| ESAS observatory story |
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 Some 4 1/2 years ago ESAS was kindly donated a 10' motorised observatory dome by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) this housed a 16" Meade to search for debris orbiting Earth. This opportunity arose due to contacts Rosemary and Lester Selmes had at Herstmonceux, Rosemary used the telescopes at the equatorial group for photographic purposes and was instrumental in discoveries of quasars. For most of that time the dome had been in storage due to no suitable site being available, until, Lester came across Peter Reed, who put ESAS in contact with the land owner at our current 'dark site'. Lester was instrumental in securing this site for our Observatory, and with in six months plans had been drawn up and our Observatory built. The official opening was held on Saturday 17th July, what a glorious day we had. The event started at 7pm with members arriving for an American supper (lots of finger food). The evening continued with the official opening at 7:30, Andy thanked Lester Selmes (Vice Chairman) and Rosemary for all there input into securing the dome from NERC at Herstmonceux and for securing 'The dark site' for ESAS. Andy then read out a personal message of congratulations from Sir Patrick Moore (who is Honorary President of ESAS) he appologised for not being able to attend, and congratulated Andy (Chairman) and the committee on achieving the building of the Observatory, and hoped that everyone in the society would enjoy using it. The cutting of the tape was performed by Peter Reed ( who found us the site ) in front of about 45 members. The evening proceeded with a talk by Lester about the Observatory and how to use the telescope, and later, observing continued with members telescopes and the observatory telescope until about 1 am . Everyone who attended the evening had a thoroughly good time and enjoyed viewing many deep sky objects whilst observing.   This is the dome in situ when it belonged to NERC at Herstmonceux         |
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| Last Updated ( Jun 22, 2006 at 11:22 AM ) |
