The World's Largest 8-inch Telescope

Vista is a 4-metre telescope being built and commissioned in Chile. It is designed to carry out wide field surveys in the infra-red and will be fitted with a 67 megapixel camera. It is currently awaiting delivery of the main optics which are nearing completion in Russia.

Green Witch has supplied an 8-inch Maksutov-Cassegrain optical tube assembly modified to fit into the VISTA tube. It will be used for pointing and tracking tests. When VISTA is completed it will be a very impressive telescope and will open up whole new fields of research. In the meantime, until its main optics arrive, it will (probably) be the world's largest 8-inch telescope.

For more information visit the vista web site.

New Nexstar 6SE

We've just taken delivery of our display Nexstar 6SE and it looks very nice indeed. Using a single arm to support the metallic orange tube it is compact and very smart. The tube can be removed to allow other optical tube assemblies to be used, such as a William Optics short-tube refractor. The steel tripod is very stable and is included in the package price of 699 pounds.

There is an autoguider input and plenty of clearance between the back of the tube and the base to allow quite a large camera to be mounted. The attachment method allows the tube to be moved forward to maintain balance. Rear cell fittings are the same as the larger SCTs so accessories such as a focal reducer can be used. In fact we fitted a Celestron f/6.3 focal reducer and a Meade DSI to see what it looked like and are keen to try this on the sky.

We expect the Nexstar 6SE to prove very popular and it is now in our online catalogue.

Sundials

When we started selling replica antique instruments I have to admit that I did not know very much about the instruments being reproduced. I'm a bit more knowledgeable now but have barely scratched the surface of of this fascinating field of study. Many of the instruments are sundials and I've discovered that these deceptively simple-looking devices are more complex than they seem. Studying them makes you think a lot more deeply about the way the Earth moves around the Sun.

The British Sundial Society is a useful source of information and I recommend their web site as a good place to start. They have a time line on the page called 'chronology' which you'll find under 'Formulae and Glossary' that I found particularly interesting. Visit their site to learn more and for details of the imminent conference in Cambridge.

Space Debris

Did you see the news report about the airliner that narrowly missed a collision with falling Russian space debris on Tuesday night? According to the report I read the debris was a cargo vehicle that hit the atmosphere twelve hours ahead of the expected time and was seen burning up just a few miles ahead of the aircraft giving the crew quite a shock. It could be heard over the noise of the jet engines. Thirty five seconds later they  flew through the space where the debris had been.

When I worked at the RGO we undertook a study of space debris with SIRA and the University of Kent to determine the feasibility of detecting and tracking space debris with optical telescopes, both from the ground and from space. At the time it was possible to track debris measuring a metre or more by radar. Space craft could be shielded against tiny particles but this left a whole population of debris too small for radar to track and too large to shield against. Our study showed that optical telescopes around a metre aperture would be very effective for detecting and monitoring space debris from the ground. Interestingly enough, the study showed that ground-based telescopes were good at detecting debris in high orbits but space-based telescopes were better at detecting debris in low orbits.

(P.S. Reports on the web now indicate that the 'debris' was unlikely to be the Russian space craft and may have been one or more meteors.)

Paul O'Grady is looking for Young Astronomers

Jessica is a TV researcher and she plans to visit the Cambridge Young Astronomers' meeting tomorrow morning (Saturday 31st March 2007) to look for a couple of young astronomers to appear on the Paul O'Grady show. If you fit into this category and fancy your chances of appearing on TV why not go along at 10 am? The CYA Saturday meetings are open to 7 to 11-year-olds and are very popular. My daughter used to go when she was that age and thoroughly enjoyed it. More details can be found on the CAA web site.

Astroblast 2007

The countdown to Astroblast has begun and it is now only three weeks away. Make sure the date of April 21st is in your diary; we hope to see you for what is sure to be a great day out. Visit www.astroblast.org.uk  for more details.

We've written to a large number of schools inviting them to take part in a poster competition. All that is required is to produce an A3 poster designed to attract young people to consider a career in Astronomy and Space, and to bring it along on the day. The winning school will be given a computer-controlled telescope. Any school can enter, even if they haven't received the letter or have lost it.

And finally...

I've just taken delivery of a Leica V-Lux 1 digital camera. It has a 12x optical zoom lens which goes from 35 to 420mm (35mm equivalent) and I wanted it for bird photography in Arizona. I plan to practice with it through this summer then hopefully take some pictures for the web site on my next visit to the Arizona Sky Village. Some of my earlier efforts with a simpler camera can be seen here

Best wishes and Clear Skies

Neil