From Smart Phone to Smart Dome

Gavin James FRAS, gave the club a beautifully illustrated and practical look at a range of techniques to capture the heavens, from the phone in your pocket, through your holiday snaps DSLR, all the way to a fully remote operable back garden observatory.

Gavin described ways of using a smart phone showing shots of the moon, then his experiences with a DSLR on how to photograph the nights sky and light trails also tips on focusing and how to remove noise. He then moved onto how to use telescopes with DSLR’s and then QSI cameras attached. He explained how to get and improve star trails, using the lucky imaging technique & what softwear to use to best effect.

As director of the Blacket Observatory at Marlborough College, Gavin has the use of the nineteenth century telescope, and explained the use of different filters on the 3,800mm equivalent lens. He also has a personal observatory that he can control with softwear for anywhere in the world. He uses filters and also cooling devices to reduce noise and bring out different colours of the stars. We were treated to images of the sun and different nebula, going out as far as 300 million light years away, such as the Coma Cluster.

In addition to our excellent speaker

Jenny Benson produced a selection of plain, fruit and cheese scones. Many thanks to Jenny and also John Milburn for providing the clotted cream. There were enjoyed by all! GC

To know more about Gavin please visit his main website and observatory website