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This site was originally my PhotoBlog, but I have now changed it to be my astronomy website. It’s called ForthImage as I originally did a lot of my photography around the River Forth, the river on which the city of Edinburgh stands.

See dark matter masquerading as dust on my camera sensor; marvel at the weird and other-worldly effects of my feeble attempts at image processing; hoot with laughter at gravity winning yet again as I drop an expensive bit of kit on the observatory floor; empathise with the pain of the verbal tongue-lashing my wife gives me for leaving yet another piece of scrap telescope lying around the house; yell with vitriolic rage at the ugly glow of the encroaching streetlights; share in the depressing gloom of total cloud cover and the continuous rain we have come to “know and love” in Scotland; enjoy the wonders of the universe. It’s an amazing place!

After 3 roll-off roof observatories (2 were blow-off roof) I now have a driven Pulsar dome sitting on my homemade wooden walls, sitting on a base that was originally a WWII air raid shelter (we think), with a homemade concrete-filled pier with brake-disc pier top.

Equipment

Current and used most:

  • EQ8-R PRO goto mount / EQMOD software control
  • Orion Optics (UK) 250mm f4.8 Newtonian, upgraded Baader Diamond Steeltrack focuser (imaging scope) with ZWO EAF
  • SkyMax 180 Pro 7″ Maksutov-Cassegrain (lunar / planetary) – great but unforgiving of bad seeing
  • Celestron C80ED guidescope
  • QHY168c colour CMOS camera broke after only 2 years. Hard to get support QHY – sent back to China for repairs – very long process (several months). Won’t be buying from QHY again! Finally they sent a replacement which works.
  • SX Filterwheel 5 x 2″, 7 x 1.25″
  • ATIK 460EX mono – much older but still in use and much better support from ATIK than QHY.
  • Baader LRGB, Ha, OIII, SII, photometric R and V filters
  • ZWO ASI290MC (lunar/solar/planetary/guiding)
  • Altair Astro tri-band filter
  • IDAS D3 LPR filter
  • Baader Multi-Purpose Coma Corrector (MPCC)

I’ve gathered up quite a bit of junk over the years. Never seem to get rid of any…

  • Altair Astro RC8 200mm f8 Ritchey-Chretien (imaging scope) – hard work and unforgiving of collimation!
  • Skywatcher Explorer 200P – 8″ f5 Newtonian (imaging scope) – great all rounder – on loan to Tosh
  • Skywatcher EQ6 Pro goto mount – self belt mod, damaged Dec worm but mostly working – on loan to Tosh
  • Celestron C80ED on AZ GTi – guiding and grab-and-go telescope
  • Skywatcher 70mm f/7.1 achromatic refractor (Mercury 705 – used as guidescope) – lent to Emma with AZ3 mount
  • Meade ETX 90RA, unused (secondary mirror slipped on corrector)
  • 10″ f5.1 Newtonian (old Hinds ‘A’ mirrors, given to Jim A.)
  • Canon EOS 350D DSLR – modded, fitted with Baader filter (unused)
  • Canon EOS 600D DSLR – screen intermittent fault
  • Brightstar off-axis guider (never use it!)
  • Revelation 0.75 focal reducer for RC8
  • IDAS P2 LPR filter
  • Astronomik EOS clip CLS filter (on loan to Jono)
  • Skywatcher 2″ light pollution filter
  • “Old” Lumicon 2″ Deep Sky filter
  • Imaging Source DBK 21AU618.as (guider and lunar/planetary unused) – loaned to Jim
  • ADM dual saddle side-by-side mount
  • starlight_xpress_motorised_filter_wheelGemini dual mount bar
  • Some eyepieces and barlows
  • Many, many tubes, connectors, adapters, cables and bits of astro-junk…

Software

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Papers

I am a co-author on several papers for projects that I contribute to:

