In the last two to three years the world of amateur telescopes has been turned on its head. The advances in technology have been beyond incredible. Honestly, it’s been hard to keep up with it all.

As I wrote earlier this year, there is a revolution going on. The way I see it, there are basically two types of telescopes to choose from: conventional visual telescopes and small digital astrophotography telescopes. These small photo telescopes take wonderful images at much lower prices that, in some cases, rival much larger and more expensive astrophotography setups. With both types of scopes, smart technology is available that makes exploring the night sky a lot more fun and less time-consuming. There are also advantages and disadvantages to both types of telescopes, depending on personal preference.

Conventional visual telescopes

The main mission of any telescope is to gather as much light as possible. While magnification is important, light-gathering ability is much more critical. That determines how clear your image will be. Magnification, or “power,” is controlled by which eyepiece you use. Most telescopes come with two or three eyepieces. Usually, 100- to 200-power magnification is the most you’ll ever need for most celestial targets. Higher magnification eyepieces are generally used on planets and the moon.

I’ve been flabbergasted by the advances in visual telescopes. Now you can get a scope that excels at collecting light, and many also come equipped with built-in navigation systems that will direct your telescope automatically to one of thousands of desired targets like star clusters, galaxies, and more. Some you can even control remotely with your smartphone!  There are three basic types of telescopes: refractors, reflectors, and Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes.
Below are some of my specific suggestions for visual telescopes.

Celestron Starsense Explorer DX 130AZ

The Celestron Starsense Explorer DX 130AZ Smartphone App-Enabled Newtonian Reflector Telescope: This Newtonian reflector telescope is perfect for beginners. Its user-friendly interface and detailed tutorials make it like having your personal tour guide of the night sky. The app uses patented technology to determine where the telescope is pointed in real time, making locating objects easier. $368

Celestron StarSense Explorer 8″ Smartphone Telescope

Celestron StarSense Explorer 8″ Smartphone App-Enabled Dobsonian Telescope: This is a much larger version of the Celestron Starsense DX 130AZ scope with the same smartphone app for easy and precise navigation. $879

Celestron NexStar 6SE

Celestron NexStar 6SE: This Schmidt-Cassegrain type has a fully automated GoTo mount with a database of 40,000-plus celestial objects that automatically locates and tracks objects for you. Just type in the celestial target you want to see, and it will electronically slew the telescope right to it. Then, track it across the sky. I have this scope, and I just love it. $1,199

Celestron First Scope

The Celestron First Scope: designed for kids about 8 to 10. It’s a reflector telescope with a small mirror. $80

Digital astrophotography telescopes

The newer digital astrophotography telescopes are simply amazing. You don’t “look” through them, but you’re able to take hundreds of images. Again, the images they produce won’t be as good as you’d get with much more expensive astronomical cameras and telescopes, but some will be darn close, suitable for framing. You will see more detail and certainly more color in any celestial image you take than you would visually observe with a conventional telescope. The reason is that when you shoot images, even ones only a few seconds long, you collect and accumulate much more light than you can with your eyes looking through a visual telescope. We can’t accumulate and store light with our eyes.

Photographic scopes also “stack” individual subframes that produce wonderful celestial images. They also have built-in navigation systems that will direct or “point” the scope to hundreds of targets, including the sun and moon, and then “follow” them across the sky, compensating for the Earth’s rotation. You control the scope with a smartphone, iPad or tablet using Bluetooth. It’s even possible to control them from the inside of your house as long as the signal doesn’t get out of range. That really comes in handy on cold winter nights. What I really find fantastic is that these photographic telescopes come with built-in light-pollution filters, enabling you to get great shots even in heavily lit-up urban or suburban areas.

I truly love these scopes. No matter where you are, in a city or a country, I really believe you’ll be a lot happier with the images they produce compared to what you see with a conventional visual scope. If you want to get a young person excited about stargazing and astronomy, I think you should go with photographic scopes. The cost of these scopes is also amazing, at less than $600. You really can’t get much of a visual telescope for that price. Below are my specific recommendations.

