{"id":191,"date":"2017-03-03T15:47:09","date_gmt":"2017-03-03T15:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/?page_id=191"},"modified":"2024-08-06T06:01:34","modified_gmt":"2024-08-06T06:01:34","slug":"dave-eagle","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/home-2\/dave-eagle\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave Eagle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\u00a0<\/a>\"\"\u00a0<\/a> \"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Star-gazing.co.uk’s founder is Dave Eagle<\/strong> BSc (Hons), PGCE.
\nAn amateur Astronomer, Planetarium Operator, Presenter, Author and Tutor.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have been interested in astronomy and looked up with wonder at the sky ever since I can remember and absolutely love getting people enthusiastic about the night sky.\"Boy<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As a very young boy I followed the Apollo missions with very keen interest and those had a great affect on me. Staring at The Crescent Moon in July 1969 knowing that two people were on that surface just blew my mind. For many years I used to gaze up at the night sky and wonder how it all fitted together. That puzzle didn’t start to unravel properly until the age of 9 when I suddenly “discovered” The Plough for myself.<\/p>\n

Once I had a start on the sky I gradually learnt my way around the visible constellations and learning the positions of all the “Celestial Lollypops” like the Messier objects. I started observing with some old 10×50 binoculars gradually moving onto a small Tasco refractor bought by my parents for Christmas.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a> Living in North London I first met other kindred souls at South West Herts Astronomy Society but the distance of their meetings and being too young to drive, meant I could attend very few meetings. One look at Saturn through their large reflector at their observatory had me hooked even more. I was also a member of Hampstead Scientific Society for a while being an assistant at their observatory on the heath, using a fabulous 6″ Cooke refractor. From my time here I learnt even more from other members. In my late teens and early 20’s my attention was directed elsewhere, but my interest in astronomy was rekindled in 1985 when, as a newly married man and with my family starting to grow, Halley’s comet returned and I bought my first serious telescope, a 3 inch refractor. I’ve not stopped buying astronomy equipment since.<\/p>\n

In 1987, tired of observing all on my own, I established the Bedford Astronomical Society <\/a>where I built\u00a0some wonderful friendships.\u00a0It has been a successful and flourishing society ever since.\u00a0I am also a member of\u00a0Northampton Natural History Society <\/a>and am involved in helping to organise their events.\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I was Editor of the Handbook of the Federation of Astronomical Societies for a few years and elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1996.
\nI have been the lead astronomer for\u00a0Hale-Bopp and Aurora flights for members of the public.<\/p>\n

I have a degree in Biology, also training as a science teacher, obtaining a Post Graduate Certificate in Education.\u00a0I am now semi-retired and building on my astronomical interests.<\/p>\n

I spend a lot of my spare time observing and imaging, when clouds allow. When they don’t allow, it gives me time to hone my skills and try out new techniques, experimenting using various software packages to get the most from my hard-earned images.<\/p>\n

My other interests are other disciplines in science as well as Natural History and Photography.<\/p>\n

My wife and I enjoy travelling and we have been fortunate enough to enjoy, amongst other things, seeing exotic wildlife in The Galapagos Islands, Costa Rica, Africa and the life-changing experience of petting Gray Whales in calm, warm sea-water lagoons in Mexico. Both locations are a naturalists and photographers paradise. The darkness of the night and such dark skies in the Sea of Cortez which were just fantastic. A trip to Iceland enabled us to see the fantastic volcanic landscape as well as briefly catching the northern lights in all their glory.<\/p>\n

I have established my own permanent observatory where the convenience of opening up and almost instantly observing makes the hobby even more enjoyable and convenient. Unfortunately living where I do provides me with a constant battle against the scourge of light pollution.<\/a> Two street lights that shine directly into the garden give me lots of grief.
\nHowever, I am still amazed at times how much I can achieve, even with these obvious limitations that drive other observers \/ imagers to give up.<\/p>\n

I have appeared regularly on local radio discussing many different aspects of astronomy and appeared on local TV a few times.<\/p>\n

I have written articles for many of the British astronomy publications and supplied images to illustrate astronomy articles for photographic magazines, most recently articles for Sky At Night Magazine.<\/p>\n

In 2013 I was proud to have my first authored astronomy book<\/a> <\/strong>published by Springer. This encouraged me to write and publish my own image processing guides, following on from my successful workshops, which have proved extremely popular and receive such positive reviews.<\/p>\n

I give talks and presentations\u00a0<\/a>on astronomy and space flight to schools, social groups, youth groups and astronomical societies or anyone else who is interested in finding out more about the night sky.<\/p>\n

I have also organised a number of successful Astronomy Workshops and hosted an evening to celebrate Tim Peake’s Principia Mission to the ISS and for Apollo 11’s 50th anniversary.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>For quite a while I was also an astronomy and astrophotography tutor for Adult Education for Northamptonshire Council, running their Adult Education Astronomy Courses.<\/p>\n

Not only restricted to astronomy, I\u00a0also have wildlife and photography presentations that I give to other interested groups.<\/p>\n

I especially enjoy trying to get others to go out and appreciate the night sky and all its wonders either in the\u00a0 mobile planetarium I regularly take into schools or star-gazing under a clear sky.\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Astronomy like all hobbies should be fun, so get out in the fresh air and enjoy it.<\/p>\n

Want to get in touch?<\/p>\n

E Mail me dave@star-gazing.co.uk<\/p>\n

www.star-gazing.co.uk<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Newwlogo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0 Star-gazing.co.uk’s founder is Dave Eagle BSc (Hons), PGCE. An amateur Astronomer, Planetarium Operator, Presenter, Author and Tutor. I have been interested in astronomy and looked up with wonder at the sky ever since I can remember and absolutely love getting people enthusiastic about the night sky. As a very young boy I followed the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":40,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"slim_seo":{"description":"Star-gazing.co.uk's founder is Dave Eagle BSc (Hons), PGCE. An amateur Astronomer, Planetarium Operator, Presenter, Author and Tutor.","title":"Dave Eagle - Star-Gazing"},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-191","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8325,"href":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/191\/revisions\/8325"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}