HOYS – Hunting Outbursting Young Stars

A survey for variable young stars with small telescopes: VI – Analysis of the outbursting Be stars NSW284, Gaia19eyy, and VES263
Froebrich, Dirk ; Hillenbrand, Lynne A. ; Herbert, Carys ; De, Kishalay ; Eislöffel, Jochen ; Campbell-White, Justyn ; Kahar, Ruhee ; Hambsch, Franz-Josef ; Urtly, Thomas ; Popowicz, Adam ; Bernacki, Krzysztof ; Malcher, Andrzej ; Lasota, Slawomir ; Fiolka, Jerzy ; Jozwik-Wabik, Piotr ; Dubois, Franky ; Logie, Ludwig ; Rau, Steve ; Phillips, Mark ; Fleming, George ; Gonzalez Farfán, Rafael ; Soldán Alfaro, Francisco C. ; Nelson, Tim ; Futcher, Stephen R. L. ; Rolfe, Samantha M. ; Campbell, David A. ; Vale, Tony ; Devine, Pat ; Moździerski, Dawid ; Mikołajczyk, Przemysław J. ; Eggenstein, Heinz-Bernd ; Rodriguez, Diego ; Walton, Ivan L ; Vanaverbeke, Siegfried ; Merrikin, Barry ; Öğmen, Yenal ; Escartin Perez, Alex ; Morales Aimar, Mario ; Piehler, Georg ; Dover, Lord ; Patel, Aashini L. ; Miller, Niall ; Finch, Jack ; Hankins, Matt ; Moore, Anna M. ; Travouillon, Tony ; Szczepanski, Marek (.pdf version)

A survey for variable young stars with small telescopes: IV – Rotation Periods of YSOs in IC5070, MNRAS, in press
Dirk Froebrich, Efthymia Derezea, Aleks Scholz, Jochen Eislöffel, Siegfried Vanaverbeke, Alfred Kume, Carys Herbert, Justyn Campbell-White, Niall Miller, Bringfried Stecklum, Sally V. Makin, Thomas Urtly, Francisco C. Soldán Alfaro, Erik Schwendeman, Geoffrey Stone, Mark Phillips, George Fleming, Rafael Gonzalez Farfán, Tonny Vanmunster, Michael A. Heald, Esteban Fernández Mañanes, Tim Nelson, Heinz-Bernd Eggenstein, Franky Dubois, Ludwig Logie, Steve Rau, Klaas Wiersema, Nick Quinn, Diego Rodriguez, Rafael Castillo García, Thomas Killestein, Tony Vale, Domenico Licchelli, Marc Deldem, Georg Piehler, Dawid Moładzierski, Krzysztof Kotysz, Katarzyna Kowalska , Przemyslaw Mikołajczyk, Stephen R.L. Futcher, Timothy P. Long, Mario Morales Aimar, Barry Merrikin, Stephen Johnstone, Pavol A. Dubovský, Igor Kudzej, Roger Pickard, Samuel J. Billington, Lord Dover, Tarik Zegmott, Jack J. Evitts, Alejandra Traspas Munia, Mark C. Price, 2021, (pdf version)

A survey for variable young stars with small telescopes: II – Mapping a protoplanetary disk with stable structures at 0.15 AU, MNRAS, 493, 184
Evitts, J.J.; Froebrich, D.; Scholz, A.; Eislöffel, J.; Campbell-White, J.; Furnell, W.; Urtly, T.; Pickard, R.; Wiersema, K.; Dubovský, P.A.; Kudzej, I.; Naves, R.; Morales Aimar, M.; Castillo García, R.; Vanmunster, T.; Schwendeman, E.; Soldán Alfaro, F.C.; Johnstone, S.; Gonzalez Farfán, R.; Killestein, T.; Delgado Casal, J.; García de la Cuesta, F.; Roberts, D.; Kolb, U.; Montoro, L.; Licchelli, D.; Escartin Perez, A.; Perelló Perez, C.; Deldem, M.; Futcher, S.R. L.; Nelson, T.; Dvorak, S.; Moładzierski, D.; Quinn, N.; Kotysz, K.; Kowalska, K.; Mikołajczyk, P.; Fleming, G.; Phillips, M.; Vale, T.; Dubois, F.; Logie, L.; Rau, S.; Vanaverbeke, S.; Merrikin, B.; Fernández Mañanes, E.; Erdelyi, E.; Gonzalez Carballo, J.-L.; Limon Martinez, F.; Long, T.P.; San Segundo Delgado, A.; Salto González, J.L.; Tremosa Espasa, L.; Piehler, G.; Crumpton, J.; Dover, L.; Billington, S.J.; D’Arcy, E.; Makin, S.V.; Bringfried S. 2020, (pdf version)

ExoClock – a project to monitor the ephemerides of transiting exoplanets by the ARIEL Ephemerides Working Group

