Visit to Mill Hill Observatory

[Jim]

Hi everyone

We have now arranged a visit to the University of London Observatory at Mill Hill on Sat 15th Nov. 

Opened in 1929 it houses the 8" Fry refractor and the 24-inch/18-inch twin Radcliffe refractor. Although in quite a light polluted area the observatory currently also houses four modern telescopes -- a Celestron 14 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain, a Meade 7 inch Maksutov-Cassegrain, and two Meade 10 inch Schmidt-Cassegrains that are used for teaching and research.  We will have a tour of the facility starting at 20:00 by one of the astronomers and if the sky is clear will observe through the 8" Fry refractor.  The event should finish 21:30.  There is no parking on site, however parking is available at a nearby public carpark.  From Mill Hill Broadway station the observatory is a short 10 min walk.  Trains from Orpington run regularly and take about 1hr 30 mins.  For those going by train we will meet at Orpington station about 17:45.Cost is £10 per person payable in advance (additionally the train from Orpington is £6 return and parking at the station is £3.70).

Please see Sue or Tom at the next meeting if you would like to come and give Tom the Treasurer your £10.

regards
Jim

[Carole]

Any reason why we only get to look through one of the smaller scopes?

Carole

[Jim]

I will ask, but I guess it's because the others are used for CCD work and have permanently mounted cameras.

[Tony G]

This is a photo of Mill Hill Observatory from where I work, which I noticed a few weeks ago, only because the sun was shining on it, and I wondered what this shimmering marvel of engineeering was, and then looked it up on Google maps. I knew I was near Mill Hill, but not that close.



Tony G