Peterborough Astronomical Society

Member	About
Jo Costura	It was my Dad who got me into astronomy - from a very early age I accompanied him to the Cranfield observatory - holding the ladder, sniffing the lub oil fumes, working out the mysteries of sidereal time by red torchlight ... but in recent years the dark skies of my Lincolnshire home finally got too tempting and I bought my first telescope in Winter 2009. My earliest astronomical memory is blacking out a piece of paper and then burning a Mars shape hole in it using the 16" Cassegrain - at least that's how the memory goes... can you really do that? If you can't then I claim instead sunspot observing from our caravan as a child - using greaseproof paper, a balsa wood bracket and a small telescope. Very Blue Peter - I am now an engineer. My favourite object to look at - M42 Orion's sword - viewed from our patio in Northorpe with my William Optic 90mm Refractor with Vixen mount .... no electronics as yet - best with hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps. Astronomical ambition - One day hook up my DSLR and take a picture of M42 in Orion's belt - can I do that? I'm really interested in getting together with others for observing nights.
John Mackey	My interest in astronomy started when I was a child and I found my dad had an old pair of binoculars and I used them to view the heavens. Some years later I managed to build a 2” refractor from a lens I bought from a junk shop. Although the view was a bit blurred it was better than my dad’s old binoculars. My parents then moved to a house that was surrounded by open country side and I bought a 6 “ reflector. Living now in Peterborough I often wish I could enjoy the dark skies I had at my parent’s house. I have spent the last few years trying to perfect my imaging techniques. My present equipment consists of a 130mm F6 APO Refractor and an 8” RC ( Ritchey-Chretien ) astrograph together with an Atik 16HR CCD camera and a modded Canon 350d DSLR.
Brenda Kilby	As one of the most senior members of PAS, I can look back over some 30 years to the moment the Society was formed! My interest in Astronomy dates back to my pre-teenage years, when my Dad introduced me to the constellations. Since then, both astronomy and I have covered a lot of ground. During my lifetime Hubble discovered Galaxies, the Big Bang was generally accepted as the beginning of time and space, black holes were at first theoretical and then fact, planets around other stars were predicted and then found, etc, etc. So many leaps forward in knowledge in one lifetime, and its not over yet (the lifetime I mean!) My main fascination is nebulae - the birthplace of stars. Hundreds and hundreds of these enthralling clouds of star stuff, each one unique in shape, size and colour. Wonderful!
Martin Hall	Well ever since I saw that iconic picture of Buzz Aldrin standing on the Moon's surface when I was about 5 years old I've been hooked on Astronomy & Spaceflight. I also did my first observations of the Moon at that young age with a pair of 8x40 binoculars that my parents got me for christmas which I still own now, but following the close approach of comet Hale-Bopp in 1997 plus a magnificent display of the Leonid meteor shower in 1998 I decided to purchase a telescope and get more familiar with the night sky. Nowadays I own a backyard observatory and spend most of my time observing deep sky objects and any comets that maybe passing by.
Phil Shepherd	I have always been interested in astronomy but waited until the early 90's to get my first proper scope - a Tasco 4 inch reflector. I quickly moved onto being interested in imaging & built a Cookbook Camera in 1996. I started taking unguided images shortly after & then acquired a Meade LX-90. After a few more years, I upgraded to an LX-200 10 inch. I acquired various refractors over the years and am currently using a William Optics ZS66, Kson 102mm and 2 reflectors - a Skywatcher 8" and an Orion Optics 10" in a carbon fibre tube made by a friend of mine. I am imaging using a Starlight Express SXVR-H16 and guide with a Lodestar. All of this within a slide-off roof observatory, from Alexander Observatories.
Keith Townsend	I blame PC World! In the late 90’s, looking for some computer bits, I found (and bought) Redshift, which was on special offer. This opened up detailed information about the night sky and prompted my first telescope – a Tasco 4” reflector on a rickety wooden tripod. The fever took hold however and after several attempts at photographing the moon through my 10” Orion reflector, using an old 35mm camera, the new technology that appeared in the early ‘noughties’, provided modified webcams for taking long exposures. The rest of the story is a trail of expenditure, frustration, satisfaction and, quite frankly ‘awe’ at what can now-a-days be produced from your own back yard.

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