ExoClock Project: An open platform for monitoring the ephemerides of Ariel targets with contributions from the public
Anastasia Kokori, Angelos Tsiaras, Billy Edwards, Marco Rocchetto, Giovanna Tinetti, Anaël Wünsche, Nikolaos Paschalis, Vikrant Kumar Agnihotri, Matthieu Bachschmidt, Marc Bretton, Hamish Caines, Mauro Caló, Roland Casali, Martin Crow, Simon Dawes, Marc Deldem, Dimitrios Deligeorgopoulos, Roger Dymock, Phil Evans, Carmelo Falco, Stephane Ferratfiat, Martin Fowler, Stephen Futcher, Pere Guerra, Francois Hurter, Adrian Jones, Wonseok Kang, Taewoo Kim, Richard Lee, Claudio Lopresti, Antonio Marino, Matthias Mallonn, Fabio Mortari, Mario Morvan, Lorenzo V. Mugnai, Alessandro Nastasi, Valère Perroud, Cédric Pereira, Mark Phillips, Pavel Pintr, Manfred Raetz, Francois Regembal, John Savage, Danilo Sedita, Nick Sioulas, Iakovos Strikis, Geoffrey Thurston, Andrea Tomacelli, Alberto Tomatis 2020 (pdf version)

ExoClock project II: A large-scale integrated study with 180 updated exoplanet ephemerides
A. Kokori, A. Tsiaras, B. Edwards, M. Rocchetto, G. Tinetti, L. Bewersdorff, Y. Jongen, G. Lekkas, G. Pantelidou, E. Poultourtzidis, A. Wünsche, C. Aggelis, V. K. Agnihotri, C. Arena, M. Bachschmidt, D. Bennett, P. Benni, K. Bernacki, E. Besson, L. Betti, A. Biagini, P. Brandebourg, M. Bretton, S. M. Brincat, M. Caló, F. Campos, R. Casali, R. Ciantini, M. V. Crow, B. Dauchet, S. Dawes, M. Deldem, D. Deligeorgopoulos, R. Dymock, T. Eenmäe, P. Evans, N. Esseiva, C. Falco, S. Ferratfiat, M. Fowler, S. R. Futcher, J. Gaitan, F. Grau Horta, P. Guerra, F. Hurter, A. Jones, W. Kang, H. Kiiskinen, T. Kim, D. Laloum, R. Lee, F. Lomoz, C. Lopresti, M. Mallonn, M. Mannucci, A. Marino, J.-C. Mario, J.-B. Marquette, J. Michelet, M. Miller, T. Mollier, D. Molina, N. Montigiani, F. Mortari, M. Morvan, L. V. Mugnai, L. Naponiello, A. Nastasi, R. Neito, E. Pace, P. Papadeas, N. Paschalis, C. Pereira, V. Perroud, M. Phillips, P. Pintr, J.-B. Pioppa, A. Popowicz, M. Raetz, F. Regembal, K. Rickard, M. Roberts, L. Rousselot, X. Rubia, J. Savage, D. Sedita, D. Shave-Wall, N. Sioulas, V. Školník, M. Smith, D. St-Gelais, D. Stouraitis, I. Strikis, G. Thurston, A. Tomacelli, A. Tomatis, B. Trevan, P. Valeau, J.-P. Vignes, K. Vora , M. Vrašťák, F. Walter, B. Wenzel, D. E. Wright, M. Zíbar 2021 (pdf version)

