Observatories that I have visited:
Börje's observatory at Uppsala, Sweden

A visit to Uppsala in Sweden and Börje's observatory

I had problems with my focuser and discussed it with my friend Christoffer, and he recommended me to contact Börje. We are all amateur astronomers and as such we always have a lot of problems to solve. This was many years ago.

I contacted Börje and we talked about a lot of things, not only the focuser problem. He told me that he had a small observatory at his yard. Interesting I said, maybe I can come over in the future and have a look at it. We agreed to do that, I also asked if it could be of interest to do a small report about the observatory. But the years went by and one day I saw an ad that Börje was going to sell his equipment. Oh no, and I who hasn't seen it yet. I called Börje and we found a day that I could come over to his place. Börje lives in Uppsala, about 100 km North from where I live in Stockholm.

Börje had already sold most of his equipment, but his control room is still there and will not be for sale. It will be used for other things now. Börje told me he isn't strong enough nowadays to take out and setup the heavy equipment. He also have problems with the light pollution, even worse nowadays when the LED lights replace the old bulb lights. They are very power efficient and people leave them on all night. Börje got a strong LED light just at the corner of his yard, you can see it to the left above the roof of the control room.

Börje provided me with some old photos when the observatory was still in place. Here covered with the grey protection, a very compact construction.

With the lid open a big 10" Newton reflector pops up. It's connected by wire to the control room where Börje sits all the night in comfort when there is a clear sky.

In the control room he had a couple of computers that monitored the equipment and weather.

Now when all the equipment is sold there is only some stones in the fundament for the telescope left. You can still see the triangular shaped pattern where the tripod stood. Flowers has replaced the telescope.

A weather station could be used for other purpose than astronomy and is left.

Börje who has back ground as an engineer in electronics show me one of the instrument he has built, a "Dark Sky Meter".

I guess Börje will keep this instrument as a memory of his activities within astronomy.

When we talked about what we have done earlier in our lives we found to our surprise that we have a lot in common. He had worked at Siemens which I did too but in different years. He had worked with radar technology which I did in my military duty. He had also worked with developing instrument in the biotech area which I also did.

I was lucky to come and visit him today, because he has already sold the telescope but not delivered it yet. The new owner will come tomorrow and pick it up. It's a Sky-Watcher 10" Newton telescope with a EQ6 mount, the same equipment as I had and we both bought them about ten years ago.

He has done the same modification as I did, some extra weights to balance the mount with this heavy telescope.

Börje also added an shelf at the bottom of the mount, very practical to have. It's mounted with these clamps to the tripod legs.

Börje say goodbye to his telescope, it must feel very sad to sell it. Just hours left until the new owner come the next day and pick it up.

But what will Börje do now ? No more astronomy ? Don't worry, Börje have tons of CDs with raw astro images he has took over the years and waiting to be processed. Börje showed me a book with his astronomy photos he had took. Used in the family to let the grandchildren know what uncle Börje did.

After this I took goodbye of Börje and his wife and took my car and drove home. Feeling grateful I got the opportunity to do this visit !