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Posted by Dale Holt at 10:08 on 2010 Feb 16
Hello PaulI see Jim Hysom on a regular basis and his former senior optical engineer Es Reid at least once a week. Recently there has been a lot of interest in AE. A gentleman in Norfolk, Mark Stuccy has built up a fine collection of AE telescopes (may even be the full range!) It is his intention I belive to build a museum around these in North Norfolk in the near future. Es Reid has been working closely with Mark helping him to document the history of AE.If you send me an email I can put you in touch with EsDale
Posted by Callum Potter at 22:01 on 2010 Feb 15
I was talking to Jim Hysom at the Webb Society meeting last December at the IoA. Jim said he often still goes to Cambridge AS meetings, so you might catch him there if you wanted to chat with him.The f/3.9 20" mirror in my Dob was made by Jim. And I went to do a star party at a local school recently, and they carted out this 8" or 10" reflector, which was an AE Optics skeleton scope, just like David describes.Callum
Posted by David Arditti at 21:51 on 2010 Feb 15
I used an AE Dall-Kirkham-Dall Cassegrain for some time. It was featured in a paper I wrote for the Journal (Vol 117 no 3) and I still have a webpage on it here:http://www.davidarditti.co.uk/astro/DKD.htmHowever it is now sold to a new owner. The new owner has a collection of AE scopes which he has lovingly restored. This collection also includes the smaller of Martin’s two AE Newtonians. However, he has no website concerning his collection.AE ceased production around 1980 I think. Jim Hysom, who ran it, continued to make optics under a new company name of Hytel for some time after that. He is now retired, but a restoration job he did for me on the above telescope was one of the last jobs he did.There is not much on the web about AE telescopes. There are still quite a few in use and they sometimes come up on sale on websites such as UK Astronomy Buy&Sell. A feature of the Newtonians generally was the skeleton construction with a single-legged secondary support, which allowed the whole secondary and focuser assembly to be moved up and down the tube, so easily facilitating the different focus positions needed for visual and photographic use. AE scopes were solidly-built and optically excellent and good value for their time, but I expect (hope) Jim will not mind me saying they were necessarily rather crude compared to what is available to amateurs today, and there would be little purpose in acquiring one today except for the historic interest and as a "period-piece".
Posted by Paul A Brierley at 17:54 on 2010 Feb 15
Dale Holt wrote:
What happened to that big reflector of his I wonder?Kind regards, DaleThat is a very good question Dale. It certainly did look impressive and I liked the novel approach for Paul’s observatory.When I had finished watching the video. I did a search to see whether there are, any UK based manufactures who make Fork Mounts, with large telescopes, of the type Paul was using. Sadly I didn’t find anything, which I thought was sad.I’d much rather use a Fork mounted reflector, over a Equatorial mounted reflector any day. I’m sure if Patrick was on here he wood agree.It is my wish to own a large telescope before or when I retire. And use it for visual Planetary and Lunar work. If I can find a 15" fork mounted telescope then I’d be very happy.In the mean time I’ll make do with my Orion SPX 200-800 "AG" on it’s Losmandy G11.
Posted by Dale Holt at 12:34 on 2010 Feb 15
I did enjoy it very much Paul. The Saturn drawing titorial he did with Patrick was superb, his brush control when painting in colour on the globe and black sky background was something to behold, he really was a master.I’m even more desperate now to find copies of his art work and more about him?What happened to that big reflector of his I wonder?Kind regards, Dale
Posted by Nick James at 17:48 on 2010 Feb 13
Kim,Yes, we plan to keep posting the videos but there have been some technical problems with the recording equipment at Burlington House. I have the material from the last meeting in January but the sound quality is poor since the speakers (including me) forgot to use the lapel mic. I hope to recover something from the footage though so keep an eye on the page.I certainly hope that we can do better in the future.Nick.
