Archive of Home Page Pictures 

2003 Jul - 2004 Jan

2004 Jan - 2005 Apr

Great Shefford Observatory January 2004
(The security guard is our cat Gizmo. He must not be fed after midnight)

(Gizmo died in 2006)

2005 Apr - 2006 May

 
Great Shefford Observatory April 2005
A pair of peacocks have been daily visitors to the Observatory in 2005, a young male is seen here in the late afternoon sunshine

2006 May - 2007 Jan
MACE 2006  (Meeting on Asteroids and Comets in Europe)  photo: Peter Birtwhistle

On Sunday 14th May 2006 astronomers discuss the meteorites on display at the Vienna Natural History Museum at the end of proceedings of the 4th MACE meeting which was held at the Kuffner Observatory in Vienna.
(From left to right) Roger Dymock, Christoph Goldmann, Armin Faltl, Richard Miles and Edwin Goffin listen as Monty Robson talks about one of the meteorites on display.

2007 Jan - 2007 Feb
Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught) photo: Peter Birtwhistle

Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught) rises above farm buildings in Great Shefford at 07:22 am, 50 minutes before sunrise on 8th January 2007, four days before perihelion.
Appearing as bright as the brightest stars, comet and tail were obvious to the naked eye through thin cloud.
Comet was 4° above horizon, Sun 7° below horizon, elongation from Sun 13.8°.
Main image approx. 27°x15°, insert approx. 3°x2°. 1.8s exposure, 19mm focal length with effective aperture f/5.3.

2007 Feb - 2007 Jul
Winter in Great Shefford 
photo: Peter Birtwhistle

A wintry scene was created as snow fell for several hours on 8th February 2007.
With winters getting warmer this is now a fairly uncommon sight in Great Shefford.

2007 Jul - 2008 Mar
Summer floods in Great Shefford 
photo: Jack Birtwhistle

After hours of torrential rain on 20th July 2007 the observatory is surrounded by water but stayed dry inside.
Flash floods in Great Shefford caused plenty of local damage and disruption, but the water subsided the same day.
Gloucestershire (less than 50 miles to the north west) fared much worse, with houses under water for up to a week.

2008 Mar -
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.