Parker/Carboni have had Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) images published for both the 18th and 23rd of December 2008, and an Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) published on 26th December 2008.  There was therefore quite a flurry of excitement to end the old year and we begin the new with great excitement.

February 2009

Noel Carboni flew over to the U.K. on 6th February 2009, and we both went up to the AstroFest conference on 7th February to sign the newly arrived copies of Star Vistas!  This was also the first time that we had seen the complete book, and I must say Springer have done an excellent job on the (difficult) printing.  Sales & signings were brisk in both the morning and afternoon sessions and most of the 500 copies that Springer flew in had gone by the end of the two days.

On Tuesday 10th February, Noel & I went down to Selsey to see Sir Patrick Moore, and to present him with his personalised copy of Star Vistas.  We had a great day at Farthings and saw Patrick’s reflector and refractor in the two observatories in his garden – much history there!!

Now Noel is back in Florida after 22 hours on planes, trains and coaches – and we are both busy working on Star Vistas II

Also on Tuesday February 10th 2009, we got another Earth Science Picture of the Day [EPOD] published.  This time it was that amazing variable star [W Y Cassiopeiae] which lies close to NGC7789 in Cassiopeia.  The animation is of two deep-sky images taken about a year apart, an what appears to be an alien beacon signalling us is in fact a highly variable, variable star!

25th February 2009

Today I took delivery of three high-speed flah units from highspeedflash dot com.  Two “Pro” units and one extremely high-speed “Ultra” unit.  I am now in the process of building up some trigger circuitry so that I can move into the world of high-speed flash photography as soon as possible.

The units are beautifully put together and are extremely robust.  There are threaded holes on the units to fix to tripods/stands, an open-flash button and charge indicator.  The synch socket is a 1/4″ jack socket (waterproof!).

March 2009

Greg will be giving a talk on “The Hyperstar Returns to the New Forest Observatory” to the Hampshire Astronomy Group at Clanfield on Friday 13th March 2009 at 7:30 p.m.

“Star Vistas” is due to be distributed to the booksellers this month

April 2009

Another talk is booked for 1st April 2009 in the Physics seminar room at the University of Southampton at 7:00 p.m.  The subject will be “Acquiring deep-space images from the New Forest Observatory” and is part of the University’s celebration of the “International Year of Astronomy”, IYA2009.

April 20th 2009

A momentous day!!  Today the EPSRC funded research programme looking into upconversion lasers began at the University of Southampton.  These lasers convert “cheap” infrared photons from a workhorse infrared semiconductor diode laser into “expensive” visible wavelength photons using a Rare-Earth element (or combination of Rare-Earths).  Please see the “Home” page for a few more details.

June 16th 2009:

On June 15th Parker Technology got an EPOD (Earth Science Picture of the Day) published showing a double rainbow over the New Forest Observatory.

We are also now the proud owners of three “Ultra” units from highspeedflash dot com which deliver something around 40 Joules of light energy in a staggering 1/111,111 th of a second.  Parker Technology will be bringing you stunning high speed flash imagery using these units within the next few weeks – keep an eye on this site for some spectacular HSF shots.

4th October 2009

A great deal has happened since the last entry!  Talks given at the Norman Lockyer observatory Sidmouth, Devon and to the Rotary Club in Southampton.  Several EPODS published, the most recent being frost-covered spider webs showing their incredible strength.  Talk already booked for the Brockenhurst Probus next April.  Meeting with a Venture Capitalist in a few days to discuss the planar waveguide upconversion lasers.  Visited Athens a couple of weeks ago for an electronics Conference.  My colleague had his wallet lifted within 30-seconds of getting on the Athens Metro – is this a record?  Several good, clear, Moonless nights lately and managed to grab images of the Pac Man nebula, the ET cluster (NGC457) and the Double Cluster in Perseus.  Another studio session with the high speed flash units is booked for next week up in Oxford with Tony Allen – let’s just hope we don’t get anything in the diary before the day.  The new first year students booked in last Friday, so begins the long haul until Christmas

14th February 2010

Managed to get an Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) towards the end of January 2010 – so a bright start to the New Year.  Several talks now booked in Brockenhurst over the next 3-months discussing photography in general and deep-sky astrophotography in particular.  Bought the most expensive component of the mini-WASP array – the Paramount ME Equatorial Mount – towards the very end of last year, so this year it’s all systems go to get the new mini-WASP array designed and built.  The aim is to be imaging with a 4-telescope array by the beginning of this coming winter – we’ll see!  Only other news is the possibility of going on a photographic assignment with Dr. Brian May next month – but nothing is confirmed on that one yet, keep checking here to see if there are any developments.  However – in anticipation of this trip coming off I have purchased a new lens for the 40D which has a very good reputation for this kind of work