By Oliver Tunnah

I was asked to write about my experiences and journey on the Faulkes Telescopes. I have had a love for astronomy since my Mum showed me Orion one clear night. From there I had a love for science and astronomy in general. So when it came to my A-levels there was only one science subject for me and that was physics.

One lesson it was announced that we would be using the Faulkes Telescopes and the whole thing was explained to me. I was quite excited. I had always had small telescopes and the chance to use a professional sized telescope was not one I was going to let go. The session came and I was excited when we got to see the telescope slew to the target in real time. I kept glancing at the projector screen and the bar slowly filled as the exposure was being taken. Eventually a rough process popped out and I was astounded at how simple it was, and yet the potential was high. I believe our first target was Jupiter and the immediate process showed nothing but a bright blob on the screen. But Jupiter’s satellites were very visible too.

As I said I didn’t want to pass this chance up so I asked my teachers if I could have some access to the telescopes, and also suggest targets. They agreed and I used the resources at the time to learn how to use the telescopes effectively. Unfortunately we didn’t have the ability to process them but Daniel Duggan, who at the time was on the Faulkes Team processed a couple for us. One of which was featured in the British magazine Astronomy Now as their Faulkes Picture of the month. Soon I was able to gain access to a copy of Photoshop and I learned how to process the images we were taking. I was able to turn Jupiter from a blob into the majestic sight it is and also work out which satellite was which.

For the next few years I refined my exposure and processing technique. Eventually I had to leave the school I was in. I had demonstrated that I could use the telescopes responsibly and had the enthusiasm too. I therefore asked a cheeky request for a personal account. I am very thankful that the team granted it. I started to go advanced and tried a few mosaics in which to combat the small Field of View the telescopes had. The best picture in my opinion I have taken with the Faulkes telescopes is my 2×2 mosaic of M16 (Eagle Nebula). This is in what I self coined the Faulkes Palette of HaOiiiHb. (Ha = Red, Oiii = Green & Hb = Blue.) This is a reflection of the Hubble and Canada France Hawaii Telescope Palettes which use Sulphur instead of Hb and assign the colours differently. I had to combine a couple of exposures in each filter four times to create the mosaic and carefully stitch each tile to the adjacent one by hand. It came out far better than I ever imagined. Inspired by this I set about doing M51 the Whirlpool Galaxy too. Although this was only 3 shots rather than 4.

A news item came up from the Faulkes Team in regards to the Astrophotographer of the year competition. I entered a few pictures and my narrowband of M27 was shortlisted for the final. I was invited to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich to attend the opening of the exhibition showing off the shortlisted images. I also got to meet the team from The Sky at Night. I didn’t win but my picture was in the exhibition for the public to see for the next few weeks. I was really chuffed to be considered alongside some great astrophotographers. I still kept in touch with my teachers from school and planned to pop in over a couple of weeks and get a Hubble Tuning Fork diagram done with the students. Whilst it never made it to a lesson I still completed the diagram for use in the science department. It also made it onto the Faulkes Website and I hope it inspired other teachers to do something similar.

My other teacher moved schools and got the students there interested in the scopes. I was invited to talk to them and also show them through processing an image. We also had a short-lived battle over who could get the most galaxies captured with the telescopes. I showed her my imaged of Stephan’s Quintet. To which she trumped me with Seyfert’s Sextet. Not taking that lying down I decided on taking a picture of Abell 2065 a compact galaxy cluster and succeeded in capturing over 50 galaxies. I still believe it is a record for the Faulkes Telescopes. This also earned me my second feature on the website.

Eventually over the years my time on the telescopes slowed as work took over the time I could spend on them. Eventually remote queuing and a network expansion helped me regain time on them. I still enjoy my time processing the odd image I am able to take and the quality of images you can get from the telescopes is still at a high level. It’s not all about the pretty images, I have also taken part in a couple of research requests. This has helped people publish papers on their research. So you can also help important research too. As I mentioned previously the potential is huge and I have been extremely privileged to have access to these fantastic telescopes.

If Oliver’s story has inspired you to use the telescopes yourself, you can sign up for an account by clicking here.