Interests

In Autumn 2002 something clicked in my head and I decided to buy a telescope, I'm not 100% sure why I made the decision then in my life but I'm glad I did. I've always had a thing for the sky above and kept an avid interest with the goings on up there, both with what I could see visually and through the media. I think my fascination dates back to when I was still in primary school (many moons ago), when my dad was given a cheap and nasty 70mm refractor from my mum as a christmas present. It wasn't a very good scope when I look back on it, plastic eyepieces and lenses, but that's where the seed was planted, spending some time looking at the moon through it. I did a some researching for a decent scope in 2002 and was intrigued by the GOTO type telescopes, which move to objects automatically when you type in an object in the keypad. I opted for the Meade ETX70 and this intriguing hobby blossomed from there.

One thing lead to another and the years passed by and I have added more and more equipment from then and sold on other bits of equipment. I took up astrophotography not long after buying the ETX70. The telescopes I own just now are a TMB 115mm Apochromatic refractor and Takahashi FS-60C fluorite refractor. Previously I owned a Meade 8" SCT optical tube assembly which came with the LXD55 set-up I bought in 2003 and an Orion 80ED refractor which was an excellent scope. Images acquired using all these scopes can be found in the astro photo gallery on this site.

TMB 115 F/7 APOCHROMATIC REFRACTOR, TAK FS-60C, LOSMANDY G-11 WITH GEMINI L3

(CURRENT OBSERVATORY SET-UP)

MEADE 8"SCT , ORION 80ED, LOSMANDY G-11 WITH GEMINI L3 MEADE LXD55 8"SCT

(OLD OBSERVATORY SET-UP) (MY OLD SET-UP)

For imaging there are three imaging devices with which I currently use, these being a Phillips ToUcam Pro webcam (planetary and moon imaging, laptop required), a Canon EOS 10D Digital SLR and an SBIG ST2000XM CCD camera (laptop required again). The Canon 10D is an outstanding camera and should last for many years to come, I mainly use it for daylight photography and widefield astrophotography now. The SBIG ST2000XM in the newest addition to the fleet, a CCD camera dedicated to astronomical use.

SBIG ST2000XM CCD CAMERA PHILLIPS TOUCAM WEBCAM CANON EOS 10D DSLR

The biggest improvement for me was the building of a shed to permanently house my set-up. Its just a 6'6" x 6' , £200 shed from B&Q I used but instead of fitting a roof I ditched the heavy wood and felt meant for it and built a fairly lightweight removable roof from treated wood and plywood. The roof slides off either end and hangs on the side using some industrial hooks. It doesn't sound too steady but is in fact very stable under even very windy conditions. The shed took around a month to build from start to finish as I had to first build a concrete base and support wall because the shed would be on a slope and the soil below was far to soft to lay anything on. Having a permanent observatory set-up is a major improvement over setting up every session as I can go out any time there are clear skies, slide the roof off and plug-in, all in under ten minutes. Before the shed was built I was spending thirty minutes to over an hour sometimes setting up, which is something I wouldn't have done before at three in the morning for example.

Light pollution here in Quarter, the village I stay in, isn't too bad to the south east, south west and south direction, there isn't much in that direction until you reach Strathaven, Ayr and Kilmarnock to the south/south west and Larkhall and Stonehouse to the South East, but it is atrocious to the North (towards Hamilton, Glasgow and the main Central belt of Scotland). On a run of the mill clear night, I have estimated the skies around the zenith to have a limiting star magnitude of about 4.5 - 5.0, the Milky way is discernible pretty much most of the time depending on where about it is located in the sky. As identifying star magnitude isn't the most accurate way of describing the skies, as everyone's eyes have differing capabilities, a scale published in 2001, called the 'Bortle Scale' which is frequently being used by astronomers to describe their sky conditions. Going by the Bortle Scale I think it would be a class 5 or class 6. I've also recently bought a sky quality meter, for measuring the sky brightness in magnitudes of square arc second. The average reading I have from here is about 19.5 mag/arcsec 2

Direct light from the streetlights and security lights around the village is what I mainly have trouble with, the glare from these fixtures can really hamper imaging due to reflections in the scope and vast swathes of light spilling into the sky and blotting out the stars. South Lanarkshire Council is currently upgrading the old, orange low pressure sodium (LPS) street lamps in the council district, which shine there light well above the horizontal, to better directed although not perfect lamps with minimum light spill which 'should' benefit the area greatly. As for residential 'security' lamps, I think people just need to be made aware of proper wattages to use and how best to direct them, be it from the council and/or lighting fixture manufacturers when they are purchased. People generally use a wattage of security light that is far too powerful for the specific purpose, i.e. 500W to light a back garden which is way too much, which also wastes a lot of money and affects local wildlife, like night time creatures such as bats. Depending on the situation, up to 150W would be much more suitable to most applications even less of a wattage for some. Gentle illumination with a well directed light to a garden is much better, not just for environmental reasons but also aesthetic reasons, rather than having lots of glare and dark shadows you get from overpowering.

As for combating light pollution at the telescope, when imaging or viewing deep sky objects it can help to use a light pollution reduction (LPR) filter on some objects, which filters out certain emission lines of the spectrum, notably sodium, the dreaded orange/brown colour glow which comes from the orange LPS street lamps. An LPR filter isn't the answer to the growing problem of light pollution but it can be a help especially in built up areas. Other forms of filter possible to use when viewing are narrowband filters like Hydrogen Beta which only let through that emission line, though they can only be used with few nebulous objects. Imaging wise, narrowband filters can be used to great use with mono CCD camera's. I currently use a hydrogen alpha (Ha) filter which you can even use under nights with a full moon which only lets through the Ha emission line thus blocking the light emitted from street lamps. Other narrowband filters people use include oxygen III (OIII) and Sulphur II (SII).

More information about light pollution can be found at the Campaign for Dark Skies website and the International Dark Sky Association website.

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Other interests I have included on this site include my passionate obsession with music. Techno music in general is my music of choice and various sub styles including anything from Tech House to Hard Techno to Speedcore. I have owned various sets of decks since I started DJ'ing when I was 15 and right now I am the proud owner of a pair of Vestax PDX-2000's and a Vestax PCV-275 mixer. This is the set-up I could only wish for when I started it all using a cassette player, a belt drive turntable a relative gave me and a cheap mixer. I've also produced some tunes which can be found in the music section in this site.

Thanks, I hope you enjoy your visit.

Gordon Mackay

Please ask permission if you would like to use any of the photographs on this page, thanks.

email gordon@mackayphotography.co.uk