what it's like to look through giant binoculars www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2Q_...

Follow Venus the next few mornings, and you can see an unusual sight, as the planet transits (passes in front of) the open star cluster Messier 44 (Praesepe) in the heart of the constellation Cancer. Brilliant -4 magnitude Venus nicks the +4th magnitude cluster on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday morning.

I designed the biggest binoculars in the world (that you can buy) and they're for looking at outer space 🔭 🌌. Early access is a big step for our nano-scale mom-and-pop business to bring this model to life! www.analogsky.co/bloom

tshirt concept

Big telescopes belong on Earth! A thrilling day for astronomy and humanity. Amazing what public funding can do. Where are the privately-funded pictures like this?

Just thinking of the Harvard computer women a century ago, who looked at images of the universe like this by eye to make discoveries. They revolutionized astronomy, and Rubin definitely will too! Also, wow how excited would Henrietta Leavitt and Williamina Flemming be to see this! 🤩 🔭🧪🎢

Big binoculars incoming! 200mm parabolic mirror objectives. This is the first time mirror binoculars have been available since JMI stopped production. 2" focusers, IPD from 49-85mm. The optics all fit in carry-on luggage size. members.analogsky.co for the journey from CAD to first prototype!

3 weeks to the first prototype of the world's largest commercially-available binocular telescope

big binoculars progress

Mercury's elongation (distance from the Sun in the sky) is large enough for safe viewing before sunrise. Fun thing to see if you have to be awake in the morning

I love how YouTube gives you a panel of the comments you haven't replied to but seemingly no way to dismiss comments you don't *want* to reply to lol

The American Astronomical Society — the largest organization of professional astronomers in the country — has put out a statment about Trump's proposed fatal cuts to NASA science. aas.org/press/aas-st...

New stuff 👇👇👇 www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jdn...

Just reposting this so it's easy to find later to show my 12-year-old daughter. Sometimes I'm embarrassed I was so excited about the internet as a teenager in the 90s thinking we could share the collective knowledge of humanity when this was pretty much the whole point the whole time.

Can't wait to find out what my next shipment of lenses from China is going to cost in a couple weeks. Can I spin a wheel maybe?

Getting closer. The lenses might be $1000 each by the end of the month but hey.

Not sure why WKUK official reuploaded this a couple days ago, somebody better keep an eye on those guys www.youtube.com/watch?v=KivC...

With tariffs making real Japanese anime unaffordable, your only option is American-made crap like this Free on patreon 👇

left hand side coming together

I'm always saying this

spring coat

Life Hack: The night sky offers endless entertainment—meteor showers, eclipses, and planetary alignments - all at no cost. Except for a jacket. Maybe some bug spray. Possibly a chair.

We're definitely in the Hyper Light Drifter soundtrack part of the year. I guess a neon post apocalypse is kind of a metaphor for spring.

In addition to damaging local habitat, this is polluting the atmosphere with aluminum oxide. But if a exploding SpaceX payload was ever a nuclear-powered probe, this would rain down deadly radioactivity over everyone below. No profit-motive space companies, no nuclear space probes.

👇The Mars #EuropaClipper gravity assist is happening right now! Locate Mars to wave at Clipper as it flys by on its 5yr journey to Jupiter & the frozen ice moon of Europa. At the moment Mars is an easy-to-spot triangle with the bright Gemini stars of Castor and Pollux! 🔭🧪🛰️ ℹ️ stellarium-web.org

Little closer on the 50mm stargazing binocular update, amidst the new eyepieces launching next week and the 200mm stargazing binoculars. The right-hand side is pretty much ready to print. Haven't decided yet if I'm going to NEAF.

We're almost there on a prototype for the updated 50mm binocular telescope (Magic 2). Rack and pinion focuser works great, image merging works great, and now adding built-in PiFinder. PiFinder uses a camera to figure out what you're looking at in the sky without a phone, 20 times a second. The

Looks like t Coronae Borealis is finally getting ready to pop. It is now a morning object in both hemispheres and it's really far from the Sun in the sky so we have a chance to see it, ideally through both eyes 🔭🔭. www.astronomerstelegram.org?read=17041

Happy Chinese New Year! The Snake Nebula in infrared from Spitzer Space 🔭 looks more like a dragon but it works. Good health and clear skies!

