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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. |
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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. |
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The work done at Great Shefford is primarily:
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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
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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.
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Telescope mounting being tested March 2008
Engineer Steve examines the (upside-down) fork mounting with the
16" telescope lying to its
right. An unrelated blue 12" LX200 telescope is at top right.
An equipment failure on 12 March 2008 kept the observatory out
of operation for a week.
Various symptoms including the Ra & Dec
motors stalling, the GPS system not operating and the handset not retaining
settings led to both the telescope and fork mounting being dismantled and
returned to Telescope House (the UK Meade distributor) for investigation.
Eventually after extensive testing, all the problems were identified with a failing 18V 2A
mains transformer, which was replaced with a 13.8V 5A unit and normal operation
resumed on 19 March 2008 following the re-commissioning of telescope and
mounting within the observatory.
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