On Saturday, 18th January 2020, we gathered on Blackheath Common looking thoughtfully up at what the night sky was offering. Members with telescopes entertained the public with views into the cosmos, trying to dodge the cloud patches that skimmed past, and as the evening rolled on, whimpers could be heard as the cold air was […]
The weather in the UK is notoriously difficult to predict. However, amateur astronomers can normally predict, years in advance, when we can expect poor weather and cloudy skies. Those conditions, almost without fail, occur on the day of major astronomical events! Fortunately, the evening of Tuesday 16th July 2019 bucked the trend. We were treated […]
An excellent session started off rather dubiously as a not so familiar obstacle threatened our stargazing night. It wasn’t the clouds this time but a funfair, just several yards away from us! Admittedly, a rush of childhood nostalgia swept over me and I was tempted to go in, head for the bumper cars and demonstrate […]
Our observing session on Blackheath this Saturday was again in danger of being cancelled due to bad weather. At least that’s what each of the 6 forecasting sites I looked at said. However one did say it was going to be patchy cloud instead of a thick blanket and it also seemed to be agreeing […]
Friday 11th saw us returning to Blackheath for an observing session. After what seemed like a never ending spell of bad weather which had caused previous observing sessions to be cancelled, we finally got a break! Unfortunately while generally clear, the evening had a quantity of dew in the air which significantly reduced what we […]
Our August observing event took place on Saturday August 1st under clear skies. This was a pleasant surprise, as the weather forecast had suggested a slight preference for holding the event on our backup date of Friday. After much dithering it was decided to proceed with Saturday as planned, which turned out to be excellent. […]
Report by Rupert Smith Following a successful FAS Members Solar Observing event at the ROG, we setup on Blackheath in preparation for the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter. The event started before the scheduled 9pm while the skies were still quite bright (and clear – more on that later!). Right from the start we had […]
Our Blackheath observing session started early this month in order to catch the conjunction of Mars and Venus. Despite having to cancel on Friday we benefitted from mostly clear skies on Saturday. The conjunction did not disappoint and was clearly visible as was the distinctive orange colour of Mars. Above the two planets was the […]
Our scheduled observing session on the 19th coincided with a spell of clear skies that offered good seeing and a little bit of breeze to keep the dew away. Despite the best efforts of the Shard, which was lit up like the proverbial Christmas Tree. We were able to observe a selection of deep sky […]
Weather forecasting skills are almost as important as knowledge of the night sky when trying to practise astronomy in the UK. So it proved on Friday evening with our scheduled monthly observing evening on Blackheath. Despite Met Office claims that the skies would remain cloudy all evening, a study of the satellite data showed that […]
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