Overview
Welcome to my site dedicated to backyard astronomy. In these pages you will [eventually!] find sketches and notes of interesting objects and events I've observed and tips I've found useful. I've built a number of pieces of equipment to help with my observing and some of them will be described here. I've been actively observing the night sky since 1991. I prefer to observe purely visually and like to sketch what I see. I've had the scopes* I use now for over a decade and they fit my observing needs perfectly.
Most of my observing is done with my 8-inch scope. This is a decent size and will provide a lifetime of objects to look at, but is also small enough to be easily carried. My 3.5-inch scope is used for airline travel, or when I just want a very quick look (although it doesn't take much longer to set up the 8-inch!). I also use 8x40 binoculars which I first used to learn the sky. Binoculars are the best instrument for starting in astronomy, in my opinion, and even now I still use them regularly.
* -- well the optics anyway - the structures have been recently rebuilt for convenience.
All Updates
29 September 2006 major updates! Updated 8 inch scope and all associated equipment I've
been building over the last few months: equatorial platform, digital setting circles. More details at 8 inch details
16 March 2006 -- Updated Photos -- Las Campanas. Finally remembered to update almanac for the year in Mississauga observing conditions
6 October 2005 -- Site restored after a disk crash by hosting
company a week ago. I decided to pay their nominal charge to remove
banner adverts as well, which seems well worth it!
22 August 2005 -- Updated Recent Observations (M71)
30 June 2005 -- Updated Recent Observations (IC4665)
10 April 2005 -- Updated photos for binocular mount and chair now that the sunshine is back!
23 Mar 2005 -- Updated travel
scope, Photos (CTIO), and Recent
Observations. Returned to HTML as Google doesn't seem to have
indexed my PHP pages!
27 Feb 2005 -- moved to new webspace after Rogers decided to
screw their loyal customers. Website converted to PHP thanks to lots
of hard work by my wife!
Some browser dependent style problems...
7 Feb 2005 -- added recent observations to this page. Put up
preliminary version of 1992-3 logbook
26 Jan 2005 -- found better LCO
photos for Photos section.
22 Jan 2005 -- old scopes added.
6 Jan 2005 -- added links page. Some photos added.
27 Dec 2004 -- site created. Lots of my equipment photos are poor quality
as the light's not been good enough recently. These will be replaced
when time permits.