Welcome to my website which is devoted to one of my many and varied interests, variable star astronomy. This site is currently otimized for MS Explorer.
I am an amateur astronomer originally from Birmingham, England but now living permanently in Sweden. Here you can find information about my current observing programme in addition to links to other sites connected with the visual and CCD observation of variable stars.
Following a gap of 20 years during which my astronomical interests went into a deep hibernation, I re-discovered my interest in variable stars in 2005, joining the American Association of Variable Star Observers, the world's premier VS organization.I am also a member of the BAA VSS, the world's oldest variable star observing group. In 2008 I set up Strawberry Fields Observatory on the Swedish island of Öland with a view to pursuing visual and CCD observations of variable stars. The observatory houses a 30cm Meade ACF telescope. I have plans to mount the telescope on a pier and equatorial mount in the near future which will open up the possibility of doing photographic work. This instrument gives me access to many of the fainter telescopic variables on the AAVSO programme. I also use a pair of Celestron 25 x100 binoculars mounted on a parallelogram mount.
Variable stars are stars which change in brightness on time scales ranging from seconds to many centuries. Here is the lightcurve (a plot of the star's brightness in magnitudes over time) for the famous eclipsing variable star Algol,or Beta Persei.
At the risk of using a well-worn cliche, the attraction of variable star observing is the opportunity to do work as an amateur astronomer which is beneficial to the scientific community.Variable stars offer challenges to observers regardless of the equipment they use, ranging from the cheapest pair of binoculars right up to the most expensive computer-guided telescope and CCD camera combination.
My current observing programme consists of stars drawn from the AAVSO and BAA VSS programmes. Broadly speaking the programme consists of the brighter and more regularly performing cataclysmic variables (CVs) and also a large number of long period mira stars (LPVs). I also continue to observe objects on the BAA VSS binocular programme
Here in Sweden I have given a number of presentations on the subject of variable stars to amateur astronomy conferences and gatherings.In August I will be giving a presentation at the Hven conference in Denmark. I am always interested in giving presentations to local societies providing my travelling expenses are covered. I am a member of our local astronomical society on Öland, Grönhögen Astronomiska Förening