In memory of John Dobson

In my last blog I briefly mentioned Dobsonian telescopes in regards to the Orion US Skyquest XT8 Plus Dobsonian we were reviewing at the time. Little did I know that the inventor, John Dobson, would pass away on 15 January aged 98. John's enduring legacy will be the amazingly simple, yet functional, telescope he designed and a passion for sharing the wonders of the Universe with as wide an audience as possible. A fitting tribute to a fine man.

In this month’s reviews we take a look at the Atik 490EX CCD, the Vixen BT-ED70S-A binocular telescope and revisit PixInsight image processing software.

Binocular telescopes have an advantage over regular binoculars in that magnification can be varied using interchangeable lenses. Stephen Tonkin enjoyed exploring the Universe with them so much so I got the feeling he didn't want to return them!

Steve Richards battled with the weather to bring us his experience of Atik’s latest CCD camera, the 490EX. Well worth it when you see the image he took of the Pelican Nebula!

Finally, Pete Lawrence put the image processing package, PixInsight, through its paces in our Tried and Tested review. It is simply amazing what software can do today with all that hard won data. Although it’s often a steep learning curve, the end results justify the time it takes to get the most out of both your software and images.

Get your copy of the February issues of BBC Sky at Night Magazine today.