Astronomy

This site last updated on 13/08/2003

I have a home made 8" F5.96 Newtonian reflector which is housed in an observatory at the bottom of the garden. I live in South east Kent on the coast and am lucky to have a reasonably dark observing site with good horizons all round. Being on the coast my Eastward horizon is over the channel and once an object clears the house It is in the darkest part of the sky and is in an ideal location for observing right through the Zenith and beyond. I don't have a particular interest but try to have a look at all types of objects.

I go to the meetings held by the South East Kent astronomical society and tried to learn as much as I could through text books like "Universe" by Freedman and Kaufmann and although I learnt a lot from this there were still some things I didn't quite get so I knew I needed to take education further and decided to learn through the open university and enrolled in their course S194 "An introduction to astronomy" The course was quite basic being an introduction but I still learnt a great deal from it, after passing this course I enrolled in another S196 "Planets an introduction" this will be starting in September 2003. If all goes well I hope to take a longer more involved course next year. I highly recommend the open university as a means of study.