectures by renowned speakers, such as astrophysicist Sara Seager (MIT) as well as NASA astronauts Eileen Collins and Hoot Gibson. Additionally, the Astronomical League presented Tele Vue founder Al Nagler with a Lifetime Achievement Award on Saturday. In events for children, NEAF this year featured the opportunity to meet astronauts Collins and Gibson.

Back at the S&T booth, we had a great time meeting attendees and encouraging them to check out our magazine. Our newest Editor in Chief, Diana Hannikainen, was on hand to listen to suggestions from our readers and share our passion for the night sky. “As always, there are so many highlights at NEAF, but I’ll try and narrow it down to a few,” says Hannikainen. “The main draw for me is seeing so many people from different walks in life all gathered together to celebrate astronomy.” Hannikainen enjoyed wandering from booth to booth, chatting to the equipment manufacturers and learning about new gear.

There were also booth duties to attend to, and the S&T staff present all took turns chatting to people who stopped by. “It’s always so inspiring to listen to people’s stories — I particularly love hearing our long-time subscribers let us know how long they’ve been loyal to us,” Hannikainen enthuses. “It’s amazing to think that some of our readers have been faithful to the magazine for more than half a century — and so many of them are so proud to let us know that they still have every single issue!” She also notes that it’s equally thrilling to talk to people who don’t know about the magazine and everything associated with it, such as books and tours. “Like this, we can introduce newcomers to astronomy as to how they can explore different ways of learning about the universe — that, too, is so much fun!”

Sky & Telescope would like to congratulate all the good folks in the Rockland Astronomy Club and all the volunteers who did a fabulous job of organizing and running NEAF. Organizing an event of this size involves an enormous amount of work, and we are proud to be a continuing sponsor.