ZWO SeeStar S50

ZWO SeeStar S50: This amazing telescope camera system takes absolutely stunning celestial photos of star clusters, nebulae, galaxies, the moon, the sun and more, all in color. It’s less than a cubic foot in size and weighs less than 5 pounds. Using Bluetooth, you control the Seestar S50 on your smartphone or iPad. It directs itself to the celestial target of your choice and then projects the image on your phone or tablet, and then begins the process of live stacking. As the sub-exposures build in, the picture gets clearer and clearer. You have to see it to believe it. It also does daytime land photos and video. All of this for only $549.

ZWO SeeStar S30

ZWO SeeStar S30: It’s a smaller, more compact version of the SeeStar S50 but just about as powerful. What’s most amazing is that it’s only $399.

Where to buy scopes

You can certainly buy a scope on Amazon, but if you encounter issues with it, the options for finding help are very limited. I think you’re much better off either purchasing your scope directly from the manufacturer or from a telescope dealership. The problem is that there aren’t many telescope dealers left anymore.

My favorite dealership is Starizona in Tucson, Arizona. I’ve done business with them for years. They have wonderful people who you can actually get help with, before and after the sale, even over the phone. Their website is starizona.com.

If you’re ever in Tucson, visit their store. You won’t want to leave!

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and retired broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and adventurepublications.net. Mike is available for private star parties. You can contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.

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Kids ‘n Kinship provides friendships and positive role models to children and youth ages 5-16 who are in need of an additional supportive relationship with an adult. Here’s one of the youth waiting for a mentor:

First name: Kory

Age: 15

Interests: Kory loves food, especially Buffalo Wild Wings, tacos, and chicken! He enjoys collecting and learning all about trains, so would love to find a mentor who is also a train enthusiast.

Personality/Characteristics: He is talkative, confident, and is becoming a teenager. His mom would love a male mentor to help support him as he grows and explores interests. He is a kind kid who makes friends easily. Mom is looking for a male role model to be a positive influence on him and be a solid presence to spend time with.

Goals/dreams: He would like a mentor, mentor couple or mentor family. If he could have three wishes he would: Get a Nike Tech Jacket, have lots of money, and get an entire box of Taco Bell to himself. When he grows up he wants to be a train conductor. He had his first job this summer at a tree landscaper and enjoyed the experience and received great reviews from his team leader and supervisor. He would love a mentor who continues to offer him guidance and direction for his future and help him pursue his goals.

For more information: Kory is waiting for a mentor through Kids n’ Kinship in Dakota County. To learn more about this youth mentoring program and the 39+ youth waiting for a mentor, sign up for an Information Session, visit www.kidsnkinship.org or email programs@kidsnkinship.org. For more information about mentoring in the Twin Cities outside of Dakota County, contact MENTOR MN at mentor@mentormn.org or fill out a brief form at www.mentoring.org/take-action/become-a-mentor/#search.

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Waiting for a mentor: Sophie

Jen Murphy, Bloomberg News

In the $6.3 trillion world of wellness, catering to women is the lowest-hanging fruit on the tree. Yet women’s wellness is an area that’s historically been underfunded and underserved. In the U.S., women were rarely included in clinical trials before 1993, and in 2020, only 5% of global research and development funding was allocated to women’s health research. Even spokespeople for the Global Wellness Institute, the largest research organization dedicated to tracking the industry, recognize their failure to collect data on what women need or want from the wellness space; they say they’ve found it more logical to focus on fitness and longevity in the past.

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Enter Canyon Ranch, the OG of American wellness retreats, founded in 1979. In September 2026, it plans to unveil its third location on the outskirts of Austin, an ambitious 600-acre ranch whose primary focus will be women’s wellness.

Two-thirds of the brand’s guests are women, says Chief Executive Officer Mark Rivers, referring to his existing resorts in Lenox, Massachusetts, and Tucson, Arizona. Yet that same demographic, he says, “is misunderstood and swallowed in general health care.”

By focusing almost entirely on relaxation and beauty, yoga retreats and boot camps, the spa industrial complex is missing a massive part of what women care about: the physiological changes women face in different stages of their life. It’s a gap that companies such as Canyon Ranch have been racing to address in recent years as people’s interest in wellness — and willingness to invest in it — has skyrocketed. To date, their efforts have typically manifested as the occasional treatment or themed retreat; there still isn’t a single wellness resort making women’s health their calling card.

