Observatory
The University of Hertfordshire Bayfordbury Observatory is situated some 15 km from the main Hatfield Campus. The observatory is situated in a relatively dark countryside location and is regarded as one of the finest teaching observatories in the country.
The Observatory forms an integral part of the degree programmes and is used by our students from the first week of their degree through to their final year, when it can also be used for final year projects.
The Observatory welcomes organised visits from schools and interested parties as part of its outreach programme.
The Observatory has 8 telescope domes as well as a 4.5m radio dish equipped with a state-of-the-art hydrogen-line receiver. Our telescopes each have computer controlled CCD cameras which are used for imaging and spectroscopy of astronomical sources. Short descriptions of some of the telescopes and instrumentation available to students for course or project work are given below.
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.
The telescope is a 0.5 metre Cassegrain reflector supported on a modified English mounting.
The finder and guiding telescope is the Vince 0.15 metre 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.
Images from the cameras can be analysed on our local network of PC's.
Students can use profesional astronomical software so that their observing experience is similar to that at a major observatory.
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 Sun is an unremarkable star in the Milky Way Galaxy. The rest of the 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 (see the figure below) 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 5 Meade telescopes, ranging in size from 350 to 400 mm, equipped with CCD cameras and/or spectrographs, 0.2 metre reflector has been piggy-backed onto the 0.35 metre Celestron.
Using a narrow-band hydrogen alpha filter, observations are being 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. Other domes contain a 0.4 metre spectroscopic telescope, the 0.3 metre Brinton Newtonian reflector and an objective prism telescope that is also used for video astronomy.
