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 […]
Saturday the 10th was the date for our inaugural observing and imaging event under Chris Mann’s personal piece of Kent darkness and did not disappoint. The plan was to view, and hopefully capture, Comet 2014/Q2 Lovejoy. The Comet was ideally placed in the sky at just over 40 degrees altitude and due to cross 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 […]
Well, you’ve got to love astronomy in the UK… don’t you?!… don’t you?!?!?!? A very frustrating couple of hours on Blackheath on Saturday evening. Nick and I had been discussing the weather for most of the day (in the absence of anything productive to do) and decided at 3pm that we would go ahead with […]
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, […]
Report by Mike Meynell It does seem rather unusual to be writing a report about a Flamsteed event that was officially cancelled! For this event, we were due to be joined by the BBC Sky at Night team, who were keen to launch their “Moore Moon Marathon” season at a Flamsteed Blackheath session. Sadly, the […]
Torrential rain for most of Friday 24 May put paid to any plans that we had for running a Blackheath stargazing session on Friday evening and so an early decision was made to move the session to Saturday. This proved to be a prescient move, as the weather for most of Saturday was glorious and […]
Some of you may have been aware that we’ve had some film students from Ravensbourne University attending a few of our recent events. They’ve now completed their film and have kindly placed a copy online so that we can see the result. The first couple of minutes are about the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, […]
Pictures by: Mike Dryland, Grey Lipley and Mike Meynell Whilst in the middle of preparations for the BBC Stargazing Live event at the National Maritime Museum, we were approached by the BBC Sky at Night team about their forthcoming visit to Greenwich. We were asked to get involved in the making of the very first […]
