Steve Richards

Astronomer and author

Steve Richards is a DIY astronomy expert and author of Making Every Photon Count: A Beginner’s Guide to Deep Sky Astrophotography.

Recent articles by Steve Richards

Double Star Albireo. Credit: BBC Sky at Night Magazine

Best telescopes for viewing double stars

Star-Hop Maker astronomy software review

£21 Price correct at time of review

Celestron 2-inch diagonal

A guide to star diagonals

Finderscopes

Astronomy explained Finderscopes

A selection of Barlow lenses

Astronomy FAQs What is a Barlow lens?

Make a telescope mount counterbalance system

DIY Astronomy Make a counterbalance system

A selection of some of the deep-sky objects from the Caldwell Catalogue. Clockwise from top left: NGC 891, The Fireworks Galaxy, NGC 7662, The Owl Cluster, The Flaming Star Nebula, NGC 2403. Credit: Manfred Wasshuber, Michael Breite, Stefan Heutz, Wolfgang Ries, Michael Caller / CCDGuide.com

Observing guide Caldwell Catalogue: an astronomy tour of the night sky.

Attaching two scopes to a side-by-side bar is more stable than simply piggybacking them.

How to set up a dual astrophotography imaging system

Vixen A62SS 2.5-inch achromatic refractor review

Vixen A62SS 2.5-inch achromatic refractor review

£429 Price correct at time of review

Altair Starwave ASCENT 102ED F7 refractor

Astronomy FAQs What are dovetail bars?

A typical example of vignetting, taken through a 3-inch refractor Credit: Steve Richards

Astronomy FAQs What is vignetting?

Bahtinov mask. Credit: Axleottal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahtinov_mask)

Astronomy FAQs What is a Bahtinov mask?

Meade LightBridge Mini 130 Dobsonian. Credit: BBC Sky at Night Magazine

Astronomy FAQs What would be the best bag for transporting my table-top telescope?

Celestron Advanced VX 700 Maksutov-Cassegrain

Astronomy FAQs Why does my telescope need a counterweight?

Sky-Watcher Star Discovery 150P full header

Astronomy FAQs Flexibility problems give me trouble polar aligning my mount. What can I do?