The very symptoms that women’s wellness retreats address — hot flashes, vaginal dryness, hair loss — have long felt too taboo to name out loud, much less put on a marquee. But lately the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause have become buzzy talk show fodder and the subjects of bestselling books. Everyone from Oprah and Drew Barrymore to Michelle Obama and Naomi Watts, who has her own menopause health product line, is now openly talking about the stage in a woman’s life that for decades was vaguely referred to as “the change.”

By 2030 the world population of menopausal and postmenopausal women is projected to increase 9%, to 1.2 billion, with a forecasted market size of $24.4 billion. Spas will have to cater to this powerful market or risk getting left behind. It’s no wonder that wellness industry pioneers including SHA Wellness in Mexico and Spain, Ananda in the Himalayas, and Kamalaya resort in Koh Samui, Thailand, now offer programs to address fertility, pelvic floor dysfunction and more. And the growing discourse around these issues for women has made it easier for men to admit to similar concerns too.

“The rise in awareness around the gender health gap — particularly the lack of persistent data on female hormones and health—has helped normalize conversations that were long overdue,” says Anna Bjurstam, head of wellness at Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas, which earlier this year introduced a female wellness pilot program in partnership with women’s health expert Dr. Mindy Pelz. “Let’s face it, the wellness industry has historically centered on weight loss and aesthetics. But women want to feel good, not just look good. What we’re seeing now is a shift toward empowerment, education and energy.”

Canyon Ranch’s Rivers claims that his resort, however, will be the industry’s first dedicated women’s wellness practice. “There’s a lot of noise in the space, but we’re actually making an investment in it,” he tells Bloomberg News. To wit, Canyon Ranch Austin is an approximately $122 million investment — of which $50 million will be devoted to the largest spa in Texas, clocking in at 40,000 square feet with 37 treatment rooms.

When Canyon Ranch opened in Tucson in the ’70s, it was a departure from the era’s trendy, weight-loss-focused “fat farms.” From the start, the brand worked with nutritionist and fitness experts to offer a lifestyle-driven approach to well-being. “We are not a hospital or medical clinic,” Rivers says. “We are a resort focused on health as a lifestyle choice.”

It’s also a global leader for all things longevity. Since its inception, the brand says it’s welcomed 1 million guests and curated a team of board-certified medical doctors including Jennifer Wagner, a medical adviser to the U.S. Olympic Committee, and Richard Carmona, former U.S. surgeon general.

“If women have been short-sold by the medical world, I also feel like they have been getting short-sold by the wellness space,” says Beth McGroarty, director of research for the Global Wellness Institute, who has no affiliation with Canyon Ranch’s forthcoming resort but considers it to be groundbreaking in its ambitions. “We suddenly saw all of these menopause programs, but many are rooted in pampering, community and celebrity-driven supplements. Canyon Ranch is adding the medical piece.”

Although Austin will focus on women’s health, Tucson will be considered Canyon Ranch’s hub for all things longevity and the Lenox location, in Massachusetts’ Berkshire Mountains, will tackle burnout. Stays at the Austin outpost will be priced from $1,400 per person, per night—including pickleball clinics, infrared sauna sessions and wine-paired tasting menus. (That price is about $200 more per night than its siblings charge, and higher yet than its global competitors, though Canyon Ranch rates cover lots of classes and programs that other wellness resorts charge for à la carte.)

Canyon Ranch Austin is the first resort the company is building from scratch; the others fill historic, retrofitted buildings. Located a little less than an hour from downtown in rural-feeling Spicewood, the project is being designed by award-winning architecture firm Lake Flato. It will have 141 hotel rooms, 134 residences, 6 racquet sports courts, 2 pools and an outdoor cooking studio centered around grilling. The onsite female health facility, called the Women’s Collective at Canyon Ranch Austin, will address the evolving needs of women from their 30s onward; it will cover a wide range of health concerns including sleep, nutrition, postpartum depression and midlife beauty.

Men will be welcome too. Blood work, bone density scans, sleep screenings and other medical tests will all be recommended or prescribed according to gender, age and individualized health concerns; the same will apply to the fitness offerings.

