The society has its own darksite observatory called The Munday-Sayer Observatory which is located near Wakes Colne. It houses a Meade LX200 12” Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, complete with computerised tracking system and goto system. The award of a lottery grant in 2004 allowed the extension of the observatory building, improvement of facilities and upgrade of the telescope.
The observatory was originally built by Charles Munday during the 1980s, with the intention of observing Comet Halley. The site eventually came into the hands of the current owners, Les & Val Sayer, who kindly gave access to the site for use by the Society. In honour of those key people in the development of the site, it was renamed The Munday-Sayer Observatory in 2001.
The Society has recently added to the inventory and facilities of the site. A William Optics refractor, Atik CCD camera and Lunt solar telescope were purchased with the aid of a further Lottery award, and a patio observing area was constructed in 2008 thanks to the permission of the Sayers. It is hoped that both local community outreach and programmes of science research will be underway soon.
2 July, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Hi, i am looking for anyone that might have seen 6 balls of orange/yellow lights on the evening of 28th june 08, over Chappel…Equal distance apart, no noise lasting a few minutes and then disappearing. DO you have any idea what this was or could have been?
8 October, 2008 at 10:55 am
Could they have been sky lanterns? Saturday night they could have been celebrating a wedding or party of some sort. Search for Yee Peng Festival 2006 on youtube.
8 October, 2008 at 5:51 pm
I think you’re more than likely correct.
The “chinese lanterns” are being used more and more at wedding receptions now.