Puropses

The observatory is principally dedicated to imaging the planets, including the Moon, but some work on comets and minor planets and some deep-sky imaging is also done. The light-polluted location means that imaging of faint objects is difficult, particularly in broad wavelength bands, but not impossible. Observing meetings of the West of London Astronomical Society are held at the Stag Lane Observatory regularly.

Results are shared mainly through the observing sections of the British Astronomical Association, the principal organistion for amateur astronomy in the UK, and the websites of the Japanese Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers and the Oriental Astronomical Society Mars Section. Images of Jupiter are used in the international Jupiter feature-measuring programme JUPOS, through which the long term behaviour of Jupiter’s atmospheric features are tracked. Images have featured in The Sky at Night TV programme, Astronomy Now, Practical Astronomer and The Sky at Night magazines, as well as the Journal of the BAA.