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 […]
A short review of what to see in the night sky in May 2020: Light phases at sunrise and sunset Sky conditions during lockdown Starlink comments Messier 3 – Globular Cluster Markarian’s Chain Mercury Eta Aquarids meteor shower “Supermoon” Presented by Mike Meynell
A short review of what to see in the night sky in April 2020: Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) Lyrid Meteor Shower Venus and the Crescent Moon Phases of Venus Also, a brief review of the best astronomy planetarium apps.
On 8th November Martin and Jane made welcome a small group of star-starved Londoners and gave us a dazzling guided tour of the star-spangled sky over Romney Marsh. Martin trained his Meade 14” SCT (Schmitt Cassegrain Telescope) on a fascinating variety of deep sky objects and planets. With such a powerful telescope we were able […]
A few minutes before the Flamsteed’s first session with the Great Equatorial Telescope began, members were sat in the cafeteria guessing what our backup program might entail, for all we saw outside were clouds everywhere we looked. But then ROG’s astronomer, Brendan Owens, approached us with his usual beaming grin of optimism and told us […]
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 […]
An impromptu session was arranged on Blackheath this morning to view the total eclipse of the Moon. A few hardy souls turned up at 3am to view totality, and what a spectacular view it was. More pictures will be added to this report as they are received. If you took any pictures of the eclipse, […]
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 […]
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