nPAE Precision Astro Engineering

As always picking the winners in the nPAE Northern Hemisphere Championship was not an easy task. All 12 of finalists show individual merit and it’s an achievement to make the final stage.

However, there has to be winner. Here we present the awards in reverse order!

In 3rd Place, Is Artemi from Bulgaria with his Home Beneath Orion. It is a stack of 10 exposures – ISO: 2500, f1/8, 13″ using a Sony A7 III (Astro modified) with a Sony FE 20mm f/1.8 G lens mounted with a Silence Corner ATOLL S+ rotating collar all atop a Benro Tortoise TTOR35CGX35 tripod. Edited with Photoshop and Sequator. The judges loved the composition here with the internally illuminated building (with it’s own observation tower!) appearing from the mist with a glowing Orion constellation showing the colours of Betelgeuse and the nebula peeking out from behind some low level clouds.

Wins: nPAE Gift Pack (Large +Small torch + carbon fibre pen)

In 2nd Place, is Imre from Hungary with his Jupiter Io Transit. It was taken with a Celestron C11XLT, Baader 2.25x barlow, ZWO ADC, ZWO ASI585MC and SvBony UV/IR cut. The judges were awed by this King of Planets photo and very impressed by the Io surface colouration detail.

Wins: £50 nPAE Voucher

The 1st Place and nPAE Northern Hemisphere Champion 2026 is Lorand for his Planetary Project of 2025. Taken with a 400/1820 DIY Newtonian Astrograph and Fornax 150 mount with 16 hours of exposure. This is very much an astrophotographer’s astro photograph! The detail here is extreme with deep fields showing distant galaxies! The judges were stunned by the comparative composition at 1:1 scale and the individual beauty of each planetary nebula. Congratulations Lorand! A well won competition.

Wins: £200 and entry into the nPAE 2026 World Championship

https://www.npae.net/northern-hemisphere-2026-winners/




#αστροφωτογραφία
#天体写真


#астрофотография
#التصويرالفلكي
#אסטרופוטוגרפיה


#천체사진

#عکاسینجومی

#天文攝影

Impossible to not get excited about this! GO FLIGHT!!!

NEAF Countdown

The 11th of April is getting closer! This year’s NEAF is almost upon us. The world largest Astronomy Fair will be at Rockland Community College, Suffern, New York, USA on the weekend of 11th and 12th of April.

Getting to New York is easy, fly internationally or domestically into JFK International, Newark International, LaGuardia and Teterboro airports. Take the Amtrak into Penn Station in central Manhattan or road trip it directly to the car park at Rockland Community College.

The 2026 edition of NEAF is one of the largest ever. With featured speakers like Apollo Flight Director Gerry Griffin, astronauts “Hoot” Gibson and Anna Fisher and Lowell Observatory’s Kevin Schindler. Tickets start from $41 and are on sale now!

NEAF is the second stop of the nPAE Flip Turret Tour. Get hands on with this amazing device that takes your large telescope from 1 to 7 viewing options. Load 6 eyepieces, your astro camera and filers all together in one neat unit.

https://www.neafexpo.com/








#天文学
#天文學
#천문학
#астрономия
#ดาราศาสตร์

#الفلك
#אַסטרוֹנוֹמִיָה

#αστρονομία

And the Public Vote winner for the 2026 nPAE Northern Hemisphere contest is Rod with his remote image of the Rosette Nebula gaining 34% of the votes cast! Well done! The judges' decisions and prizes will be awarded on 31st March.





#αστροφωτογραφία
#天体写真


#астрофотография
#التصويرالفلكي
#אסטרופוטוגרפיה


#천체사진

#عکاسینجومی

#天文攝影

The 2026 nPAE Northern Hemisphere Public Vote is upon us again! Here we have 12 outstanding images featuring landscapes, starscapes, planets, galaxies, moons and nebula!

https://www.npae.net/northern-hemisphere-2026-public-vote/





#αστροφωτογραφία
#天体写真


#астрофотография
#التصويرالفلكي
#אסטרופוטוגרפיה


#천체사진

#عکاسینجومی

#天文攝影

The first instalment of the nPAE 2026 Flip Turret Tour landed at the Practical Astronomy Show in Coventry, UK last weekend. It was the only product in the show that could handle filters, eye pieces and cameras all at the same time!

The pictures say more than words so check them out on this post. As well as the Flip Turret, we showed the 2" Turret, 2" Flip Mirror, Theia90 Star Diagonal and Theia Astro imaging filter changer.

Big shouts out to the Youtube channels SImon’s Astro and LA7E At Night: Astronomy & Chill. You can see interviews we did with both of them on their respective channels sites. And thanks to Ruzzy – AstroFarsography - for buying Dave lunch 😀

The Flip Turret Tour moves to the North East Astro Fair (NEAF) in New York, USA in April. See you there!

https://www.youtube.com/
https://www.youtube.com/
https://www.youtube.com/








#天文学
#天文學
#천문학
#астрономия
#ดาราศาสตร์

#الفلك
#אַסטרוֹנוֹמִיָה

#αστρονομία

The 2026 Flip Turret Tour is about to start at the Practical Astronomy Show this Saturday near Coventry, UK. Get up close with this amazing device that converts your large telescope from 1 eyepiece to 6 plus your astro camera AND your filters! nPAE will be on Stand C12. Our business development guy Dave will be in the Stoneleigh Park Lodge hotel from tomorrow evening, so join him in the bar for a drink and some astro chat before the show!








