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My interest in astronomy was started, like many schoolboys, by my father pointing out to me some of the constellations he knew. My interest was sufficiently kindled, that by the time I started work I wanted to build my own telescope. This was greatly helped by the fact that one of the members of staff in the small office in which I worked had already built his own 18 cm (7") telescope. I set to and copied the same design but bought Wildey optics, and what's more, mine was a full 21 cm (8.5") in diameter! I still have these optics although they are not mounted and require re-aluminising.
Having seen most of the worthwhile objects in the night sky I was next fortunate to join the Crayford Manor House Astronomical Society. Under the tutelage of Gordon Taylor I learnt much about observing meteors, occultations and observing lunar domes - a project we ran at Crayford for a year or so - great fun. Around this time I also became greatly interested in Jupiter and Saturn and made many transit timings of the markings on the former.
Despite being introduced to variable stars in 1967 it was not until the early seventies that they started to become more and more part of my life. 1970 had brought marriage and a new location in Kent. But the Medway valley proved poor for planetary work but quite satisfactory for variable stars. In due course I became director of the variable star section at Crayford.
The 1980's saw John Wall building a 16” Newtonian telescope for me. This went through a number of transformations and ultimately was the telescope with which I started CCD astronomy. During this period we had a number of lectures on photoelectric photometry (PEP) at Crayford and so I started building/acquiring equipment to make my own photometer, greatly assisted by other members. I used this equipment with moderate success for the next 10 years or so. By this time I was also Secretary of Crayford.
The 1990’s saw the introduction of the CCD into amateur astronomy, and in due course I purchased my own. But whilst the 16” had been fine for visual observing and even PEP it was not suitable for CCD observing. So, when I took early retirement and we moved to Herefordshire, I purchased a second-hand Meade 30 cm LX200 and sold the 16” to another Crayford member. However, before that, in 1999, Gary Poyner, asked if I’d consider becoming Director of the BAAVSS, a post which I still hold and enjoy today.
Since moving to Herefordshire I’ve joined the newly formed Marches Astronomy Group and have tried to help them whenever possible by giving talks – usually on my favourite topic of variable stars!
Although virtually all my observing is carried out using a CCD nowadays, and has been for some time, before that I was a dedicated visual observer and so like most observers I grew up observing the moon and planets.
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