Building a Roll-off Roof Observatory
For a long time I wanted to have my own observatory for my telescope. It’s a 10″ Newtonian Reflector and with the mount it weighs a ton and takes about 40 minutes to set up… by which time in the UK, the clouds have rolled in again! So I set about looking for an observatory that gave me enough space to show visitors the views through the ‘scope. A dome would have been fine, but didn’t offer the best space option. The solution was a roll-off roof observatory, but the only company in the UK that used to make them, had stopped manufacturing, so I set about designing and sourcing my own.
I’d had an old brick garage in the back garden that we had demolished, and this left a convenient concrete base for the observatory. I managed to find a company in the Netherlands that did kit-built ‘log cabin’ style sheds, and a local garden structure company that were prepared to modify the standard shed so the roof could be rolled off.
The result can be seen in the timelapse video above, and gives me an eight foot square observatory that can be ready in a matter of moments!
Examples of the photos I have managed to take from the new set-up can be seen in the Gallery. In addition, as the concrete base from the old garage was 16′ by 8′, the area that the roof rolls off over made an ideal decking area to enjoy the British sunshine!
A field of poppies
A friend told us about a field of poppies being grown to the west of Basingstoke. Having been cooped up for ten weeks (apart from essential shopping and local walks), we decided to venture over there in the afternoon to see the field for ourselves. What a sight! The field was cordoned off (it is a crop grown for harvesting, after all) but it was possible to walk up the field on two sides to view the flowers.
Very spectacular, and I managed to get a few photos (well, ok, I actually took just over 200!)… A little bit of photoshop to enhance the colours and crop the images, and I think the results are quite pleasing. Should keep me in photos for use for Remembrance Day for many years to come!
If you know of a local (North Hampshire) sight worth seeing, please do let me know – I’d love to photograph it to add to my portfolio!
More photos of the poppies in the gallery.
Visitors to the garden
We noticed something was digging up the grass at the end of the garden, just under the hedge. Curious to see what it was, I set up the webcam again to capture any movement, day and night. Well we’re still not sure exactly what it might be, but we’ve seen a few visitors on the camera over the last couple of days!
Please ignore the timestamp on the videos – I’m still not able to get into the control panel of the camera to change it!
Tips for photographing the night sky
An experienced photographer friend asked me to provide some tips on photographing the night sky… This set me thinking about the various aspects that I take for granted but possibly might not be that well known. Here’s a few thoughts and hints, in no particular order – hope they help! Continue reading “Tips for photographing the night sky”
New gallery added to website
I’ve finally sorted out the layout issues with the gallery on this website, and it now displays some of my photographs… Click on the link to the gallery above. Clicking on a thumbnail will display the full image, and you can click left and right through the rest of the images without having to go back to the thumbnail view. Clicking the ‘x’ will close the lightbox.
These are some of the images that I consider to be my better shots – I hope you enjoy them! I look forward to reading your opinions of the photos in the comments below. Thank you.