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My New Book May 2018

 

ABOUT THE WEBSITE - CLICK HERE

My Telescopes

My Main Telescope - C14 and Paramount ME

My new Paramount MyT and 8-inch Ritchey-Chretien Telescope

MyT Hand Controller

My Meade 12 inch SCT on a CGEM (Classic) Mount

My 4 inch Meade Refractor with Sky Watcher Guidescope and ZWO camera on a CGEM (Classic) Mount

Skywatcher Star Adventurer Mount with Canon 40D

 

My Solar setup using a DSLR and Mylar Filter on my ETX90

DSLR attached to ETX90. LiveView image of 2015 partial eclipse on Canon 40D

Astronomy Blog Index
About the Site

 I try to log my observing and related activities in a regular blog - sometimes there will be a delay but I usually catch up. An index of all my blogs is on the main menu at the top of the page with daily, weekly or monthly views. My Twitter feed is below. I am also interested in photograping wildlife when I can and there is a menu option above to look at some of my images. I try to keep the news feeds from relevant astronomical sources up to date and you will need to scroll down to find these.

The Celestron 14 is mounted on a Paramount ME that I have been using for about 10 years now - you can see that it is mounted on a tripod so is a portable set up. I still manage to transport it on my own and set it all up even though I have just turned 70! It will run for hours centering galaxies in the 12 minute field even when tripod mounted.

 

My Recent Tweets

 

 


My main observatory is a run off roof shed that I obtained from Spain. It was very easy to put together with the exception of the three part roof which required assistance. Fortunately my visitors at the time helped me to put that together, interleaving the different sections. 

 

 

Welcome to my website which is based on amateur astronomy (which has largely taken over my life now) and also wildlife and general photography. (New non - astro blog is Just Blog on menu above - this blog is where I add my wildlife and general photographs and other interests and activities.) I am interested in Supernovae and in galaxies and spend every clear evening I can -

much of the time in southern Spain but sometimes in the UK - imaging galaxies with my Celestron 14 telescope.  It is an old scope, orange coloured originally now repainted red, and number 511 in the original series.I also have a CGEM mount with a Meade 4 inch refractor that I use with a Canon 40D modified DSLR, and a TAL1 4 inch refractor for visual use only.  I am a member of the British Astronomical Association , a member of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds . I am also a member the North Norfolk Astronomiy Society. My astronomical interests are shown further down this column with images I have taken using my own equipment and some of my remote images and observations. 

 

 

 

 

 

The 2019 Spring SHA Bulletin is now out - Join the Society for the History of Astronomy and have this delivered.

 

 

My Lunar Eclipse images featured on the front page of the Norwich Astronomical Society Winter newsletter.



 

 


 

Galaxy imaging with my C14 and Remote Telescope Services in Australia, the United States and Spain.


 Learning about practical photometry using BV filters on my C14 and photometric filters on remote telescopes.

 Supernova searching with automated scripting to point the telescope and take short exposure images.

Finding out how to calculate stellar distances and temperatures and generate HR Diagrams for Open Star Clusters

Remote imaging of interesting objects using a range of telescope types and cameras.

The Tarantula Nebula

The Great Nebula in Orion

The Flame and Horsehead Nebulae

NGC 1027 Open Cluster in Cassiopeia

 

I also like to observe comets when I can

 

                                           COMET ISON

 

 Comet McNaught

 Imaging recent supernovae - this one was remotely imaged the same day of its discovery.

Before and after the event - can you spot the supernova?

   

NGC 6405