I have been interested in astronomy since the mid 1960's when I had a second hand 100mm Newtonian reflector. Wanting a larger instrument I worked with a  colleague to construct a 300mm f5.8 Newtonian reflector (including the mirror). The telescope was mounted on an English equatorial mount and located in a home made observatory. The telescope gave good service for more than 25 years. As technology progressed I replaced the Newtonian with a 300mm f10 SCT.

After moving house some years ago it gave me the opportunity to re-configure the observatory to suit the SCT (which required less space than the Newtonian).

In the early days I carried out sketching of the planets and some basic astro-photography. More recently electronic imaging of the Sun, Moon and planets has been my main task. A 102mm f9.8 refractor with full solar filter is used for imaging the sun.

I have been a member of the Association since 1976 and have submitted observations / images to the Solar, Lunar Meteor and Planetary Sections.

Local society membership: Ewell Astronomical Society