In a state that so heavily polices fertility medicine, Canyon Ranch has decided not to include reproductive health in its offerings and will not be staffed with OB-GYNs. But the brand’s other properties have a high-volume of babymooners, and Rivers says the Austin location will offer prenatal massages and pre- and postbirth body work. Prescription-based hormone replacement therapy will also be available.

That’s not to say that beauty will be an afterthought. Hair thinning and skin elasticity are examples that beauty and women’s wellness go hand in hand, Rivers argues, and says that the spa will be prepared to deal with these topics holistically.

The intention is also to give guests tools and techniques that they can carry home, but Canyon Ranch also says it hopes that some people will want to live the Canyon Ranch life for good. Like many of its peers, it’s currently offering two- and three-bedroom homes for sale, from $3.4 million, alongside the new Austin resort. Each residence is kitted out with wellness features such as saunas, cold plunges, recovery lockers stocked with massages guns and foam rollers, and stargazing perches with NASA-grade telescopes — plus complimentary access to the spa and the resort’s 35-plus daily activities.

That, in some ways, paints another version of the future of wellness resorts, in which people no longer vacation to establish healthy habits but relocate for them. At the very least, it’s a secondary strategy that plays to either gender.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The Trump administration has disbanded its federal cultural property investigations team and reassigned the agents to immigration enforcement, delivering a blow to one of the world’s leaders in heritage protection and calling into question the future of America’s role in repatriating looted relics, according to multiple people familiar with the changes.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security established the Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities program in 2017 to “conduct training on the preservation, protection and investigation of cultural heritage and property; to coordinate and support investigations involving the illicit trafficking of cultural property around the world; and to facilitate the repatriation of illicit cultural items seized as a result of (federal) investigations to the objects and artifacts’ lawful and rightful owners.”

Looted: Stolen relics, laundered art and a Colorado scholar’s role in the illicit antiquities trade

Homeland Security Investigations, the department’s investigative arm, once had as many as eight agents in its New York office investigating cultural property cases. A select number of additional agents around the country also worked these cases, including a nationwide investigation into looted Thai objects.

The Denver Art Museum has previously acknowledged that two relics from Thailand in its collection are part of that federal investigation.

Since 2007, HSI says it has repatriated over 20,000 items to more than 40 countries.

But the Trump administration, as part of its unprecedented mass-deportation agenda, earlier this year dissolved the cultural property program and moved the agents to immigration enforcement, multiple people with knowledge of the change told The Denver Post.

Homeland Security officials did not respond to requests for comment.

A few months after Trump took office, a Homeland Security staffer with knowledge of the antiquities field told The Post that they received an email from their bosses. The message, according to their recollection: “The way of the world is immigration. Bring your cases to a reasonable conclusion and understand that the priority is immigration operations.”

This individual, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said they were given no time frame for the new assignment. Leadership, though, was clear that there would be no new cultural property cases.

Instead of conducting these investigations, this individual said they have been driving detainees between detention facilities and the airport for their deportation.

“I just spent almost a month cuffing guys up, throwing them in a van from one jail to another,” this person said, adding that the work doesn’t take advantage of their specialized training.

It’s frustrating, the individual said, because cultural property cases don’t require a lot of agents or resources. They don’t need all types of fancy electronic equipment.

“The juice from the squeeze on these cases is a lot more than people wanna give it credit,” this person said.

The Bunker Gallery section of the Denver Art Museum’s Southeast Asian art galleries at the Martin Building is pictured on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022. Emma C. Bunker’s name was removed from the gallery in the wake of an investigation by The Denver Post. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)

Thai objects in Denver under investigation

For years, HSI has been investigating two Thai relics in the Denver Art Museum’s collection after officials in Thailand raised issues with their provenance, or ownership history.

The pieces — part of the so-called “Prakhon Chai hoard” — were looted in the 1960s from a secret vault at a temple near the Cambodian border, The Post found in a three-part investigation in 2022. Villagers told the newspaper that they recall dredging the vault for these prized objects and selling them to a British collector named Douglas Latchford.

A federal grand jury decades later indicted Latchford for conspiring to sell plundered Southeast Asian antiquities around the world. He died before he could stand trial.