Prototype 50mm binocular telescope side view. Testing tomorrow. There are about a dozen features here that nobody's done before. Dramatically simplified construction while increasing precision, usability, and image quality.

talk about a path of exile

World's first binocular telescope 🔭🔭 with simultaneous lens focusing, testing stage. William Optics also internally focuses their 51mm petzval's objective triplet. It's a beautiful piece of high-precision machining worth $1000. Let's see if I can do a similar focuser in plastic for $3.

A couple months ago I followed a "starter pack" of people who report (critically) on Elon Musk's companies and now ironically I get way more news about him at bsky than x lol

2025 will see the return of the big binoculars. Here's the top deck of the 200mm. These let you see a lot of things as well as a 400mm telescope but with a lot more comfort, sharpness, and overall immersion. More features than the biggest lens-based binoculars at 1/6 the price.

Anytime you feel incompetent because you have to upload a new x.x.2 version of a file because you made a typo in the .readme file, always remember Tesla still exists

Ok Blue Sky, using this app instead of X might improve your mental health a bit, but if you need a moment with the universe, I design stargazing 🔭🔭 binocular kits you can build easily yourself and find a few quiet moments of peace, by yourself or with friends. ✌️ analogsky.co

There is also a great feature in settings where it will force you to add alt text in case you forget. I was doing web accessibility 25 years ago and it's crazy but not surprising it's taken this long to get this feature on social media....

Been playing with this cool 3d software called Spline that lets you create interactive 3d web/app experiences really easily. Here's a globular cluster. This is going to help us take things up a few notches.

Ok, everybody's jumping on here so it's time to wake up the account. I like today's server lag like it's a 9600 baud modem. Every time you click a social media app it should take long enough for the question "Is this really how I want to spend my time?" to form in your mind.

Was super cool to read reports from people all over the country who had built my solar binoculars 🔭🔭. Most had great experiences, some were clouded out. Happy to help people enjoy a special moment in their lives. Now we have the rest of the solar maximum to enjoy! #TotalSolarEclipse

On my third listen of this and it just gets better. I love "standard" E1 eps for the improv but every second of this two-hour story is impeccably crafted. It's free to listen to, but I think someday it's going to cost over $1000 to play each E1 so get in now. soundcloud.com/episode-one-...

Drew the Sun today 🔭🔭 The features are kinda oversized so I could draw a little more detail than if it were to scale. It's probably fine since no one is doing science with my drawings. Hazy day but could still see a fair amount. Glad I got to see this wild group 3615 before it swings around the back

Beautiful: 200 mirrors for making stargazing binoculars, fresh from the factory. First time we've ordered direct! Super exciting.

I feel like it's an annoying thing to do, but since there's no pinned skeet, I'll just re-up: Hi! I design the only binoculars optimized for stargazing, and I make video courses @analogsky.bsky.social that teach you how to build yours. My daughter builds the first model, Magic, with you.

I love open clusters because they're pretty and made of new stars (usually). Now it looks like we have lots more types of clusters. So cool! I wonder if there is a way to use this database to locate these visually.

Astronomy sketching light prototype finished. Amber light saves your dark adaption, ring light provides even illumination of the sketch regardless of your hand position. Good for star charts too. Uses the @adafruit.com 3V compatible light strip (PID 5851). Still too bright, needs a resistor or pot.

More light work. The led strip is totally invisible when you're using it from above, the amber color is nice. Wires are tucked away now.

This is a great story. It's cool to get the PSA about compassion and connection at the end because I feel like that's my job as an outreach person. www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_dr...

Segment of a prototype astro sketching ring light with amber gel and recessed led strip. Amber protects your night vision. Should be great for reading star charts as well.

Oh yeah that's nice. One cr2 battery seems to work fine. Nice even spread of light from this 3V Adafruit strip. Just way too bright!