“Spring Guide to the Night Sky” public event.. totally horrible, rainy and windy weather at 5pm. Event starts 6.30pm..

All clear! Plus very clean skies, after all the rain. Looked at 1st magnitude stars as they appeared from the twilight, then observed Orion and Saturn.  

We also saw two great fly-overs of the International Space Station (ISS) – the second pass was particularly bright.

About, 25 Cub Scouts came along with their Cub leaders.. made for a busy event.

Plus, I tried my Canon Digital SLR Camera in the mighty Alan Young 22.5″ telescope.

Fitted well mechanically, but poor images..

Here’s an example of an out-of-focus Betegeuse in Orion.

In Sufficient Focusser In-Travel On Star Betelgeuse

Insufficient in-travel on the focusser… It was not possible to move the camera in close enough, to bring the image to focus.

The difference between the Canon and the Mintron camera that’s usually used with this telescope, is the position of the ccd chip within the camera body. The Mintron has its chip very close to the front of the lens opening. The Canon’s chip however, is much deeper within the body.

However, we were much encouraged by the likely light-gathering power and plan to modify the focusser to move it’s travel inside of the tube. (We did consider moving the mirrors instead, to push the focal plane further outside of the telescope tube, but felt this would be too radical)

Stay tuned!

This will work, one way or another and deliver good results!

In my previous post here, I said the restoration of the Alan Telescope was nearly finished.

We had a meeting on Monday night and there is a problem with the Declination axis motor drive.

It has worked OK up to now, but the 30 year old arrangement has now given up.

The telescope has a fine pitch worm screw, driven by a reversible DC electric motor. The worm acts on a small rack section, which we unbolt and move around a large (30 inch diameter) declination circle, made from metal.

The screw has started to slip and there is no obvious remedy, other than replacement.

So I have have been talking to telescope specialists, such as the excellent Beacon Hill telescopes, about how to fix it for the long term.

We may have to purchase and fit a large worm wheel and worm set, to provide a more accurate, reliable drive.

This will cost a fair bit of money.

Alternatively, we are considering a “tangent arm” threaded rod arrangement. this will be cheaper and easier to fit.

I shall let you know here, what happens next…

This 22.5 inch reflector carried out important work on supernovae in the 1970′s and 80′s, operated at Burwash in Sussex, by it’s designer and builder Alan Young.

It then lay dismantled and unused for many years, before coming into the hands of Cranbrook School. Volunteers at their astronomy society have worked over the last couple of years to restore the telescope to operation.

The restoration project is now reaching the final stages.

Here’s a close-up picture of the recently fitted Crayford focusser with a custom motordrive. The arrangement will permit careful adjustment of the focus, from the observatory floor level. This is essential…

As you can see here, from this picture of the Mintron camera being fitted to the focusser. It is many feet up and requires an access tower to reach safely.

In the bottom picture, the declination axis drive is being adjusted.

The telescope is expected to be fully operational soon.