Activities Arctic Astronomy

Arctic Astronomy

Ulf Jonsson is a retired officer in the Swedish Armed Forces (Lieutenant Colonel and Helicopter Pilot) who is now a consultant in the areas of aviation, space and photography.

As an amateur astronomer he has  own small observatory near Pine Bay Lodge north of Luleå. There I can tell you about the various objects in the sky that can be observed at the time in question. You get the opportunity to see them through various telescopes and binoculars. In some cases you can try to take your own picture with a system camera or cell phone.

I show you around the sky and tell about the constellations, a little about their history and various ways of looking at them in different cultures, such as how different “the ancient Greeks” and the Sami looked at, and perceived the stars’ patterns in the sky.

When the moon is visible, we can take a ride among craters, mountain ranges and, for example, where the various manned moon landings were carried out.

If we are lucky, we may also experience how the Northern Lights flutter over the sky. Then I can also give tips and advice on how to do good pictures of the Northern Lights and you get a simple checklist.

Astronomy Equipment

The observatory is about 3 x 2 m with a roll-away roof (no heat). In the observatory there is a permanently mounted pier with 10 Micron GM 1000 HPS, GOTO mounting.

On the pier can be mounted 2 – 3 telescopes of the following:

  1. Orion Optics ODK10, Mirror telescope (Optimized Dall Kirkham) with 25 cm mirror.
  2. Takahashi FSQ-106ED, apochromatic refractor with 10.6 cm lens.
  3. William Optics FLT-110, apochromatic refractor with 11 cm lens.
  4. William Optics Megrez-80, semi-apricot refractor with 8 cm lens.
  5. LUNT 80 solar telescope.

Equipment used outside the observatory and which can be carried to another observation site.

  1. Newton reflector with 42 cm mirror on Dobson mounting.
  2. Sky-Watcher AZ / EQ5GT, GOTO mounting, on which telescope no. 2 – 5 can be mounted.
  3. Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Tracker.
  4. Parallelogram stand for hand binoculars.
  5. Hand binoculars Swarovski 7 x 42.
  6. Hand binoculars TS Optics 15 x 70.
  7. Birdwatchers Swarovski HD, 25-50 x 65.
  8. Laser pointer for identifying objects in the sky (with permission from the radiation safety authority).

3 hour experience

Starts at 19:00

Late Autumn and Winter: 1 Oct to 30 Mar