Dark Skies Officer

I am a passionate observational astronomer; the passion germinated within me as a child but didn’t reach potential for a number of reasons. My interest really took off in 1999 when I joined a few friends attending a talk given by Patrick Moore at the Civic Centre in St Albans, Hertfordshire. The blue touch paper had been lit and I haven’t looked back since.
I am an avid observer from both dark sky locations such as national Star Parties and from my beloved “Chippingdale” home observatory which is located a few miles from Buntingford in NE Hertfordshire under reasonably dark skies.
The observatory houses a number of telescopes which are equatorially mounted including a 105mm F15 refractor for Lunar, Solar & planetary work and an 14” F5 Newtonian for deep sky observing and high power planetary study.
I am also the proud owner of a 20” F3.7 Dobsonian reflector which was specifically designed for Deep Sky observing and accompanies me to dark sky locations for awesome views of the universe.
I am lucky also to have a 14” Newtonian which was my primary telescope for a number of years but now resides in the depths of the Lake District National Park on a friends' farm for use during my frequent visits there.