We are amateur astronomers.  While wee been involved in this hobby for more years than we care to remember, we still consider ourselves amateurs.  If your story is similar to our, it probably all started when Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa or maybe some other relative gave you your first telescope.  Maybe you bought it yourself.  You didn care that it was a run-of-the-mill department store telescope, it was yours and it was great!  It no doubt appear to you as the most sophisticated instrument mankind had ever developed, and it was all yours.  You loved the intricacies of the mount, the way the focuser worked and the way all the parts meticulously fit together.  It was art and science all rolled into one. 

You spent countless hours trying to figure out just how this thing worked, and why.  What did the setting circles do?  How do you use them?  Why is everything in metric?  Before you knew it, you were doing f-ratios and calculating magnifications in your head with ease.  {Why didn't things like that show up as story problems in school instead of the notorious ne train left New York for Los Angeles averaging 57.5mph while, at the same time, another train left Topeka head east at 61mph}.  Anyway. 

The night sky had you mesmerized.  You knew most of the major constellations, maybe all of them.  Even though you sometimes confused the planets for right stars you ultimately sorted them out.  Armed with your new telescope, you set out.  You had already practiced setting up and taking down the telescope innumerable times so your first venture out into the night presented no problem.  After all, you were a scientist.  It might have even been the middle of winter, but you couldn be stopped.  After all, you were an astronomer.

Do you remember the first time you viewed Jupiter?  Hard to breathe, wasn it.  That dancing ball of light with perhaps a couple of bands visible on its surface and three or four moons!  Unbelievable!  What about Saturn?  What was your first reaction?  Did you step back from the scope then look again?  Did you feel like you were going to faint or did you want to quickly find someone else to look through the scope at what you had just discovered?  Both maybe?

Those days have not been forgotten, and our feelings towards this hobby and the night sky remain the same.  Nightfire Scientific was born as our way of advancing an interest in astronomy by offering, what we believe, are the best values in astronomy equipment available.  Can you find less expensive equipment?  Certainly, but you will also find equipment with less features for more money as well. 

We take great pride in both our products and our level of customer support.  Put us to the test!  Drop us an email with your questions.  We love to hear from you.