Author Archives: Lee Sproats
Dr. Lee Sproats has been interested in astronomy since watching Star Wars in 1977 and has appeared on the UK Sky at Night TV programme. He then went on to study Astronomy where he obtained a degree and then a PhD in the subject at University College London/Mullard Space Science Laboratory. He has worked in Australia in radio astronomy and used optical/infrared telescopes on Hawaii and La Palma and Lowell and Kitt Peak observatories in the USA. After working for the University of Surrey to promote the use of computers for teaching in UK higher education and then as an IT trainer for a stock market company, he went on to work for Greenwich Observatory Ltd where he ran their northern branch and then worked for David Hinds Ltd dealing with our and Celestron products. He is often involved in flight excursions that take passengers to observe the northern lights, has led trips to see the great USA 2017 eclipse near Hopkinsville and was lead astronomer onboard a specially chartered 737 to view the 2015 total solar eclipse at 38,000ft. Lee`s astronomical interests include Lunar observing, astrophotography, photometry and pro-am collaborations.
Since David Hinds stopped operation in December 2020, Dr. Sproats works for Baader Planetarium as our UK representative/consultant and is responsible for looking after our UK/Eire dealers, dealing with Baader Planetarium/PlaneWave/10Micron product support, writing articles and also is involved in our large telescope and observatory instrumentation projects.
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Baader Planetarium and 10Micron at the Practical Astronomy Show UK
This entry was posted on March 17, 2023 Last modified on February 28, 2024.
Saturday March 11th saw the welcome return of the one-day Practical Astronomy Show (PAS) which was held at its usual venue at the Kettering Conference Centre located in the heart of England. The event hosts a large number of retailers and manufacturers and the event is free for the public to attend. Alongside the trade exhibition there are also a number of free talks spread across the day. Exhibitors usually set up the day beforehand, but storm Larisa hit large parts of the UK on the Thursday and Friday with heavy snow and cold temperatures leading to treacherous travel conditions for some (including our UK representative). Luckily all exhibitors who planned to attend did so and the weather improved considerably for the public attendees to...
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Baader Planetarium at European AstroFest London 2023
This entry was posted on February 8, 2023 Last modified on February 28, 2024.
The European AstroFest returned to its usual London home last weekend, the first since 2020 which took place just before the start of the global pandemic. This two day event was held at the Kensington Conference and Events Centre on Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th February. The event featured 3 floors of exhibition space showing the latest astro-gear from a range of suppliers and retailers. Over the two day event a total of 16 talks were given by astronomers and space scientists, including historian Professor Allan Chapman and Queen lead guitarist (and astronomer) Brian May. Baader Planetarium were invited to be part of the event by Dr Simon Bennett and Elena Kostyaeva from The Widescreen Centre and our UK representative attended on our behalf. We...
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A quick look at the year ahead in 2023
This entry was posted on January 11, 2023 Last modified on February 28, 2024.
We have just had the Winter solstice (Summer solstice in the southern hemisphere) and, as 2022 draws to a close, we thought it would be interesting to let you know of some astronomy events to look forward to in the upcoming year ahead. Equinoxes and Solstices The Earth’s seasons change on four specific days each year. We have two solstices where the Sun appears to be at its lowest and highest points in the sky (December and June respectively) and two equinoxes where the length of day and night are similar (April and September). As we have just had our winter solstice in the northern hemisphere, we thought we would start off with the equinox and solstice dates for 2023. March 20 - Spring Equinox:...
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December's Lunar Occultations: Uranus and Mars
This entry was posted on November 29, 2022 Last modified on February 28, 2024.
During the month of December our Moon passes close to the planets Jupiter, Uranus and Mars making such close encountersnic e photographic opportunities. However, the nights of 5th December and the morning on 8th December should be put into your astronomical diary as these dates mark the times when the Moon passes in front of the planets Uranus and Mars respectively. The moon during the course of its orbit around the Earth passes in front of many stars, mostly faint, so when the Moon obsures a planet is quite a rare event. When the Moon passes in front of a celestial object, this event is referred to as a Lunar occultation. The information given below refers to the location of Munich and the times are...
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Baader Planetarium at the International Astronomy Show (IAS) UK
This entry was posted on October 21, 2022 Last modified on February 28, 2024.
After a couple of years break due to COVID, the International Astronomy Show (IAS) was held at the Stoneleigh Park exhibition ground near Coventry/Warwick on Friday 14th and Saturday 15th October 2022. Our UK representative Dr Lee Sproats attended the event to represent us, exhibiting a range of our own and 10Micron products. As is customary, preparations for the event began a few weeks before the show. After travelling the few hours to reach the venue on the Thursday, the setup day, it was time to fill the booth with our display accessories and the 10Micron GM2000 HPS II mount with its hefty but extremely stable Centaurus II tripod. The 10Micron mount head, which "splits" into two parts, is stored and transported along with its...
