Clayhole Observatory is a small astronomical observatory situated in the middle of Jokela, a small town about 40 km north of Helsinki, Finland, at 60,5° North, 25° East. The observatory is the culmination and manifestation of my interest in astronomy and space that has lasted over four decades and counting.
All observing projects are part of a master program named Clayhole Observatory Survey of Stars and the Universe - COSSU in short.
Ongoing projects mainly involves photometry of variable stars, occasional astrometry of asteroids and comets, and imaging of curious or interesting objects just for fun.
Clayhole Observatory is MPC station C03.
My AAVSO id is SJAR.
February 22, 2017
February 10, 2017
This star is a contact binary variable which is projected to collapse into one and brighten to 2nd magnitude in a few years.
September 14, 2016
Apollo type asteroid 2016 LX48 making a close approach to the Earth.
August 11, 2016
After the mount stripdown some nights were by necessity spent on aligning and collimation.
July 2016
During the too light nights little observing can be done. So then it's an excellent time to take care of the equipment. During my summer vacation I stripped, cleaned and regreased my mount. I also fixed the design flaw in the altitude setting mechanism.
Clayhole Observatory started as a very humble enterprise with Starlight-Xpress MX516 and Celestron Ultima SCT on a tripod.
The founding of the observatory began with the modest initial step of building a permanent pier in summer 2003.
Also in 2003 the construction of the warm room was commenced. At this stage the observatory's equipment consisted of an 8-inch Meade LX-200 GPS and a second-hand Starlight Xpress MX916 CCD camera.
In summer 2005 a proper building was constructed to house the telescope.
Initially the building housed a 8-inch SCT bought in 2002. In 2007 the mount was replaces by EQ6 Pro.
Bought in 2007
Serviced in summer 2016
Bought in 2013
Bought in 2004
Bought in 2008
Bought in 2016 it replaced an earlier version QHY5 camera.
Bought in 2011
Johnson B, Johnson V, Cousins R, and Cousins I filters populate the filter wheel. To keep focussing a minimal hussle, a Clear filter is also used.