Clayhole Observatory
Clayhole Observatory is a small astronomical observatory situated in the middle of Jokela, a small town about 40 km north of Helsinki, Finland, at 60,5° North, 25° East. The observatory is the culmination and manifestation of my interest in astronomy and space that has lasted over four decades and counting.
All observing projects are part of a master program named Clayhole Observatory Survey of Stars and the Universe - COSSU in short.
Ongoing projects mainly involves photometry of variable stars, occasional astrometry of asteroids and comets, and imaging of curious or interesting objects just for fun.
Clayhole Observatory is MPC station C03.
My AAVSO id is SJAR.
Messier 1 and Pulsar
February 22, 2017
KIC 9832227
February 10, 2017
This star is a contact binary variable which is projected to collapse into one and brighten to 2nd magnitude in a few years.
Asteroid flyby
September 14, 2016
Apollo type asteroid 2016 LX48 making a close approach to the Earth.
New observing season opens
August 11, 2016
After the mount stripdown some nights were by necessity spent on aligning and collimation.
Summer recess
July 2016
During the too light nights little observing can be done. So then it's an excellent time to take care of the equipment. During my summer vacation I stripped, cleaned and regreased my mount. I also fixed the design flaw in the altitude setting mechanism.
Observatory
Clayhole Observatory started as a very humble enterprise with Starlight-Xpress MX516 and Celestron Ultima SCT on a tripod.
Founding
The founding of the observatory began with the modest initial step of building a permanent pier in summer 2003.
Control room
Also in 2003 the construction of the warm room was commenced. At this stage the observatory's equipment consisted of an 8-inch Meade LX-200 GPS and a second-hand Starlight Xpress MX916 CCD camera.
Observatory building
In summer 2005 a proper building was constructed to house the telescope.
Building ready
Initially the building housed a 8-inch SCT bought in 2002. In 2007 the mount was replaces by EQ6 Pro.
Sky Watcher EQ6 Pro
Bought in 2007
Serviced in summer 2016
Moravian Instruments G2-1600FW
Bought in 2013
Meade 8" SCT with UHCT
Bought in 2004
Sky Watcher Equinox 80
Bought in 2008
QHY5-II
Bought in 2016 it replaced an earlier version QHY5 camera.
Dielectric Astrodon Photometrics filters
Bought in 2011
Johnson B, Johnson V, Cousins R, and Cousins I filters populate the filter wheel. To keep focussing a minimal hussle, a Clear filter is also used.