Astronomy

I have been interested in astronomy and cosmology for some time and read the magazines and wondered about investing in a telescope. I attended an astronomy summer school and then saw an advertisement for a cheap package from Meade (one of the largest telescope makers) so took the risk and bought it. I could now see if I was really interested in standing out in the cold backyard trying to peer through a high level of light pollution!

Well, I have been hooked and now own Meade LX90 and LX200GPS 10" telescopes as well as my first telescope, a Meade ETX 70AT, which I use as a travel scope and for sun and moon astrophotography. My observations of the Sun were improved by the addition of a Coronado Maxscope 40 (H-alpha) scope as pride of place in breakfast party we held for the Venus transit.

I have played with digital camera images and CCD pictures with a CCD eyepiece and also a home-built AstroCam. A Starlight Xpress MX7C colour CCD is now added to my collection.

I have included many photographs in the following pages. I have found that I gained greatest benefit from other's websites with pictures and explanations of the very simple things in astronomy and telescopes. Please forgive the longer loading times of some pages but they were built this way in the hope that they would be more useful - read the text whilst the images load!

The links at the top of the Astronomy pages take you to the main sections, however the links below will help you on your way:

Observations	I have found that looking at other's experiences, methods and results have been both a humbling and an encouraging activity. The fantastic things some people achieve have spurred me on, whilst I have been encouraged but some of my first attempts compared to other published results. My observations cover several areas including:
	ETX 70AT LX 90 LX200GPS 10" Coronado Maxscope 40 H-alpha Solarscope Coronado CaK PST Meade Electronic Eyepiece Home-built AstroCam & ToUcam Meade LPI Starlight Xpress MX7C CCD camera 35mm film pictures with Canon EOS 650 Canon Digital cameras: G1 and 10D Binocular: Canon 10x30 IS Star Spectrocope	Sun: white light, H-alpha & CaK Moon Planets Comets & Asteroids Deep Sky Messier Objects Caldwell Objects Lunar 100 Eclipses
ETX 70AT	The Meade ETX 70AT was my first telescope. Here I discuss the initial problems and successes I had with the telescope - some of which may be of help to any 'newbie' to astronomy.

LX90

The Meade ETX 70AT scope got my interest fired up and soon I was moving to add a larger telescope to my collection. This is a very different machine - not a 'starter' telescope but a sensible step from my first machine.

LX200GPS 10"		My latest scope is a Meade LX200GPS 10" which is a step up from the LX90 with improved operation and facilities.
	Coronado MaxScope40	The Transit of Venus in June 2004 tipped the scales for my purchase of a H-alpha telescope. Seeing the Sun's prominences for the first time in my own backyard was similar to the first views of Saturn's rings or Jupiter's moons.
AstroCam		I purchased a Meade Electronic Eyepiece from an exhibition and got interested in electronic imaging, having already used my digital camera for capturing through-the-eyepiece images. These led me to search out astro-imaging sites on the web; many of these sites described the use of WebCam for astro-imaging. I have converted a Philips ToUcam for use as an eyepiece.

LINKS to Astronomical sites, Books, & Software which I have found really Useful and Interesting