(cont)

“That’s the beauty of astronomy – all you have to do is look up.” He says. “It’s amazing, the number of objects you can see without any additional equipment, and even when you do want to develop your experience a little, even a basic pair or binoculars from £25-£50 will reveal many more phenomena.”

Paul’s three instruments allow him to examine the variations and formations of stars, examine how the sun came into existence by viewing similar phenomena, and view the eerie but somehow beautiful nebulae – essentially gas clouds – which eventually form stars under nuclear fusion. In addition, Paul can make detailed studies of the planets and moons, by attaching his digital camera or webcam to produce stunning astrophotographs of Mars and Saturn, as well as the moon.

Whilst the telescope was first created in 1610, current technology is a boon for the amateur astronomer and the professional alike – Paul’s PC can generate accurate starcharts, his digital camera is ideal for taking more accurate astrophotographs and coordinates may be entered into modern electronic mounts to allow telescopes to track the sky, compensating for the movement of the Earth’s rotation. This is particularly handy for astrophotography when long exposures on a tripod end up catching star trails rather than static images as the Earth slowly rotates.

The mainstay of Paul’s instruments is an Equinox 80mm wide-angle refractor telescope, with a corrective lens to offer a high quality view of the sky with a wide field of vision. His slightly larger instrument is a 10” Newtonian reflector telescope – the measurement referring to the diameter of the lens – which can provide amazing close up images of galaxies. However, the pride of his collection must be the monster 14” Dobsonian Altazimeth instrument around two metres in height which Paul jokingly refers to as Thunderbird One. The trolley mounted instrument uses the mirror as a light bucket to make fainter objects a good deal brighter and is ideal for deep sky observation of objects that are much further away.

As we ventured outside a hard frost was beginning to form as the temperature fell to -5°c. Paul showed us that by using his Night Scenes book, and being able to identify North and the North Pole Star, it was easy to navigate to other phenomena in the night sky which the book’s monthly charts identified.