iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Robert Asumendi

David Dickinson @astrodave.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

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.

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

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

analogsky.co

World's Biggest Binocular Telescope Model. 8" / 200mm Binoculars — Analog Sky

Analog Sky Bloom 8" reverse Newtonian binocular telescope gives you the most immersive views of the cosmos. Smart electronics combine with thoughtful design to create a whole new stargazing experience...

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

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?

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Reposted by Robert Asumendi

Yvette Cendes @whereisyvette.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

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! 🤩 🔭🧪🎢

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

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!

CAD drawing of 200mm astronomy binoculars.

Metal frame parts of 200mm astronomy binoculars.

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

Pretty! It's a nice one to watch rise in the east this time of year. For some reason the big open clusters surrounding Ophiuchus are not that well-known.

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

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

top-down CAD diagram of 200mm binocular telescope, called "Dream", from Analog Sky

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

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

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

If you get a chance, I'd like to know how she keeps Chris Butler's toenails in her nylons without tearing them. Is it like a little sachet or maybe a Down to Earth reusable tea bag?

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

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

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Reposted by Robert Asumendi

Phil PlAIt @philplait.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

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...

aas.org

AAS Gravely Concerned About Cuts to NASA Science Funding | American Astronomical Society

The American Astronomical Society is gravely concerned about the deep cuts to NASA science funding reported to be in the draft President’s Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2026.

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

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.

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

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?

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

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

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

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...

youtube.com

It's Illegal to Say

YouTube video by WKUK: Whitest Kids U’ Know

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Reposted by Robert Asumendi

Astropotamus 🔭🦛 @astropotamus.com · 18/03/2025

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.

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

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.

Half a 50mm binocular telescope, Analog Sky's Magic LVL 2 prototype. 76 degree viewing angle, simultaneous objective focus, 56mm minimum IPD (lowest in the world for 2" eyepieces), built-in PiFinder plate solving finder, green laser pointer, 3V lighting, and hopefully APO Petzval optics. The prototype lays on its side on a chair in the sunshine.

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Alternative: Let your ADHD run rampant, get some space binoculars and just roam around until you bump into something interesting. When you get bored with that, roam around and find something else. (Sorry, just pointing out there are two wolves in everyone looking at the night sky lol)

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

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.

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Reposted by Robert Asumendi

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

👇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

A sky map showing the locations of Mars, Jupiter relative to the constellation of Orion in the South.

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

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.

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Nice, glad to see 2001 can still affect young people. I showed mine 2001 last year and they were just ultra bored but they were 11 and 8. It's rough watching Zoomers debate on social media whether Interstellar or the Martian is the best sci fi movie 😂

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Sounds good, following the union account now thanks for linking it.

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

Wow Mike, that's a really impressive deep dive! Would make a really fun live presentation and you've already made all the "slides" wink wink

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

No doubt AI guys will remain on the cutting edge of self-play for the foreseeable future

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Thanks! It's possible we'll have a PiFinder build style that's optimized for Ember in the not-too-distant future.

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

full-size Raspberry Pi is a chunky boi and hard to fit, but I figured it out. This will release well ahead of any other "smart binocular" that's been announced, and if you add the PiFinder, it will actually work because it does plate solving instead of guessing with an IMU.

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

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

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

Last year I tried to spend at least 10 minutes every clear night staring at it in the binoculars, hoping it'd go nova. idk if I'm going to get up early to do it now, but might be worth setting yourself an alarm. It's to the south in the Northern Hemisphere and to the north in the Southern Hemisphere

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

Count 3 stars down from the bright one, Alphecca. The correct star (epsilon) is kinda orange so it's easy to pick out. Then it doesn't take much magnification at all (20x is fine) to see the triangle of stars below epsilon I've highlighted in pink. t CrB is the star with the crosshairs around it.

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

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

astronomerstelegram.org

ATel #17041: T CrB on the Verge of an Outburst: H alpha Profile Evolution and Accretion Activity

ATel On

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

Wow nice! Interesting to see it so zoomed in. What is that, about a degree field?

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

First time seeing your stuff, love it!

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

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!

Spitzer Space Telescope infrared image of the Snake Nebula.

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

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.

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

Yeah the spacing of the objectives determines the stereopsis, so if you look through those little 8x21 handhelds where the objectives are right next to each other, it's way less than you're used to. With my 200mm binoculars, they're 310mm center-to-center so the stereopsis is 5-6x normal.

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

idk that effective distance is a thing for stargazing binos since everything is infinitely far away, but the mag range is from 5x-75x depending on the lenses and mirrors you choose. Some see stereo effects, but mostly: comfort, brighter, sharper, more contrast are huge benefits of two eyes over one.

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Robert Asumendi @robertasumendi.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

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.

3d CAD illustration of 50mm binocular telescope under development. The highlighted assembly shows a rack and pinion focuser that moves the objective cell assembly along a track lined with common, cheap PTFE tubes from a 3d printer to maintain centricity. Objective focusing allows for quick focus of both eyes simultaneously, and allows us to shave 2mm off the minimum interpupillary distance, down to 56mm. This is a world's first for minimum IPD with 2" widefield eyepieces.

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