by Chris Mann The clocks went forward at the end of March and the Earth is motoring along its orbit such that between mid March and mid May, the real night (minus astronomical twilight) will have nearly halved from 9 hours to just over 5½ hours. Disaster! What’s more all those beautiful winter constellations are […]
Roy Hookway entertained us with a splendid talk about Charles Messier. Roy has been a Flamsteed member for over 10 years, and for 13 years was Secretary of the Thurrock Astronomy Society. Roy’s interest in Messier began when he came across ‘Messier objects’ and was told only that Messier was a French bloke who found […]
Report by Clive Inglis The Flamsteed SID detection system uses a VLF receiver and a small loop antenna purchased ready-built from the United Kingdom Radio Astronomy Association (UKRAA). A detailed description of SID detection and the UKRAA VLF Receiver system can be found on their web-site: http://www.ukraa.com/www/vlf-range.html. The UKRAA website states: “The receiver has a […]
Professor Carl Murray from Queen Mary College, London, returned to the Flamsteed for his 4th appearance over the last 10 years, to give us an update on the Cassini mission to Saturn (see links to previous lecture reports at the end of this report). Carl joked that the Flamsteed were like a second family, as […]
Report by Martin Male For those who don’t know us, Jane & I host observing evenings at Old Romney, where you are most welcome. Please apply via the website and Mike will put you on the list. The Sun The Spring Equinox is on Thursday 20th March. The Sun will then be above the horizon […]
After a few events where the weather has not been that great and we have spent more time looking at the 28-inch Great Equatorial Refractor rather than through it, it was nice to be able to open the dome and reveal to our members what a great telescope the 28-inch still is today, despite being […]
Report by Tej Dyal As a year long member, I had signed up for this arranged Flamsteed visit to Romney four times before, but sadly, each time it was cancelled due to bad weather. However, perservence is the name of the game in this challenging but rewarding new hobby and so on this fifth attempt, […]
Colin Stuart is part of the Royal Observatory astronomy team. When not at Greenwich, he writes about science, penning articles for New Scientist, The Guardian, The Observer, BBC Sky at Night magazine and the European Space Agency among many others. His first book – The Big Questions in Science – was published in September 2013, […]
The first Flamsteed History of Astronomy Group meeting of 2014 was an entertaining look at the origin of many of the constellations in the sky that we are familiar with, along with several constellations that have now been lost to the annals of astronomical history. The talk was presented by Tony Sizer. Tony is, of […]
Our first official Observing and Imaging Group session on the ROG’s 28-inch refractor managed to coincide with forecasts of clear skies. An unheard of combination! Not unsurprisingly, the clouds began to gather as our session was due to start, but not enough to prevent the scope being put to some use. Seven of us had attended with hopes of […]
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