Latchford funneled some of his stolen antiquities through the Denver Art Museum due to his close personal relationship with one of the museum’s trustees and volunteers, Emma C. Bunker, The Post found.

The museum told The Post last week it hasn’t received any communication from the federal government since December, before Trump took office.

High-profile cases in New York and Denver are proceeding despite the reallocation of resources, one agent said.

With the federal government mostly out of the game, cultural heritage investigations will be largely left to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in New York City, which has an Antiquities Trafficking Unit.

But the DA’s office relies heavily on its partnership with HSI, which has federal jurisdiction and can serve warrants and issue summonses across the country. The Manhattan DA’s office only has authority over New York.

“The future for the DA’s office and the (antiquities trafficking) unit is in jeopardy,” said an individual familiar with the Manhattan unit’s dealings, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. “It’s unclear who’s going to be swearing out warrants going forward.”

A spokesperson for the Manhattan DA declined to comment for this story.

Department of Homeland Security Investigations agents join Washington Metropolitan Police Department officers as they conduct traffic checks at a checkpoint along 14th Street in northwest Washington, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

‘Doing the right thing still has power’

These changes in enforcement priorities mean countries seeking the repatriation of their cultural items have fewer partners in the U.S. who can help them deal with museums and private collectors.

“A few years ago, the United States led the world in restoring stolen history — and it mattered,” said Bradley Gordon, an American attorney who for years has represented the Cambodian government in its quest to reclaim its pillaged history from art museums, including Denver’s.

It’s a shame, he said, that federal agencies have stepped back, even as the Manhattan DA continues its work.

“This work isn’t just about art; it’s about security, diplomacy and restoring dignity,” Gordon said. “These looted objects were never meant to be hidden in mansions or displayed in museum glass cases far from their origins. When they are returned, entire communities celebrate with sincere happiness. It’s a reminder that doing the right thing still has power in the world.”

Representatives from Thailand’s government, meanwhile, said they haven’t gotten an update on the Prakhon Chai investigation since Trump returned to office this year.

Cultural heritage experts say these investigations can serve as an important diplomatic tool and use of soft power — a way for the U.S. to strengthen connections to allies or thaw fraught relations with longtime adversaries.

In 2013, for example, President Barack Obama’s administration returned a ceremonial drinking vessel from the seventh century B.C. to Iran. For years, American officials said they couldn’t return the million-dollar relic until relations between the two countries normalized. The move — which NBC News titled “archaeo-diplomacy” — represented a small but important gesture as the U.S. sought a nuclear deal with the Middle Eastern power.

“The return of the artifact reflects the strong respect the United States has for cultural heritage property — in this case, cultural heritage property that was likely looted from Iran and is important to the patrimony of the Iranian people,” the U.S. State Department said at the time. “It also reflects the strong respect the United States has for the Iranian people.”

A lack of law enforcement activity in this space could also mean that museums and private collectors will be less inclined to return stolen pieces, said Erin Thompson, an art crime professor at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Museums, instead, will maintain the status quo.

“Without the power of subpoenas, knowing what records people have, most of these returns are impossible,” she said. “Without the official stick to back up the carrot of negotiations, it wouldn’t happen. Government presence in these negotiations is absolutely crucial.”

Others wonder what the Trump administration’s realignment would mean for the illicit antiquities market.

Mongolia has spent years fighting for the return of dinosaur fossils from around the globe. HSI has worked on numerous investigations on this front, repatriating a host of looted items that are considered some of the best relics of life on Earth from millions of years ago.

Oyungerel Tsedevdamba, the country’s former minister of culture, tourism and sports, said she always held up the United States as an example of what can be done to crack down on the black market for cultural goods. Before collaborating with the U.S., Mongolia was considered “the weakest country” for losing its own heritage to illegal sellers, she said.

“If ICE is too focused on immigration and less on cultural heritage, it would, of course, be a sad thing,” she said in an interview, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which oversees HSI. “By discouraging the black market of dinosaur fossils, the international market was shattered. If ICE weakens, the black market might surge back. The American (antiquities) market and American collaboration is essential for stopping the black market of illegal cultural property sales.”