The book charts the progress of the author's own substantial observatory from conception to construction. It describes the author's choice of equipment, setting it up, and his own techniques for obtaining superb astronomical images like those displayed.

My Heavens! describes how to set up a high class amateur observatory. Written by a qualified building surveyor, it looks at the planning, building and construction from a professional viewpoint. The book tells the "warts and all" story of small beginnings in amateur astronomy, leading to the construction of a "top of the range" observatory at a house on the edge of a country village between Oxford and London. Comparisons are made with similar large projects in the USA. Eventually an observatory materializes, set up to facilitate the taking of very high quality images of the deep sky. The story doesn't end with the construction of the observatory, but goes on to describe the author's choice of equipment, setting it up, and his own techniques for obtaining superb astronomical images like those displayed in his book.

Describes how to set up a high class amateur observatory Written by a qualified building surveyor, it looks at the planning, building and construction from a professional viewpoint For those with more modest ambitions, the book offers many hints, tips and design features for smaller observatories Points out the pitfalls to beware of! Gives an overview of deep sky imaging not an expert tutorial, but a first-hand guide from novice to experienced observer Adds some entertaining vignettes of members of the world amateur astronomical fraternity

Autorentext

Gordon Rogers lives in England. He is a qualified building surveyor, a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors as well as a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. His beautiful deep-sky images regularly appear in the astronomical magazines. He contributed a chapter to More Small Observatories, by Sir Patrick Moore (Springer, 2002). He lives in what is probably the only traditional English part-thatched cottage to feature an observatory dome!

Klappentext

Perhaps you are already a stargazer using a small telescope you bring out to your back yard on clear nights. Perhaps you have a larger telescope that is mounted outside and protected from inclement weather. Perhaps you just dream of someday owning a fancy telescope set-up and turning it skyward to view the neighboring planets and moons of the Solar System or the stars that wink at you from millions of miles away.

Whether you might want to undertake building an over-the-top dome observatory yourself or not, you are sure to enjoy this informative tale by Gordon Rogers, told with humor and humility, of his torturous but ultimately rewarding experience with building for himself, attached to his own home, a fancy and sophisticated dome observatory, just for the pleasure of sky watching on beautiful nights (of which there are far too few in England!). Read about all the thinking and planning that went into this venture, and the options considered and rejected. Read about the choices and mistakes made along the way. Finally, read and discover the joys of sky watching using state-of-the-art equipment, and share in the author's frustrations and triumphs as he completed this project of a lifetime.

Inhalt
Why Astronomy?.- Aperture Fever.- What Type of Observatory?.- Town and County Planning.- Construction.- Telescopic Equipment Update.- The Opening Ceremony and Sky at Night.- Cameras, Computers, and Software.- Wrinkles Galore.- Photographic Results.- Stargate 4173 at Grimaldi Tower.- The Spring Gulch Observatory, Jackson Hole, Wyoming.- Public Reaction.- A Few Last Thoughts.- Resources.