Posted by Sheridan Williams at 20:03 on 2010 Feb 12
Sheridan Williams wrote:
As many of you are aware one of my roles as Director of the Computing Section is to make available the whole archive of BAA Journals. This is progressing well and I am now only missing a small percentage of issues.If you have copies of:Vol.12 Nos.1,2,3,6,7,10Vol.13 Nos.1-10Vol.14 Nos.1,3-10Vol.20 Nos.1-10that you could let me have (on loan, or as a permanent gift) please contact me on: baa@clock-tower.comPosted by Sheridan Williams at 19:59 on 2010 Feb 12
The problem I have is that it is very tedious and inaccurate to scan bound issues. Ideally I want copies that I can chop off the spine and feed them through my duplex sheet feeder scanner. Then I can OCR them and avoid having to stand over the scanner for hours on end. By the way, they are not simply scans of the Journal, they are fully searchable, copy and pasteable, bookmarked products.I desperately want issues that I can chop up. The reward is that I will let the donors have a DVD containing all the issues absolutely free of charge.This is a labour of love, and I’ve already spent over a year (of spare time of course) scanning. It’s the last 10% that are the problem.Once the Journals are available on the new website I’m sure people will realise what a superb resource they are, and will be willing to help me complete the collection.I’m doing this in my new role as Director of the Computing Section.
Posted by Len Entwisle at 18:54 on 2010 Feb 12
Hi Paul , Looks like a service trip is about to happen on the BRT between 13 th and 22nd February 2010 .Kruger 60 is relatively close for us to pick up the motion over a few years . There are some nice orbital diagrams out there to have a look at !Len E
Posted by Paul A Brierley at 18:42 on 2010 Feb 12
Thanks Len,I will give this ago with the BRT and it’s galaxy camera. But I think it will be a while, because I last heard they had problems with guiding, and focusing.
Posted by Callum Potter at 17:46 on 2010 Feb 12
I think I have fixed the problem with the frontpage latest news tabs/scroller on Safari.So if you use a Mac or Safari based browser, would appreciate it if you could try it out and let me know if the problem persists.Thanks, Callum
Posted by Len Entwisle at 12:04 on 2010 Feb 12
Hi Paul , You may find this webpage of interest http://washedoutastronomy.com/content/kruger-60 . Kruger 60B component is a flare star DO Cephei . Might be worth a try with the Bradford Robotic Telescope Galaxy camera ? Let us alll know how you get on,Best wishes , Len E
Posted by Paul A Brierley at 20:10 on 2010 Feb 11
Know problem Dale,I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.
Posted by Dale Holt at 14:16 on 2010 Feb 10
Thanks for those comments Paul, heartfelt and very true I’m sure.I wish I had enjoyed the privilege of meeting with Paul Doherty :(I have however had the pleasure of speaking to Chris Doherty via telephone on one occasion at the end of last summer. Patrick put him in touch with me. I told him how much I enjoyed his Fathers work which pleased him, he said he would try and copy any work his Mother still had and send it onto me (he is a professional photographer I understand). Unfortunately I have never heard back from him and as he called me I have not been able to make contact again.Indeed it would be nice to see a paper or an even more extensive work bringing together details of Paul’s life work in Astronomy.Kind regards, DaleP.S…I grabbed a copy of S@N mag with the CD, thanks again for the tip off Paul 🙂
Posted by Paul A Brierley at 12:51 on 2010 Feb 10
I new Paul quite well. He was an Honorary member of Macclesfield Astronomical Society, until his sad and untimely death during the late 1990s. I was privileged to meet him on a good number of occasions. He was in my opinion, together with Harold Hill and Sir Patrick Moore, one of England’s great visual observer’s.I wish his son Chris could put a book together showcasing Paul’s work.
Posted by Andrea Tasselli at 21:57 on 2010 Feb 08
Thanks Callum.Let’s see if it works this time round. A new Saturn image but not a lot better than the other one. Challenging object to image though and the seeing was kind awful at that time. Let’s hope I’ll get lucky one day…Andrea T.
Posted by Kim Burton at 19:14 on 2010 Feb 08
I’ve only now found the new website, certainly is different to the old one. Not sure if the changes are for the best though. I’ve found that I can’t navigate the new site with either my Netgem iPlayer (web enabled TV digi box) or Apple iPod touch. Both devices are unable to use the pull down menus. The iPlayer shows all the links in the wrong place as blank hotspots and the iPod doesn’t have a mouse over message to pull the menus down. Also the page seems a little wide for smaller screens.
Posted by Dale Holt at 13:21 on 2010 Feb 08
Hi Paul, Many thanks for that information that is most exciting. Patrick & Paul were very close friends. I Don’t subscribe to that magazine but will try to get a copy of the CD.Thanks again for your time taken to respond.Warmest regards, Dale
Posted by Paul A Brierley at 20:11 on 2010 Feb 07
HI Dale,I can’t help you with the drawings. But have you seen the February Sky at Night CD?There’s a fantastic archive Sky at Night program, featuring Paul with his telescope in Stoke on Trent.
