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Telescopes at Bayfordbury

From studying supernovae, asteroids, comets, and variable stars, to imaging deep-sky objects and delivering automated monitoring of transient events, our collection of telescopes at the Bayfordbury Campus gives students and researchers the tools they need to uncover the mysteries of our universe.

The Observatory is home to seven permanently-mounted optical telescopes and a solar array housed inside eight high-quality motorised Ash domes, along with four radio telescopes.

Our major telescopes include the Planewave CDK24 with 24-inch diameter mirror both the newest and largest telescope at the Observatory, with an L-600 direct-drive mount capable of high speed slews and extremely accurate pointing and tracking. Its ZWO ASI6200MM Pro 61 megapixel back-illuminated CMOS allows for very low levels of noise, high quantum efficiency, fast readout time and video capability.

Our James Hough Telescope (JHT) is a 16-inch Meade LX200-ACF set on a robotic Paramount ME mount. It is equipped with a ZWO ASI6200MM Pro CMOS camera with an 8-position filter wheel.

The Chris Kitchin Telescope (CKT), a 16-inch Meade LX200GPS, was the first of telescope on site able to make automated observations of the night sky without anyone needing to be present. It is equipped with a ZWO ASI6200MM Pro camera with a 5-position filter wheel, holding BVR photometric and H-alpha filters.

Our 3-dish radio interferometer is believed to be the only radio interferometer in the UK that is used for teaching, and is one of only a very small number of teaching interferometers worldwide.