ExoClock Project III: 450 new exoplanet ephemerides from ground and space observations
A. Kokori, A. Tsiaras, B. Edwards, A. Jones, G. Pantelidou, G. Tinetti, L. Bewersdorff, A. Iliadou, Y. Jongen, G. Lekkas, A. Nastasi, E. Poultourtzidis, C. Sidiropoulos, F. Walter, A. Wünsche, R. Abraham, V. K. Agnihotri, R. Albanesi, E. Arce-Mansego, D. Arnot, M. Audejean, C. Aumasson, M. Bachschmidt, G. Baj, P. R. Barroy, A. A. Belinski, D. Bennett, P. Benni, K. Bernacki, L. Betti, A. Biagini, P. Bosch, P. Brandebourg, L. Brát, M. Bretton, S. M. Brincat, S. Brouillard, A. Bruzas, A. Bruzzone, R. A. Buckland, M. Caló, F. Campos, A. Carreno, J.-A. Carrion Rodrigo, R. Casali, G. Casalnuovo, M. Cataneo, C.-M. Chang, L. Changeat, V. Chowdhury, R. Ciantini, M. Cilluffo, J.-F. Coliac, G. Conzo, M. Correa, G. Coulon, N. Crouzet, M. V. Crow, I. Curtis, D. Daniel, S. Dawes, B. Dauchet, M. Deldem, D. Deligeorgopoulos, G. Dransfield, R. Dymock, T. Eenmäe, P. Evans, N. Esseiva, C. Falco, R. G. Farfán, E. Fernández-Lajús, S. Ferratfiat, S. L. Ferreira, A. Ferretti, J. Fiołka, M. Fowler, S. R. Futcher, D. Gabellini, T. Gainey, J. Gaitan, P. Gajdoš, A. García-Sánchez, J. Garlitz, C. Gillier, C. Gison, F. Grau Horta, G. Grivas, J. Gonzales, D. Gorshanov, P. Guerra, T. Guillot, C. A. Haswell, T. Haymes, V.-P. Hentunen, K. Hills, K. Hose, T. Humbert, F. Hurter, T. Hynek , M. Irzyk, J. Jacobsen, A. L. Jannetta, K. Johnson, P. Jóźwik-Wabik, A. E. Kaeouach, W. Kang, H. Kiiskinen, T. Kim, Ü. Kivila, B. Koch, U. Kolb, H. Kučáková, S.-P. Lai, D. Laloum, S. Lasota, L. A. Lewis, G.-I. Liakos, F. Libotte, C. Lopresti, F. Lomoz, R. Majewski, A. Malcher, M. Mallonn, M. Mannucci, A. Marchini, J.-M. Mari, A. Marino, G. Marino, J.-C. Mario, J.-B. Marquette, F. A. Martínez-Bravo, M. Mašek, P. Matassa, P. Michel, J. Michelet, M. Miller, E. Miny, T. Mollier, D. Molina, B. Monteleone, N. Montigiani, M. Morales-Aimar, F. Mortari, M. Morvan, L. V. Mugnai, G. Murawski, L. Naponiello, R. Naves, J.-L. Naudin, D. Néel, R. Neito, S. Neveu, A. Noschese, Y. Öğmen, O. Ohshima, Z. Orbanic, E. P. Pace, C. Pantacchini, N. I. Paschalis, C. Pereira, I. Peretto, V. Perroud, M. Phillips, P. Pintr, J.-B. Pioppa, J. Plazas, A. J. Poelarends, A. Popowicz, J. Purcell, N. Quinn, M. Raetz, D. Rees, F. Regembal, M. Rocchetto, P.-F. Rocci, M. Rockenbauer, R. Roth, L. Rousselot, X. Rubia, N. Ruocco, E. Russo, M. Salisbury, F. Salvaggio, A. Santos, J. Savage, F. Scaggiante, D. Sedita, S. Shadick, A. F. Silva, N. Sioulas, V. Školník, M. Smith, M. Smolka, A. Solmaz, N. Stanbury, D. Stouraitis, T.-G. Tan, M. Theusner, G. Thurston, F.-P. Tifner, A. Tomacelli, A. Tomatis, J. Trnka, M. Tylšar, P. Valeau, J.-P. Vignes, A. Villa, A. Vives Sureda, K. Vora, M. Vrašťák, D. Walliang, B. Wenzel, D. E. Wright, R. Zambelli, M. Zhang, M. Zíbar (pdf version)

NEW METEOR SHOWER IN DRACO – Abstract: A new meteor shower on a JFC-type orbit has been detected in 2023 by the Global Meteor Network during the time interval 295.0° < λʘ < 299.0° (January 15–19) from a radiant at R.A. = 235° and Decl.= +61° with a geocentric velocity of 32.8 km/s. This radiant position is east from the known gamma-Ursae Minorids (GUM#0404) meteor shower which has its strongest activity when the new shower activity ends. The new meteor shower has been listed in the Working List of Meteor Showers under the temporary identification M2023-D2.

NEW METEOR SHOWER IN BOOTES – Abstract: A new meteor shower on a LPC-type orbit has been detected in 2022 by the Global Meteor Network during the time interval 282.41° < λʘ < 282.83° (2022, January 2–3) from a radiant at R.A. = 219° and Decl.= +28° with a geocentric velocity of 58.9 km/s. The new meteor shower has been listed in the Working List of Meteor Showers under the temporary identification M2023-D1.