Tomorrow there should be an interview on Radio Solent and possibly something on BBC South Today.

Tom Price wrote the article and he suggested the highlights: it is amazing what you can achieve from your garden [and we are really pleased with the results we are getting] and anyone can do this with very basic kit and a bit of patience.

However, Tom obviously got some of the information from an earlier interview I did with the Daily Mail.  The main problem I have with the article is that he mentions the amount of £10,000!  Well, yeah, I probably have spent just under that amount over the last three years but that covers just about everything over that period.

The value of the equipment that I use is not particularily high.  In fact, I think one of the most expensive items was the concrete base to bolt the telescope onto!

As most of you know, you can spend just about any amount you like on the equipment but in reality you can start getting great images with relatively low cost gear.  We will be posting some “getting started” articles in the near future so make sure you keep an eye out for those.  Also, we cover how to set up and take images like ours in the book “Making Beautiful Deep-Sky Images”.

The picture in the article is one of our images of M31 – The Andromeda Galaxy [shown here because it is a great picture!]

It is appearing today in the Southern Daily Echo in both online and printed versions.  I’ve scanned the printed article and you can see the pages below (Please Note: the article is copyright Southern Daily Echo)

You can read the online version of the article by Michael Hanlon on the Daily Mail website.  If you want a laugh make sure you check out my photo….Never wear a white top when standing next to a white observatory…

Just for good measure I’ve included the astro-images here (the other are copyright to barcroft media!).  All images are taken with the Hyperstar and SXV-H9C.

The only thing Sally seems to have misunderstood is my “joke”, and perhaps male anatomy.  To the best of my knowledge you can’t get a triple hernia, I only got a double hernia [and had two operations over two years] from carrying the Nexstar 11 GPS in and out of doors.  This is another very good reason for having a permanent site so that you don’t go lifting very heavy equipment about.  Be warned – I have done a lot of sports weight-lifting and I still got caught out – don’t let the same thing happen to you – be careful.