To the Manor Born...

This was the description that Dick Chambers gave me of Crayford Manor House Astronomical Socitey when we first met a quarter of a century ago, and time has not diminished his mildly biased view - Pete Seiden.

"The dome has an interesting shutter arrangement which is not fixed to the dome at all!

"It hinges from its bottom edge from the flat roof and to close it, the dome is rotated to align with the shutter which is then pulled over the dome slit and secured, making a simple but effective weather proof seal. Inside the dome sits an impressive 24" telescope constructed by the legendary John Wall, another Crayford member.  The instrument is fitted with a CCD camera linked to computers in the annex which also houses their portable 8" refractor used for comet hunting - another instrument built by John Wall. In addition to these larger instruments, the society has a number of other smaller scopes available for use by members on the astronomy courses, which continue to be popular."

It is ironic that one of the largest telescopes in amateur hands in the UK is sited next door but one to the Dartford Tunnel - which must surely rate very highly on the list of most light-polluted places in the country. On a good night, John can see all the way down to magnitude +2.

But this paradox is typical of the strange world of John Wall - a man who obviously believes that size does matter.

The huge tarpaulined structure in the middle of his garden is the renown 32" reflector. Although an impressive instrument, John told us that the scope was not suitable for imaging astronomical objects.  This is due to the very large 16" secondary mirror which was needed to reduce the tube length by folding the light back down the tube to the angled flat, just above the main mirror.  Without this folding, the tube would be too long and unmanageable.  The telescope is however an ideal instrument for spectroscopy and photoelectric photometry.  Happily, the excess artificial lighting that surrounds him is no great problem, as John rarely observes these days -it is the construction of telescopes and optics that are the motivation behind this extraordinary character.  His house is a testament to his passion for experimentation in many scientific fields, and the deja-vu feelings one feels in his house, are probably just the stirrings of long-forgotten memories of Quatermass programmes that littered our childhood.  Through the triple bolted and barred front door, we were shown into his 'physics lab' - dominated by two electrostatic generators, each of which is capable of generating in excess of one million volts. Tucked away among other materials we noticed two large discs.  Closer examination revealed them to be two mirrors - one 48" and the other 40". These were dismissed with a wave of John's arm and a reference to earlier experiments.

Edging out of the room past the mirror grinding machine, we were invited to have a look through John's 30" inch refractor.  He led us upstairs to his first floor lab. The 30" single-element lens - ground by John - was framed in the bedroom window.  John then walked us through the light path - through the main lens to a 22" optical flat across the room which reflected the image out to a second 12" flat on the upstairs landing and back through a tube containing lenses to correct chromatic aberration.

Looking through the rotating eyepiece mount, something seemed to be amiss - there was just a wide vertical band through the centre of the field.  "That's one of the six-inch cable stays holding up the Queen Elizabeth Bridge about 1 mile away" John told us.  When the optical work on the assembly is completed, John aims to keep this folded light system and install the elements into a usable telescope which he will mount in his back garden.

Val Stoneham and Rita Whiting have found that their two hobbies - astronomy and horse riding mix admirably.

Each has a Dobsonian telescope which they pack into their cars, to observe from their local stables, Timberton Farm, at Swanley.

The stables have an excellent skyline with relatively dark skies, although the sky glow of London is very discernible to the west.

Like so many of the members of the Crayford AS, they met at the astronomy evening classes held at the Manor House, in 1986, and have been members ever since.  Since 1991, Val and Rita have travelled the world chasing total solar eclipses and intend to view the August one from Turkey.  Between eclipses they enjoy joining in with other members on a Crayford speciality - grazing occultations.  These are meticulously  plotted and planned by the society and usually involves a convoy of Crayford cars trundling through country lanes, each seeking their allocated observing position which they hope will give them the actual graze as the target star is flashed on and off by the terrain at the edge of the Moon.