#天文学
#天文學
#천문학
#астрономия
#ดาราศาสตร์

#الفلك
#אַסטרוֹנוֹמִיָה

#αστρονομία

There are just 2 days left to enter this year's nPAE Northern Hemisphere Astrophotography Competition. Don't miss out on the great prizes and your shot at internet fame!

https://www.npae.net/competition/

Good luck and clear skies 😀




#αστροφωτογραφία
#天体写真


#астрофотография
#التصويرالفلكي
#אסטרופוטוגרפיה


#천체사진

#عکاسینجومی

#天文攝影

Can you see a solar eclipse totality for 74 minutes?! You can when flying the path of totality on the Supersonic Mach 2 Concorde!

Join Dr Mike Provost at Nottingham Trent University on the 26th Feb’ for Racing the Moons Shadow - Using Aircraft to Chase Solar Eclipses to explore using aircraft to better observe solar eclipses, including the epic flight of the first Concorde pushing totality to an incredible 74 minutes.

You can join virtually or in person. You will need to advance book at one of these links:

Virtual Attendance:

https://www.ntu.ac.uk/about-us/events/events/2026/2/open-dome-virtual-racing-the-moons-shadow

In person:

https://www.ntu.ac.uk/about-us/events/events/2026/2/open-dome-in-person-racing-the-moons-shadow

Join Dr Mike Provost, a retired chartered engineer (with Rolls-Royce aero-engines and Bombardier Transportation), who has a passion for aircraft and astronomy. In his presentation Racing the Moon's Shadow - Using Aircraft to Chase Solar Eclipses, he explores the background and history behind both astronomers and the public using aircraft to better observe solar eclipses, including the epic flight of the first Concorde prototype at over twice the speed of sound over North Africa in 1973 which experienced 74 minutes of totality.

nPAE Events Program 2026

Welcome to 2026 astronomers. Another great year is upon us. If you haven’t already you can download our free calendar and Star Map Year Planner at these links:

https://www.npae.net/calendarhttps://www.npae.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/nPAE_Year_Planner_2026.pdf

If you are lucky enough to be at this year’s Winter Star Party in Florida, you can pick up a hardcopy Star Map or calendar sticker in person.

We start the year with our Northern Hemisphere astrophotography completion. The closing date is the 28th of Feb’. You have to be in it to win it! Of course the Northern Hemisphere winner advances to the nPAE World Champion Astrophotographer public vote. The 2025 nPAE World Champion is Rod Prazeres from Australia. We will have his Wold Champion interview sometime in March where he will be talking about The Wolf’s Cave Nebula and his own astrophotography journey. In June we will be on to the Southern Hemisphere stage. Follow our social media channels for all updates.

We have a big year of events lined up for our Flip Turret Tour ’26! We are taking this beast of an eyepiece and camera turret on the road. You will be able to get hands on with the unit and see how you can mount 7 accessories with filters onto your large telescope. Courtesy of chatgpt we even have a new tour truck ;) We start with the Practical Astronomy Show in the UK on March 7th. Then we touch down in the United States for the North East Astro Fair (NEAF) in New York, on the 11th and 12th of April. We then move to Europe for the Astronomie und Techniktreff (ATT) in Essen, Germany on the 9th May. The summer will see us at the Federation of Astronomical Societies Convention in Cardiff, Wales on the 27th June and finally the tour ends in Herstmonceux, England at the Astronomy Festival from 28th to 30th August. If you run an astronomy event please reach out to us. We may be able to attend in person and if not we’ll send you a giveaways pack!

If you already know what nPAE product best suits your needs, you can buy online – with free world wide delivery – at our online store:

https://www.npae.net/shop/

We wish you all a fantastic 2026 and look forward to meeting you in person at the shows. Clear skies!

The nPAE Precision Astro Engineering Team

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2026 astronomers. To get everyone off to the best start we’ve got a couple of free downloads for you.

First up is the annual nPAE Calendar featuring astrophotography from our recent contests. Available at this link:
https://www.npae.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/nPAE_Calendar_2026.pdf

Plan your astronomy year around the key astro’ events each month. Those who got a sticker from us at an event can also download from the QR code.

Secondly, we have the 2026 Wall planner with northern and southern hemisphere star charts!
https://www.npae.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/nPAE_Year_Planner_2026.pdf

Plan the entire year day by day and use the charts to make the most of your observations.

Use them as pdf’s or print you own!







#天文学
#天文學
#천문학
#астрономия
#ดาราศาสตร์

#الفلك
#אַסטרוֹנוֹמִיָה

#αστρονομία