Observing with the Bristol Astronomical Society
Members open the Society's Observatory on Clear Saturday Nights. These sessions are open to anyone who would like to see the night sky through a telescope.
For further information please email saturday.observing@bristolastrosoc.org.uk or contact the Secretary- See Contact Us
Due to the variable nature of British weather we make the decision to run or cancel these meetings early on Saturday evening.
Please check the status message at the top of the society's home page before coming.
Visitors please note: Recent rain has made the observatory and farm track very wet and muddy and there are deep muddy puddles on track. We recommend wearing Wellington boots if you visit.
Observing in February
Orion is due south on February evenings, and M42, the finest emission nebula in the northern sky, will be a top target for all our sessions now until well into the spring. The society's large telescopes bring out the fine detail in the nebula, and in good conditions will reveal the fainter members of "The Trapezium", the multiple star system at its core. Orion contains several other interesting objects, and could provide enough interest for a whole evening's observing on its own.
In the unlikely event that we tire of Orion, Jupiter can still be observed during the early evening. Mars attains an altitude of 35 deg. by 11 pm on the 14th, shining at mag. -1.0 in the south - eastern sky.
There is a close conjunction of Venus and Uranus on 9th February - just a moon's width separates the two planets. Venus is moving fast through the early evening sky and will be 2 degrees ENE of Uranus just two days later on the 11th. On the evening of the 25th, Venus and the young crescent moon will be just 3 degrees apart, low in the western sky.
The sky looking South at 8 p.m. on 14 February
Failand Viewing notes October 1st
7:50pm - opening in time for Mike to get 4 day old moon before it set. Chris started with demo of filters on his 8 inch to enhance M27 Dumbell planetary nebula in Vulpecula leading to interesting discussion about the death of stars including our own sun. 4 visitors had turned up promptly at 8:00pm with 14 more arriving within the hour.
Both Mike and Chris took the visitors on laser guided tours of the key Autumn constellations and finding Albeiro in Cygnus took us back to the telescopes to look at the double "more closely". Then, in quick succession we viewed The Coathanger in Vulpecula and M13 - the great city of stars - in Hercules. Jupiter rose and attracted great interest - and Chris showed us Galileo's view of Jupiter by using the finder on the 8 inch. Only then could the visitors see the full image and compare their sightings of Jupiter's moons. To encourage those with binoculars, viewing the Pleiades showed that "low power" can sometimes be best, revealing more overall structure. During the evening Mike had to nip off for a short while so Alison took over on Cyril.
As the "seeing" improved around 10:00pm both telescopes moved onto M57 the Ring nebula and also M31 the Andromeda galaxy.
The visitors reported that they very much enjoyed the evening and one young visitor said she could have stayed all night. A London visitor said it was all very cosy in the Dome with Mike and Cyril - and where at one point the discussion inevitably included the subject of aliens. The session ended around 11:15pm.
Peter Jones
Organisers and the state of the Moon
Date | Opener | Operate Main Telescope | Second Telescope | State of the Moon |
Sat 4 Feb 12 | Alison Camacho | Mike Cowles | Terry Flower | |
Sat 11 Feb 12 | James Xiao | John Willis | Jane Clark | rises 22.30, waning gibbous,80% illuminated |
Sat 18 Feb 12 | Mike Cowles | Dave Smales | Chris Lee | rises 05.43 on 19th, waning crescent, 7% illuminated |
Sat 25 Feb 12 | John Bishop | Jane Clark | Toby Lumber | sets 22.06, waxing crescent, 14% illuminated |