Eclipse Glasses

We have Eclipse Glasses in 5 piece bundles! Click this link for the Eclipse Glasses page in our store. 

Backyard Stargazing

Backyard Stargazing is a surprisingly simple and rewarding experience. In just one night you can learn to identify constellations and find objects like Globular Clusters, Nebulae, Supernova Remnants, Double Stars, and more!

New Feature – Billie’s Blog

Billie’s Blog is a new feature on DavidChandler.com bringing you quick bits of interesting information, explanations, Astronomy News, and general information for the amateur astronomer.

How to Use The Night Sky – Quick Guide

With The Night Sky™ planisphere you will be up and running and locating constellations within minutes. The most popular and lowest distortion star chart on the market.

Planisphere or App?

Now that smartphones and tablets have become ubiquitous many people ask us why we don’t publish a planisphere app instead of continuing to sell physical planispheres. The answer is that, in this case, there are several advantages to the physical format. more…

Why the Red Light?

Why do you need a red light to read your charts at night? It can take up to 45 minutes for the human eye to completely adapt to darkness as a protein called Rhodopsin builds up in the rod cells. Once your night vision is adapted you might be surprised …
Venus, Jupiter, and Regulus. Credit: Stellarium software.

The Venus and Jupiter Show

For those of you who rarely stop to notice the night sky, you might want to take a few moments tonight. The planets Venus and Jupiter will be very close together in the Western sky just after sunset. You will see Venus first as it is the brighter of the two now. Shortly thereafter you […]

Summer Object – Mizar and Alcor

This post describes the stars Mizar and Alcor as part of our series of interesting objects to observe with binoculars or a small telescopes.  For information about this series please see our feature, “Summer Observing List“. Mizar and Alcor Mizar and Alcor are an easy pair to find, but there is much more going on […]

Ring Nebula from Hubble. Credit NASA, ESA, C.R. O'Dell (Vanderbilt University), and D. Thompson (Large Binocular Telescope Observatory)

Summer Object – The Ring Nebula

This post describes the Ring Nebula as part of our series of interesting objects to observe with binoculars or a small telescopes.  For information about this series please see our feature, “Summer Observing List“. The Ring Nebula Also known as M57 in the Messier Catalog and as NGC6720 in the New General Catalog, the Ring […]

Cassiopeia Boundaries

What is a Constellation?

A constellation is more than just an image drawn between a few stars.  It is actually a specific area of the sky with boundaries much like the borders of states or countries on a map of the world.  (In the illustration of the constellation Cassiopeia below the constellation boundaries are in blue.)  These boundaries are […]

Rocky Mountain Star Stare 2015

The 2015 Rocky Mountain Star Stare is rapidly approaching and is scheduled for June 10-14.  This annual event, put on by the Colorado Springs Astronomical Society is billed as the premier star party in the Rocky Mountains.  At 7,600 feet (2.316 meters) above sea level the location in Gardner, CO offers dark skies and extreme […]