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Artificial Star

Examining a star image slightly out of focus at high power through any telescope can be an eye-opening experience. The telescope’s collimation as well as the quality of its optics can be quickly ascertained. On many nights, however, the earth’s atmosphere can greatly hinder these subtle variations within an out of focus star pattern. That is why we highly recommend that you check out the AstroZap Artificial Star.

This exciting product can be simply mounted on a table, or attached to a standard photo tripod using the ¼ x 20 adaptor provided on the bottom of the unit. Keep in mind that when star testing the telescope for quality you will need to move this accessory sufficiently far away so that spherical aberration is not introduced. With that said, your view is still likely to be far more stable than that of a real star viewed through several miles of atmosphere!

Many useful tools are available to aid the backyard astronomer in fine-tuning the optics of their telescope, such as a Cheshire or Laser Collimator. This handy accessory can now be added to that growing list. Keep your telescope in tip top tune with an AstroZap Artificial Star today!