The year of the Comets!Complete sets of comet-watching equipment
|
 |
Omegon Hunter 12x56 binoculars and Omegon Titania 600 aluminium tripod set
The comets are coming and you want to be ready, but you don’t want to buy a telescope just yet? Then opt for a binoculars set. You can ‘waylay’ the comets with a pair of Omegon Hunter 12x56 binoculars on a steady Titania 600 tripod.
These binoculars are very portable and are perfect for getting a closer at comets. The tail in particular can be seen very well in a pair of binoculars. Binoculars have always been popular as ‘comet spotters‘. As its name suggest, you can take Omegon Hunters hunting and ‘bag’ Panstarrs and ISON with them.
   |
Featured products:
- Binoculars Omegon Hunter 12x56
- Tripod set Omegon Titania 600
- Adapter Tripod Omegon
Omegon NightStar 20x80 binoculars and Omegon Titania 600 aluminium tripod set
Omegon 20x80s are large binoculars - they collect a lot of light, allowing you to see faint detail in the night sky. NightStar 20x80s weigh just 2kg, despite their size, and are very portable. With twin 80mm apertures each lens is the size of a small telescope, allowing you to see a lot of detail and structure in the tails of comets. The predictions for Panstarrs are for a very long tail. These binoculars also have a wide 3.5° field of view; and only a pair of binoculars will let you see most of the tail in one go.
 |
Featured products:
- Binocular Omegon Hunter 20x80
- Tipod set aluminium Omegon Titania 600
Omegon NightStar 25x100 binoculars with case
Omegon NightStar 25x100s provide maximum light power, so you can see much more even than comet Panstarrs and ISON! You can spot even faint comets with this aperture, and even experienced comet hunters use large binoculars of this type. The NightStars sit solidly on a Titania 800 tripod with Triton PH36 tripod head, and are ready for hours of comet observing.
   |
Featured products :
- Binocular Omegon Nightstar 25x100 with case
- Tripod Omegon Titania 800
- Tripod Triton PH36
Lumicon Swan 1.25" and 2" comet filters
Lumicon Swan comet filters can simply be screwed into the eyepiece, to let you observe comets more clearly. The Lumicon Swan is a narrowband filter with a 25nm bandpass. The OIII and cyan lines are allowed through while other wavelengths of the spectrum are blocked. The filter gives a huge boost in contrast when observing comet tails. A comet always consists of dust and gas molecules and these become visible as a blue gas tail and a white dust tail when a comet nears the Sun - as was the case with comet Hale-Bopp for example.
 |
Featured products:
- Comet filters Lumicon Swan 2"
- Comet filters Lumicon Swan 1,25"
Skywatcher ‘heritage’ N76/300 Dobsonian telescope
The Skywatcher ’heritage’ 76/300 is a small table-top Dobsonian telescope. Its 76mm aperture gathers 117 times more light than the naked eye. When you want to observe one of the naked-eye comets, then place the telescope on a table and simply point it at where comet ISON or Panstarrs is visible in the night sky. Once you have found it in the eyepiece, you can observe it and track it through the telescope. This is a great observing opportunity, until the comets finally disappear into the depths of the solar system.
iOptron SkyTracker astrophotography tracking unit
Is there something supremely portable, but still with all the equipment needed for astrophotography available? The SkyTracker from iOptron makes this possible! The SkyTracker is a tracking unit for your camera. You simply put the unit onto a normal photographic tripod and align it on North using the built-in polar finder to get precise equatorial alignment. A built-in motor then lets your camera track the ‘movement’ of the night sky, so you can use your own telephoto lenses to obtain precisely tracked comet photos.
  |
Featured products:
- Tracking unit iOptron SkyTracker, black
- Tracking unit iOptron SkyTracker, white
Skywatcher StarTravel AC102/500 BD telescope on AZ-3 mount plus Lumicon 1.25" comet filter
The Skywatcher 102/500 is a type of telescope that used to known as a ‘comet hunter’, and for a very good reason: its short focal length can survey a large area of the night sky all in one go. Comets’ comas are rather small, but their tails are often highly extended. The comet hunter sits on an AZ-3 altazimuth mount, the operation of which is simplicity itself! And if you want to observe more than the night sky, the Skywatcher 102/500 is also a great telescope for nature watching.
The Lumicon comet filter enhances contrast when observing comets, making the comet more obvious and easy to see.
 |
Featured products:
- Telescope Skywatcher AC 102/500 StarTravel BD AZ-3
- Comet Filter Lumicon
Skywatcher Skyliner N 200/1200 classic Dobsonian telescope plus Swan comet filter
Perhaps you have always been interested in the universe, and now - the ‘comet of the century’- has now really stimulated your enthusiasm for astronomy?
The Skywatcher 200/1200 Dobsonian lets you observe the comet in detail and observe the coma using higher magnifications. The comet can be seen at dusk. But the night has only just begun. You can also explore other objects using the telescope: the planets, nebulae and galaxies. You can see hundreds of objects with this telescope.
The Lumicon Swan comet filter can simply be screwed into the eyepiece to let you observe a comet more clearly. The filter gives a huge boost in contrast when observing a comet’s tail.
 |
Featured products:
- Telescope Skywatcher Dobson N 200/1200 Skyliner Classic DOB
- Comet Filter Lumicon Swan 2"
- Comet Filter Lumicon Swan 1,25"
Skywatcher EQ-2 mount and Skywatcher EQ-2 mount tracking motor
You can photograph the comets even on a tight budget. The comet will go, but your images will remain forever!
The Skywatcher EQ-2 is an equatorial mount which you can use for your camera plus 50mm lens. Coupled with the EQ-2 tracking motor it lets you take sharp images of the comet, even at longer exposures.
  |
Featured products:
- Mount Skywatcher EQ-2
- Tracking motor EQ-2
Skywatcher NEQ-3 mount and Skywatcher EQ-3 RA and DEC tracking motors set
The Skywatcher NEQ-3 is an equatorial mount which you can use for your camera plus telephoto lens. Coupled with the EQ-3 tracking motors it lets you take sharp images of the comet, even at longer exposures.
The comet will go, but your images will remain forever!
  |
Featured products:
- Mount Skywatcher NEQ-3
- Tracking Motor Skywatcher EQ-3-2 RA et DEC