I had always held a background interest in astronomy, since my school days back in the 1950s, but until 1985 had never actually pursued this interest in a practical sense.

In 1985, as a result of a career move with my employer, I moved my family from London to a small rural village in Suffolk. The village lays some six miles from the nearest town, and has no street lighting. I was soon captivated by a night sky, so very different to the Sodium coloured glow of the London night sky that I was used to.

For several years after this move, my activity was limited to occasional naked eye and binocular observing, and having several other hobbies and interests, I was quite happy to go along with astronomy at this level.

In Autumn 2001, I discovered that my Local University, was about to run a part-time course in 'Observational Astronomy', and so I duly 'signed up'.

As the course progressed, and I got deeper into the subject , I wanted to compliment this with some more serious practical activity. To address this, I bought an 8" Celestron SCT, on a CG5 German Equatorial mount.

On taking this out under the night sky for the first time, I was absolutely amazed at what I could see, compared to my 10x50mm binoculars. I was now seeing the night sky like I'd never seen it before, and I was 'hooked'.

I soon tired of setting up and aligning the telescope, only to find that it then clouded over, and having to pack it away.

I decided therefore, to build an observatory, so that the scope would be permanently set-up and aligned ready for use. Some time was spent 'on-line', looking at what others had built, and 'weighing-up' the advantages and disadvantages of the various design options available to me. A decision was made to go for a 'roll-off' roof design, and the project got underway in late December 2001. The observatory was completed by early February 2002.

With the observatory now up and running, my observing activity increased significantly. I could now be out and observing within minutes, and packed away and back indoors within the same amount of time, if it clouded over.

As time went on, I upgraded to a larger telescopes and got into CCD astro imaging. The observatory continued to evolve, and I added a 'warm-room' extension and placed everything under computer control.

In the spring of 2008, I decided to replace the roll-off-roof, with some kind of rotating dome arrangement, to provide better shielding from the wind. I looked at various designs, and eventually settled on my own design for an octagonal rotating turret arrangement.

I found a company that could cold-roll 5mm angle iron into a perfect circle, and close the join with a weld. This would be the track on which the turret would rotate.

I then constructed the wooden turret, from a set of scale drawings that I had prepared. All the lengths and angles had to be accurate, if it was to fit onto, and run 'true' on the circular track that had been ordered.

When the turret was finished, and the track was to hand, the roll-off-roof was removed, and the track fixed in position. Then came the 'moment of truth', and the turret was lifted into position. To my great relief it fitted and rotated perfectly, Phew!!!

My main interest is 'deep-sky' astro imaging, and the observatory and equipment has evolved around this.

In July 2009, a good friend and I, thought that there was a need for an internet based group, aimed purely at astro-imaging, and not encompassing any of the more general aspects of amateur astronomy. We formed the Progressive Astro Imaging Group (PAIG), and launched an internet forum to support it (see PAIG Logo on the home page). The group/forum is now well established with a broad spectrum of expertise among it's members, ranging from those at the start of the 'learning curve', to renowned astro-imagers.

I am now retired from work, and have more time to spend on my hobbies.