It’s been a busy week sales wise, with Amazon deciding to do a 2 day Prime event, and then every major retailer not wanting to be left behind doing the same.
We do have some special deals running though past Amazon’s Prime sale, so this week I’ll be talking about the ones that I like.
I’ll also be taking you down this week down a very scary rabbit hole in photography, so my apologies if this costs some of you an incredible amount of time and effort, but if you do go down this bunny trail, we all want to see the photos.
Just before we get started, we hope that all our readers are safe and sound, especially after hurricane Milton and Helene. Be careful out there.
Celestron EdgeHD CGE 8" f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope
You want to go big in deep sky photography and have fairly good dark skies with low light pollution? Then this is really for you. Celestron is one of the big names in astrophotography for us amateur astrophotographers.
I have always wanted a good Schmidt-Cassegrain, but since I now travel around south east Asia quite a bit, this is very impractical. Though, I may convince Craig that we need a remotely operated observatory somewhere in Thailand one day.
This is a beginner telescope, and is bare bones and you add to it. You get a very decent mount with the Advanced VX mount, which is nicely computerized, and can simply slew the telescope to view various nebulas, clusters and whatnot. The mount itself has a payload weight of around 30 pounds which makes it a beginner mount as well but with the telescope tube only weighing 14lbs, it’s around the comfortable weight to payload ratio to take photos (around 2:1).
Celestron Edge HD optics are made to minimize the aberrations across the entire field of view. So excellent for deep sky photography – especially because there’s a built-in field flatner which is mandatory for photography.
If some of you want more basic information on this, I’ll write up another article, but this is a great deal for a good place to start. Let me know if that’s something you’d like to see here.
B&H Photovideo right now has a ton of accessories for your telescope system on sale right now. So it’s a good time to stock up as well.
Celestron EdgeHD CGE 8" f/10
Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope and Mount-
8" (203mm) Schmidt-Cassegrain
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2032mm Focal Length, f/10 Focal Ratio
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Motorized Computer-Controlled EQ Mount
If you know what you are doing, and already have a system, and want to upgrade to a Edge HD 8″ telescope, the bare OTA is also on sale. Some of you will be thinking, wow, a $1000 for a tripod. Yes, that’s an inexpensive mount price.
Telescope mounts are far more advanced and precise than our regular camera tripods. They have to be, you need it to be vibration free with the telescope moving to follow the object as the earth turns, with a 2000mm lens attached. The motors and gears have to be accurate enough to slowly move a 30lb payload precise enough that when photographing, you still have pinpoint stars for exposure times measured in the minutes.
This all requires precision engineering. It gets far more expensive as you increase the payload weight (for larger telescope assemblies, etc).
I did say this was a rabbit hole.
Celestron EdgeHD CGE 8" f/10
Aplanatic Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope (OTA Only)-
8" (203mm) Schmidt-Cassegrain
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2032mm Focal Length, f/10 Focal Ratio
Flashpoint eVOLV 200 TTL Pocket Flash Dual Head Pro Kit
This kit includes everything. I swear there must be a kitchen sink somewhere listed in the accessories you get in this kit.
You get two 200 TTL flashes and the ability to mix and match a variety of light modifiers all included.
I think if you haven’t done much in the way of flash photography, this would be an excellent starting kit and good for experimentation with color filters, barndoors and grids to see how the light behaves and how you can get different looks in your images.
It also includes an adapter that allows you to use Bowens mount light modifiers as well. Like I said, it has everything.
Flashpoint eVOLV 200 TTL Pocket Flash Dual Head Kit
Includes .. everything.-
Two eVOLV 200 TTL Pocket Flashes
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Includes a ton of different light modifiers
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Includes Bowens Mount adapter
Calibrite ColorChecker Passport Photo 2
Having accurate color is a good thing – and having consistently accurate color is a necessity for professionals.
This allows you to calibrate your input so that the colors are accurate and also consistent. It also includes a lightroom plugin just to make the entire task much easier and straightforward.
Features;
- Achieve Proper Exposure & Color Balance
- 18% Middle Gray Target
- ColorChecker Classic 24-Patch Target
- White Balance Target
- Creative Enhancement Target
- Hard, Protective Pocket-Sized Case
- Integrated Stand and Included Lanyard
- Camera Calibration v1.2 Software
- Supports DNG and ICC Profiling
- Adobe Lightroom Plug-In Available
Calibrite ColorChecker Passport Photo 2
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ColorChecker Classic 24-Patch Target
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18% Middle Gray Target
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Adobe Lightroom Plug-In Available
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