Sidereal Trading

04/09/2026

Oh, that new scope smell!

We were disappointed to see that Sky-Watcher had discontinued their Evostar 72ED. We thought it was an under-appreciated scope, and used it for astrophotography courses with a flattener and DSLR.

Well, hooray! This is the new version , called the Sky-Watcher 72EDX. The glass is the same, 420mm FL and 72 aperture. Upgraded to a dual speed R&P, nice smooth rotator, movable dovetail (the old one was quite inflexible).

I was just waxing lyrical bout the scope for tonight’s newsletter when one turned up at the front door!

02/09/2026

Sneak peek.

20/08/2026

A bit more arachnophobe warning here!

The whole focus-stacked macrophotography image is nearly all of the spider. To be honest, it's a bit terrifying, so we decided to just show the results for one of the spider's knees.

The test was to find the effect of adding a dome-shaped diffuser (https://siderealtrading.com.au/product/wemacro-dome-softbox-light-diffuser/) as against two simple undiffused flashes. The first image is the undiffused light. You can see the deep shadows and harsh highlights the flashes produce. These highlights are fully blown out, meaning you can't reprocess the image to save the information.

The second image is with the diffuser, so the light gets deeper into the knee without getting too shadowed. We were also able to process the image a little because the highlights were less intrusive.

To get this softer light, we previously had to use paper baffles, and reflect off scrunched up aluminium foil. It was a major PITA.

Given time, I'll write a bit more detail for this week's newsletter.

https://siderealtrading.com.au/product-category/macro-phototgraphy/wemacro/

19/08/2026

We’ve been testing a soft light dome diffuser. If you’re of an arachnophobic disposition, you might like to look away soon, but we’ll get the hard light first.

07/08/2026

Not enough time for a newsletter today, but here's a quick blog about out latest exercise: mixing brands in image trains.

https://siderealtrading.com.au/tutorials/using-a-mix-of-brands-in-a-colour-imaging-train-not-as-simple-as-youd-think/

22/07/2026

There aren't many products that we aren't able to sell in Australia, but the new Move Shoot Move Nomad Harmonic 1 is one. It looks really nice, but unfortunately it comes with an in-built 5mW green laser. As yet, there's no laser-free version available (despite quite a lot of chat on the MSM pages).

A harmonic camera tracker is great, because it can be lighter for its carrying capacity, and won't need a counterweight. They're all about portability, you see. If you are after one, have a look at the iOptron HST. It's a little smaller and lighter than the MSM, but can still carry 4kg of gear. You'll also need a wedge and polar alignment gear.

https://siderealtrading.com.au/product/ioptron-hst-minitracker-harmonic-drive-camera-tracker/

16/07/2026

From July 15th to August 15th 2026 when you purchase any one of the ZWO AM series Harmonic Mounts you can also add the ZWO TC40 tripod for FREE.
This ZWO Carbon fibre tripod is valued at $549

12/07/2026

Last chance to enter!

https://astrophotographyprize.com/app-shop

https://astrophotographyprize.com/home/

09/07/2026

Last night I found that my house is not a good place for astronomy. This is not news.

This is a Lunatico Lanternfish - a programmable SQL meter that connects with your phone or computer via wifi. You can take readings on the fly, set it to record every few minutes overnight, or see which parts of your sky are darkest. If you're running a remote rig you can hang it off the side of the scope and decide if the Moon is too close, or if the local football club is having night training.

It'll tell you your sky quality in MPSAS (that's magnitude per square arcseconds). You can of course convert that Bortle classes.

https://siderealtrading.com.au/product/lunatico-lanternfish-sky-quality-meter/

28/05/2026

Sharp-eyed people might have noticed Paramount mounts on our website at https://siderealtrading.com.au/product-category/paramount-mounts/.

We've written a short blog post explaining encoders (Paramount mounts all come with encoders, but what type is your choice). Find it at https://siderealtrading.com.au/astro-photography/encoders-what-they-are-do-you-need-them-and-if-so-what-type/

Now that Sidereal Trading is offering Paramount astrophotography mounts, we need to understand about the encoders that they use. Encoders are a way of telling your mount where it is pointing