A few years after its formation the society acquired a room in the Carleton Community Centre and were also offered a suitable site in the grounds to build an observatory. Work on the observatory was started in June 1977 and was carried out entirely by members.
The building took six years to complete and was opened on September 25th 1983 by Sir Patrick Moore OBE.
The Observatory Dome used to house a 18” reflector on a German equatorial mount. The 18” primary mirror is a plate glass parabolic with a focal length of 81” (2057mm) f 4.5 mounted on an 18-point support system. The telescope can be used in Newtonian (4.5) or Nasmith configurations. The hyperbolic secondary used in the Nasmith mode magnifies 3.39 times giving an overall focal length of 274.4” (6907mm) f 15.24. The 18” telescope underwent a major refurbishment, with refigured optics and a new drive system between November 1997 and February 1998. It was eventually replaced by a Meade 14'' LX200 in June 2005.
For a more detailed look at the Observatory, and some of its fabrication use the links below.
About 8 years ago we were discussing how to accommodate people with disabilities at open nights.
All kinds of weird and wonderful ideas were put forward to allow them to look through a telescope but this still meant they had to be outside or in a dome (even colder.) We decided to build an observatory especially for people with disabilities to enable them to become active members of an astronomical society and allow them to ‘see’ the sky from a warm room.
The original observatory was built by members over a period of 6 years. We raised money by holding jumble sales, sponsored walks and all kinds of things but times have changed, work patterns have changed. People no longer have time to give up on weekends or in the week.
We started applying for grants to build the new observatory and for instrumentation also. After 4 years we hadn’t received anything. It seemed no-one wanted to know , was astronomy taboo?
Then one day a letter arrived from Awards For All, we had been granted £4500 for a telescope and eye-pieces. In the coming years we had grants for more equipment than we had dreamt about but still no luck on the building front. By chance we were told about the Waste Re-cycling Group WREN. We applied for £50,000 to build the observatory. A few months later a letter arrived, we had been granted £25,000, not the whole amount but it meant we could start on part of the project. After a while it was clear we would need more money to complete stage 1. This is were the Coalfields Re-generation Trust came in. We were granted £9770 to complete stage 1 by adding a computer room and kitchen to the building.
The observatory was completed in January of 2004 and comprises wheelchair access, lavatory, kitchen and computer room. People with disabilities can now operate telescopes from a warm environment and project images onto a screen. The ramp also means they can attend lectures by members and guest speakers. Thanks to all the groups who gave us grants we can now accommodate everyone with an interest in astronomy, whatever that particular interest may be from basic astronomy to imaging.
The West Yorkshire Astronomical Society would like to thank the following organisations for their generous donations to enable us to build the World's first Amateur Astronomical Observatory for people with disabilities.
Barclays Bank.
WREN. (Waste Recycling Group)
Coalfields Re-generation Trust.
Awards For All.
Abbey National Building Society.
Wakefield Millennium Community Chest.
Wickes DIY Store, Pontefract.
Yorkshire Bank.
Yorkshire Building Society.
Lloyds T.S.B. Foundation.
H.S.B.C.
Airedale Computer Re-cycling.
Carleton Grange Club, Pontefract.
Pennine Magpie.
The Local Network Fund for calderdale