The Telescopes at Bayfordbury

The Marsh Telescope

The largest optical telescope at the Observatory is the J.C.D. Marsh Telescope. This telescope is named in honour of the first Director of the Observatory, Lou Marsh, who was largely responsible for setting up the Observatory in the early 1970s. This telescope is a 0.5m (~20") Cassegrain reflector supported on a modified English mounting. The finder and guiding telescope is the Vince 6" (0.15m) refractor. This historical telescope has an objective lens of exquisite quality. Both telescopes, in common with our other optical telescopes, give stunning visual (i.e. with an eyepiece) images of the night sky. However, as many interesting objects, such as distant galaxies, are intrinsically faint, the telescopes are normally coupled to CCD cameras.

The 4.5m Radio Telescope

The radio telescope has a 4.5m diameter dish and is equipped with a receiver that allows both continuum and emission-line observations. The radio telescope allows us to conduct observations during the day time as well as in cloudy weather. The rest of our Galaxy is largely invisible to us in optical wavelengths because of obscuring cosmic dust. Nevertheless, with a radio telescope such as this, it is possible to map the Milky Way Galaxy in astonishing detail as the radio waves are unaffected by intervening obscuring dust clouds. The telescope can also be directed towards high-energy sources within our galaxy, such as the Crab supernova remnant, and beyond, such as M87, the giant elliptical galaxy containing a powerful quasar at its centre.

Specialist Telescopes

The observatory has 7 Meade Schidmt-Cassegrain telescopes, from 14" to 16" (0.35 to 0.40m), equipped with CCD cameras and/or spectrographs, and an 8" (0.2m) reflector has been piggy-backed onto the 14" (0.35m) Celestron Schidmt-Cassegrain Telescope.

Using a narrow-band hydrogen alpha filter, observations can be made of the active surface of the Sun. (Permanent damage to your eyesight can be caused by improper observation of the Sun. Never observe the Sun directly through any optical instrument without proper filters.) Solar observations are also conducted using the ceolostat, the mirrors for which are located on the roof of the Science Learning Centre East of England.

Images from the cameras can be analysed on our local network of PCs. Students can use professional astronomical software so that their observing experience is similar to that at a major observatory.

The Radio Interferometer

Coming soon to Bayfordbury is an array of three, 4m radio telescopes that will be used as an interferometer. 		marsh scope
The Marsh Telescope
radio
The Single-dish Radio Telescope
meade
14" Meade Telescope