Posted by on Nov 26, 2023 in Main |

Mr Mark Wrigley FRAS is welcomed to Keighley Astronomical society

The guest speaker at the November monthly meeting of Keighley Astronomical society was Mr Mark Wrigley FRAS.

The subject of his presentation was a project close to his heart, which has now run its course. He was talking about the PiKon telescope which is a 3d printed device operated with a Raspbery Pi computer.

Mr Wrigley commenced his lecture by how his adult working life and interests had led him to invent and develop the project.

Mr Wrigley giving a practical demonstration of his his telescope operates

20 Years ago he set up Lazy-Photon Photography. “Photography doesn’t have to be expensive” and over the years with the popularisation of mobile phone cameras this has become more the case. Having run many successful photography courses in Sheffield, Mr Wrigley is now a volunteer helping the Canal and River Trust leading canal photographic walks.

The basic structure of the PiKon telescope

New directions in photography have seen even more emphasis on mobile phone photography. At the other end of the technology spectrum he had been experimenting with 3D printed pinhole cameras and camera hacks.

Mr Wrigley explained that he had always loved photography. He was the kid at school with a camera in class and for many years he worked abroad (China, USA, Japan) and always had a (film) camera with him.

The basic components required to complete the PiKon telescope

Mr Wrigley stated “I have literally thousands of negatives which, at the time they were taken, were printed onto 6″x 4″ enprints”. One major project that he have started was to digitise these images by copying the negatives with a digital camera / iPhone and processing in Adobe Lightroom. Mr Wrigley has also extend the “remastered” concept to other media, such as 8mm video and audio reel-to-reel recordings.

Mr Wrigley answering questions from the society members after his presentation and demonstration.

Mr Wrigley went on the point out that in 1969 there was no way to record television at home. He was a teenager and the Apollo moon landings would change the direction of my life. Grasped by the significance of these missions, He wanted to somehow record the events of the moon landings and the activities leading up to them.

The very small camera that replaces the conventional eye piece in a standard telescope

With a 405 line black and white television, Zenith 3M SLR camera, reel-to-reel tape recorder and an 8mm movie camera, he set about creating an archive of material.

The small Raspberry Pi computer that operates the telescope

50 years on it was exhibited at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, Yorkshire. At an exhibition displaying the Russian Soyuz space capsule that returned British astronaut Tim Peak to the Earth.

A detailed image of the components that make up the Raspberry Pi computer

In 2014 Mr Wrigley presented a talk for Sheffield University’s ‘Festival of the Mind’ about how hobbyists could utilise new technologies such as 3D printing and the Raspberry Pi computer. Mr Wrigley had came up with the idea of combining them in a 3D printed telescope with Raspberry Pi camera. What was intended as a talk with a demonstrator has, through crowd funding, become a product selling over 400 kits.

A cross-section of the PiKon telescope, showing how the Raspberry Pi camera fits into the main observing tube

Aside from the Pi and camera module, as with all telescopes you need a long tube, a method to hold the camera inside the tube called a “spider,” and a curved mirror.

An image of the Moon captured by the very first PiKon telescope

Mr Wrigley’s design replaces the conventional eye-piece of a Newtonian reflecting telescope with a Raspberry Pi camera (lens removed). The telescope mirror is then used to focus an image on the Raspberry Pi camera sensor giving a field of view of about 1/4 degree. (The moon subtends 1/2 degree at the eye).

The invention of the PiKon telescope hit the national media

Over the time since 2014 He has developed a flexible resource with 3D printers, photographic and video equipment as well as a well developed social media network and mailing list. Mr Wrigley will soon be on the move to new premises in Otley, Yorkshire where he and colleagues will continue to build links with Otley Maker Space. Quoting David Bowie: “I don’t know where I’m going from here but I promise it won’t be boring.”….and will certainly involve making!

He explained that the PiKon telescope has also gone on to inspire others to improve on the design and share their endeavours. Now things are coming to the end of the road and it’s time to retire PiKon. There is still a stock of some components and there will be a crowd fund to add additional components to make up the last 25 kits at some time in the future.