nPAE 2023 – The Next Orbit
With 2022 now behind us, it’s time to look at what’s coming up in the next orbit! It’s shaping up to be the best astronomy year yet!
We start 2023 as one of the sponsors of the Winter Star Party which is being held in the Florida Keys from February 13th to the 19th. John O’Neal, North Carolina stargazer, will be there demonstrating our Ruby turret and there is our door prize and something special in the event bag from nPAE!
As always our annual astrophotography competitions begin with the Northern Hemisphere stage. Submissions are open until the 28th February so make sure you enter. Any Northern Hemisphere celestial object is valid.
Next up is The Practical Astronomy Show, the UK’s largest astro show, on Saturday March 11th at Kettering* Convention Centre and nPAE will be there in person showcasing all of our products! As always, we’re really excited to attend and look forward to meeting you. As we write the free-to-attend talks list hasn’t been published, but in the past has included people like Helmut Kessler and world re-noun astro imager Damien Peach. * = Only 1.5 hours from London Heathrow airport.
The world’s big astro meeting of the year is of course the North East Astro Fair in New York City on April 15th and 16th. Featured speakers include Space Shuttle commander Eileen Collins and Apollo Flight Director Gerry Griffin. You’ll find the nPAE stand along with the best and finest of the astro industry in the exhibition hall. We’re told that if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere!
The British Astronomical Association have events throughout the year and the spring meeting is being held in Swansea on the 13th May and nPAE will have a stand in the exhibitors section. If you have ever wanted to visit the country Wales in the United Kingdom this is your opportunity.
The 13th May also sees us in Essen, Germany for the Astronomie und Techniktreff. This is Europe’s largest astronomy show and has a lot of European product exhibitors that don’t travel outside of Germany due to the size of the market there. As Essen is home to industrial giants like ThyssenKrupp and RWE we figured being the closest thing in astronomy to Rolls-Royce, we’d fit right in!
The 2nd stage of our annual astrophotography competitions is the Southern Hemisphere! You can enter from the 1st June until the 31st August, so make sure you do! Any Southern Hemisphere celestial object is valid.
The final stage of our Astrophotography Competitions is the awarding of the nPAE World Champion. The winner of the Northern and Southern Hemisphere stages go head to head with the current holder – Yann from France – in a public vote to decide who it is awarded to. Public voting will be in the last week of October so don’t forget to take part.
Throughout the year our product ambassador in France, Cyrille, will be showcasing nPAE equipment to the public at the “Musée de Préhistoire de Tautavel” in the South of France. If you haven’t indulged yourself in a trip to the South of France yet, 2023 will be a great time to go. Best access is to fly to Barcelona – which has a vast range of flight connections – and then drive across the border into Occitanie to peruse the vineyards and catch some astronomy with Cyrille in Tautavel.
Importantly our product line-up will continue to expand. We have the much awaited 2” flip turret coming out and a 2” replacement for the classic 6061 Turret. Plus we will be producing a high quality 2” flip diagonal for astro imagers, so watch this space!
Here’s to a great astronomy year. Clear skies,
nPAE Precision Astro Engineering