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Baader Planetarium at Space-Comm Expo UK
This entry was posted on September 23, 2022 Last modified on February 28, 2024.
Space-Comm Expo is an annual UK-based two-day exhibition held at the Farnborough International Conference Centre (the home of pioneering aviation history) where the space sector industry meets, networks and does business. In addition to the exhibition, there is a full conference programme of lectures given by world-class expert speakers. This year the event ran from Wednesday 7th to Thursday 8th September 2022 with over 150 exhibitors and Baader Planetarium were there for the event represented by our CEO Johannes Baader, sales engineer Linus Niekamp and our UK representative Dr Lee Sproats. Our booth showcased PlaneWave and 10Micron products, our Baader domes as well as our observatory installations, that can be used for a wide range of scientific applications that include space situational awareness (SSA), satellite...
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Baader Planetarium at the National Astronomy Meeting 2022
This entry was posted on September 23, 2022 Last modified on February 28, 2024.
The University of Warwick hosted the Royal Astronomical Society National Astronomy Meeting (NAM) from Monday 11th July to Friday 15th July - this was the first main in-person attendance of a NAM since COVID hit a few years ago. Since the annoumcenent of the event, the organisers where overwhelmed by the positive response, with over 500 people registering to attend each day in-person. NAM2022 was also broadcast digitally to registered participants who were unable to physically attend which would allow as many people as possible to experience the conference and learn about the exciting astronomy and space science research currently being conducted. In addition to the UK’s astronomy community, the meeting also included the UK Solar Physics (UKSP), and the Magnetosphere Ionosphere and Solar-Terrestrial (MIST)...
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Swapping between eyepieces: The useful Baader Q-Turret Four Eyepiece Revolver
This entry was posted on May 2, 2022 Last modified on February 27, 2024.
The planets Saturn, Mars, Venus and Jupiter are making an appearance in our morning sky making a lovely photogenic celestial lineup. About an hour before sunrise you can see the magnificent ringed gas-giant planet, and second largest planet in our Solar System, Saturn towards the south east with our red coloured neighbour Mars sitting below and to the east of it. Venus is next in line shining brightly at magnitude ~4.2 and is exhibiting a gibbous phase and very low near the eastern horizon is the largest planet Jupiter. These planets will make their way to being evening objects later in the year becoming better positioned where they will be observable for longer. Our Moon is easily seen throughout most of each month so its...
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A Brief Overview of the Baader Tilter Family
This entry was posted on May 3, 2022 Last modified on October 6, 2023.
If you notice that the edges of your image(s) are not sharp then image tilt may be present in your system. Image tilt is caused when the sensor is not perpendicular to the light path. The cause(s) of image tilt can be many and can include flattener/corrector lenses, tilted focuser drawtube, extension adaptors, camera angle adjusters as well as inherent camera sensor tilt in the camera body itself. Being able to correct for this image plane tilt is important and essential to get perfect focused sharp star images across the field of view. Baader Planetarium currently offer three accessories - their "Tilter family" - that can help compensate for image plane tilt. Baader UFC-Tilter (#2459146 , € 276,-) : an S70 dovetail accessory that fits...
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Baader Planetarium at the 2022 Practical Astronomy Show (UK)
This entry was posted on April 5, 2022 Last modified on February 28, 2024.
At 9am on Saturday 19th March the doors opened at the Kettering Conference Centre to welcome a long queue of visitors which had formed to attend the 2022 UK Practical Astronomy Show (PAS). This was the second time that this event has been run since its first outing 2019. Originally planned to be yearly, the event had to be postponed in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. This event would be the first astronomy show in the UK since COVID. I attended PAS representing Baader Planetarium with a small stand. Preparation for PAS had started several weeks beforehand with a shortlist of display and demonstration products and associated information leaflets and a new pull-up banner. Due to a foot injury my wife had to...
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M31 in only 4,5 hours
This entry was posted on January 14, 2020.
Last modified on February 27, 2024.
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Field report by Ian Aiken: The Baader 2" Cool-Ceramic Safety Herschel Prism Mark II
This entry was posted on April 16, 2024.
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Solar Eclipses 2024
This entry was posted on February 8, 2024.
Last modified on February 27, 2024.
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A quick look at the sky in 2024
This entry was posted on January 23, 2024.
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QHY 5-III-678M vs. QHY 5-III 178M: Key Enhancements and Differences
This entry was posted on December 8, 2023.
Last modified on February 27, 2024.
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