New Forest Observatory ®

I have long sided with Halton Arp regarding quasars.  Like Halton Arp I also believe that quasars are not undefinable objects at extreme distances radiating unimaginable power – but are objects much closer to us who exhibit an odd redshift behaviour – odd only if you don’t understand the mechanism creating the redshift of course.

This subject has intrigued me for years, not least because I have a great affinity for the supposed “maverick” who thinks outside the box and as a consequence puts the stuffed-shirt establishment’s nose completely out of joint.  The establishment reacts of course in the most mature way it can muster by blackballing and isolating the maverick.  So I recently did a search to see the current state of play on this topic.

You can imagine my surprise when I came across some work showing that there are quasars whose proper motion has been measured!!!  Ooooopppssssssssssss – now that’s a biggy.  Now I wonder why this hasn’t been front page news for weeks on end like the photographic confirmation of Einstein’s prediction of the bending of light by the Sun??

Hang on in there Halton – looks to me like the truth will out sometime pretty soon 🙂

Astronomical community – Egg, face, on, your – rearrange to complete a well-known phrase or saying.

The New Forest Observatory is a private observatory run by Prof. Greg Parker from his home in Brockenhurst, Hampshire.  At the current location it is not, unfortunately, open to the public.  However, if the current plan to change the Sodium street lights around here to white light LED lamps goes ahead – then I will have to up sticks and move to another (New Forest) location with less local light pollution – and then I will purchase a property with more land and the possibility of a Visitor Centre and public involvement.

On a fairly regular basis I receive e-mails from people asking if they or their children can “look through the telescopes”.  Well, as stated above, the observatories are not open to the public – but in any case, as the telescopes are used solely for imaging, there are no eyepieces to look through, so it is not possible to “look through the telescopes” anyway.  I also get asked whether it would be possible to visit on such and such a date to film the observatories in operation or to see how they are run.  The trouble with that one is the British weather.  It is all well and good to choose a date which is convenient for you to visit, but the British weather has a mind of its own, and it is highly likely that your date will coincide with completely overcast skies.  To give you an example, for the last 3 months I think I have had a total of 5 imaging nights.  But – although the New Forest Observatory is not readily accessible – there are (at last count) ten Astronomical Societies in Hampshire where you can go along, learn some astronomy, and even look through telescopes.  Google “astronomy clubs societies Hampshire” to find the one closest to you.

Finally, I am afraid that at the present time, and in the present location I cannot offer you any work or internships at the observatory – much as I would like to.  Once again, if I am forced to move to a darker site with more land, as looks very likely, then that situation may well change.

I hope that clears up what the New Forest Observatory is – and is not – and I hope you are not too disappointed.

But – please don’t forget – although the observatories are not open to the public – we do offer Introductory courses on deep-sky imaging, and on photography in general.  Please see the “courses” section for more details.