Orion Image Caught By Backyard Astronomer

It may have taken NASA millions of dollars and over a decade to design a space telescope that could capture truly spectacular images of deep space.

But an amateur astronomer has now caught the same dazzling constellations - from his back garden.

Greg Parker, a professor of electronics at Southampton University, spent less than £10,000 on his equipment but invested thousands of hours to perfect the amazing images.

He used a specialised digital camera, which is refrigerated to boost its performance, and a 28cm reflecting telescope, from a portable observatory at his home in the New Forest.

But each image took hours of careful attention to capture.

Professor Parker has to move the fibreglass dome in his back garden observatory every half hour by hand to photograph the changing sky. And the results are truly amazing.

Leading astronomer Patrick Moore comments in the book: 'The pictures are of real scientific value, and they are also works of art.'