La Société Guernesiaise
Astronomy Section Observatory
The site and
buildings
The Section's Observatory is located at Rue du Lorier, St Pierre du Bois, Guernsey, about 100 metres up the road from La Houguette School. It was opened in April 1991 by Heather Couper and Nigel Henbest, and a further roll-off roof building was opened by the late Sir Patrick Moore in 1993.
The main building was constructed in 1943 as part of the German Mirus gun battery complex. It is contains a meeting room suitable for up to 20 people. An adjoining room contains a library and basic kitchen facilities. The nearby telescope building has a motorised roll-off roof. It houses the 16-inch Meade reflecting telescope and 5-inch refractor. Externally there is a concrete pad with electricity supply, for placing telescopes, especially the 11-inch Celestron. Space for additional telescopes is provided by a grassed area.
Instrumentation
includes:
§ 16-inch (40 cm) LX200 Meade computerised catadioptric telescope, permanently mounted on a concrete pier in a building with a roll-off roof.
§ 5-inch (12.5 cm) Takahashi refractor, mounted on the 16-inch telescope.
§ Celestron Nexstar 8SE SCT GoTo telescope.
§ Skywatcher Esprit 80mm triplet refractor with flattener.
§ Skywatcher Startravel 120mm refractor.
§ Skywatcher Startravel 80mm refractor.
§ Celestron
Astromaster 130 Newtonian reflector.
§ Heliostat
for solar observing: 6-inch (15 cm) diameter, 70-ft (21 m) focal length,
producing an image 7 inches (18 cm) diameter.
§ Skywatcher HEQ5 GoTo mount.
§ Skywatcher EQ5 manual mount.
§ 11-inch (28 cm) Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, mounted on a moveable trolley.
§ Variety of eyepieces, field flatteners, etc.
§ Bahtinov focusing masks.
§ FLI CCD camera, with flip-mirror filter holder.
§ Philips Toucam webcam.
§ ZW Optical ASI 290 mono planetary camera and filters.
§ Starlight Xpress Oculus All-Sky
camera. (Click here for link to live images.)
§ Star Analyser SA-100 grating for spectroscopy.
§ Celestron NexYZ Phone Scope Adapter.
§ Various
eyepieces, filters, camera adapters and other accessories.
§ Hard landscaped areas for setting up observing/imaging equipment, with external power supplies.
§ PC computers with astronomical software and Broadband Internet access.
§ Ceiling-mounted projector for presentations.
Visiting the Observatory
The Observatory is open to the public on certain Thursday evenings, as shown on our events page. A donation (eg adults £2, children £1) to assist with running costs is welcomed. The Astronomy Section also welcomes group visits, by prior arrangement. See our introduction page for details. For directions to the Observatory click here (pdf file). For a risk assessment and guidance for visitors click here (pdf file).
Past projects have
included:
- Astrophotography of planets, comets and deep-sky objects.
- Spectroscopic studies of celestial objects.
- Stacking images taken with the webcam.
- Viewing all the Messier Objects.
- Viewing the Caldwell catalogue objects.
- Seasonal Observing Programme.
- Satellite tracking with the Meade telescope.
- Photography of one Lunar Month.
- CCD Mosaics of the Moon.
- Tri-colour CCD Imaging.
- Schmidt Camera Photography of Extended Objects.
- Perseid meteor counts.
- Partial and total solar eclipse observations.
- Total lunar eclipse observations.
- Transit of Venus observations.
- Occultation observations.
- Construction of a solar telescope.
- Construction of a vertical sundial.
Some of our results can be seen on The Gallery pages.
The Observatory, Rue du Lorier, St Peter's, Guernsey.
Telephone: (01481) 264252
This page was last updated on 2019 March 26.