Hampstead Observatory

Saturday 6th April 2013.

To Hampstead and my first visit to its observatory. Belonging to Hampstead Scientific Society this site is open to the public on clear weekend nights from September to April. I, like many London amateur astronomers, have heard of the observatory through being featured in a past Sky At Night programme. The recent poor weather having abated and clear skies likely on the Saturday evening I ventured north a short distance to the observatory.

It's a building looking like what an observatory should be! - a dome with a shed attached.

Its history is recounted on the Society's website.

I arrived at the appointed time of 20:00 and was lead into the dome by its volunteers. Inside the 6" Cooke refractor resides: a Late Victorian model given to the Society in the 1920s.

Its equatorial mount and concrete pilar was renovated in the the 1970s, upgraded to a infra-red controlled clock motor. The fabric of the dome roof has been replaced recently at a cost of £5000 paid for by subscription.

Douglas Daniels, the president of the Society, fired up the Cooke to show me a view of Jupiter, Io and Europa through low and medium magnification. Perhaps forty other visitors, young and old, were able to use the Cooke within the hour; Douglas was assisted well by the help of two other keen volunteers. It is important to know the observatory thrives through the work of volunteers without any external funding.

My evening in Hampstead concluded with a short stroll to edge of the Heath to observe comet PanSTARRS through a 6" Schmidt-Cassegrain. The celestial visitor appeared much dimmer and less defined than when I first saw it on 13th March at Regent's Park.

I recommend any London-based astro who has not done so to visit the Hampstead Observatory.