Great Shefford Observatory

The Great Shefford Observatory is a private astronomical observatory situated in West Berkshire, England, about 60 miles west of central London, run by me, Peter Birtwhistle.

The observatory has been fully operational since 26 May 2002 (see our first light image at right) with a 12" diameter telescope and electronic camera (CCD). A programme of astrometry was started on 30th May 2002. Observatory code J95 was allocated to Great Shefford Observatory by the Minor Planet Center in June 2002.

In June 2005 the 12" telescope was upgraded to a 16" and in September 2005 the CCD was also upgraded, allowing fainter objects to be detected.

First light picture from Great Shefford Observatory

The work done at Great Shefford is primarily:

following up newly discovered Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) to help improve their orbits so their position can eventually be predicted far into the future to check they don't endanger the Earth
cometary astrometry, concentrating on the fainter objects that don't get quite so much attention as many of the brighter objects.

Other objects are also imaged, including Gamma Ray Bursters, Supernovae, some unusual man-made satellites and deep sky objects.

Please have a look around and see some of the things I've been doing and check out the What's new page for recent changes.

Aircraft interloper "frozen" by strobe tail light

14 second exposure taken on 31 Jan 2009 at 21:50 UT.
Field of view 18' x 18'.

An aircraft passes through the field of view as images were being taken of a newly discovered Near Earth Object.

In the 14 second long exposure an aircraft passes completely through the field of view. Wing tip lights cause long continuous diagonal streaks (top left and centre) while the strobe light on the underside of the fuselage (left, below centre) instantaneously illuminates the trails left by the two jet engines, "freezing" their movement. The right hand wing is also dimly visible at bottom left.

The aircraft may be an Airbus A320 which has a wingspan of 111 ft 10 in and if so was approximately 27,000 ft, or 5 miles away when the image was taken.

(archive of home page pictures)

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