Build Telescopes

Looking for a cheap addition to your KGB-esque arsenal of spyware? Here's a hack using a webcam and a telephoto lens to record some far out sights. Build a $40 USB spy telescope.

There seems to be a renewed interest of late in the great beyond that is space. After the Red Bull Space Jump and the retirement of space shuttle Endeavor, space is kind of cool again. The easiest way to get in on the astronomy action at home is to check out the starry skies ...more

I recently bought a new telescope and thought I would share a few images that I have taken with it. I am very new to astrophotography, but I hope to be able to post up some more images in the near future. Moon (at slightly gibbous phase): Crop of the Moon from the image abov ...more

This article will show you how to make a proportionally correct 1/187 (about) size Hubble Space Telescope. I tried to add as many details as possible, but it was hard at such a small size. It was really easy, but it did take a while to make. Here are some specs for the real H ...more

There is going to be an annular solar eclipse on May 20th that will be visible in a narrow pathway that covers part of Eastern Asia and the Western United States. The eclipse will be seen as a partial eclipse over a much greater region of the World. I live in Redding, Californ ...more

Mind blowing cosmos art, seen through the lens of the Hubble telescope. Click through to Discovery News for more information behind these beautiful images. Previously, 2009's Most Amazing Scientific Images. 2009's Wackiest Inventions. 2009's Craziest Adrenaline Junkies.

This is actually a forum page, but they're discussing making you own finder scopes and medium power telescopes. There's a lot of information here.

Apparently a little amateur astronomy can go a long way. On March 21, 2009, Ralf Vandebergh, sitting in his backyard, pointed his 10 inch telescope at the sky and "saw a few bright pixels appear precisely where the work was going on at exactly the moment it was being conducted ...more

DVice posts six of the world's most powerful telescopes and, man, they are HUGE. Check it out. The Keck I and Keck II "Built in 1993 atop the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii at an altitude of nearly 13,600 feet, the W. M. Keck Observatory pioneered the use of robotic assistanc ...more

The team at NASA is in full mission preparation mode as they prepare to send a new team to the moon for the first time in decades via the Artemis program in 2024. But one of the key points of interest in that upcoming mission is the fact that NASA will also be sending the fir ...more

It's not actually a working telescope, but it is a cool model to show kids and Hubble image enthusiasts what the telescope actually looks like. Includes printable skins so the texture map looks like the actual satellite.

Before I really get into this article, it's important to note that you do not need a Steampunk persona (or "steamsona") in order to be a Steampunk, or wear Steampunk clothes. Some people like to pretend to be a different person when dressed up in Steampunk clothing, but that i ...more

The GoPole, a telescoping extension pole designed specifically for GoPro cameras, allows you to capture unique and up-close 180 degree POV shots of your most awesome adventures. This tool is especially great for extreme sports like skateboarding, skydiving, surfing and snowboa ...more

In my opinion, Isaac Newton is definitely the number two astronomer, right below Galileo Galilei. His discoveries were very important to uncovering the secrets of space, and he deserves to be remembered. Isaac Newton (January 4, 1643 – March 31, 1727) Isaac Newton was born t ...more

Just a couple Saturday's ago, we were blessed with the Supermoon, where the moon was at perigee with our planet, creating a larger than usual Moon for us here on Earth. Now, we've got another spectacular show in the skies coming up, only this one isn't at night. There will be ...more

WonderHowTo is a how-to website made up of niche communities called Worlds, with topics ranging from Minecraft to science experiments to Scrabble and everything in-between. Check in every Wednesday evening for a roundup of user-run activities and how-to projects from the most ...more

We've all seen the breathtaking, colorful photos of the Eagle, Egg and Cat's Eye Nebulae. You may not recognize them by name, but you've seen them, whether in astronomy textbooks, magazines, websites, album covers, or tee shirts. They are some of the most striking photographs ...more

It's truly amazing how far smartphone camera hardware has come in such a short period of time. It took roughly 5 years to advance the image processing capabilities from a pixelated mess to the crisp and clear photos we can take today. This reaches well beyond the megapixel spe ...more

As discussed earlier, there are many ways to view the upcoming solar eclipse, whether it be with actual eclipse glasses, welder's lenses, eclipse-approved filters, or a solar telescope. If you can't get your hands on any of those, the safest way to view the solar eclipse this ...more

Get ready to look up in the night sky very soon, because you're in for a real treat. There will be a total lunar eclipse on the night of Monday, April 14th, and folks living in the United States, Canada, and parts of Central and South America will be able to see the moon turn ...more

WonderHowTo is a how-to website made up of niche communities called Worlds, with topics ranging from Minecraft to science experiments to Scrabble and everything in-between. Check in every Wednesday evening for a roundup of user-run activities and how-to projects from the most ...more

Last night was the so called "Supermoon," where the moon was at perigee, which is the closest orbital point to the Earth while the moon was in full phase. This makes the moon appear larger by up to about 14% and brighter by up to around 30%. I went out and used my 5-inch refra ...more

Vintage Projects offers 100+ free plans for building all sorts of fun DIY projects spanning musical instruments, archery, boats, motorbikes, go carts, science experiments, telescopes, tractors, radios, and more. Instructions include a homemade paddle boat (more like a bicycle ...more

Video game controllers are our windows into the soul of the machine, our sole means of interacting with them. More often than not, consumers seem displeased by their controllers; it's comforting to blame sticky, poorly laid out buttons for messing up your game than your own la ...more

Since the Geminid Meteor shower is intensifying more every year, grab your binoculars and lay down in a field to enjoy the show! If you are going to observe one day, do it on the peak: December 14th. The shower is caused by Palladian asteroid 3200 Phaethon. This, along with t ...more

For newbies to astronomy, expensive equipment is an understandable deterrent. But with some thorough Google searching, you can find plenty of How-To's for making your own tools for less. Below are a few sites with several cool projects to offer. Sky & Telescope Sky & Telesco ...more

Some of these look like illustrations done by adolescent sci-fi/anime nerds. Totally unreal. A selection from National Geographic's best space pictures of 2010: An airplane is silhouetted against the first solar eclipse of the decade, seen over Bangkok, Thailand, in January.. ...more

Artist Pery Burge uses water, paint and ink to create images that look like they might have been captured by the Hubble Telescope or under the super-zoom of a powerful microscope. "I use a Canon EOS 500D digital camera with EF100mm F2.8 macro lens and Speedlite 420EX flash, a ...more

NASA just released this beautiful image of what's leftover from a supernova explosion. The red cloud is expanding cosmic debris, the blue is a blast wave of electrons, and the stripes at the edge tell of a high energy burst of x-rays that may be bound for earth. This image was ...more

WonderHowTo is a how-to website made up of niche communities called Worlds, with topics ranging from Minecraft to science experiments to Scrabble and everything in-between. Check in every Wednesday evening for a roundup of user-run activities and how-to projects from the most ...more

WonderHowTo is made up of niche communities called Worlds. If you've yet to join one (or create your own), get a taste below of what's going on in the community. Check in every Wednesday for a roundup of new activities and projects. Thanks to all of our moderators and contrib ...more

I'm starting a series on the top astronomers, with probably about eleven astronomers that I will be covering overall. So, let's start out from the top, with the top most important astronomer. In my opinion, Galileo Galilei is the top astronomer. Galileo Galilei (February 15, ...more