Our next public observing event will be a MOONWATCH at the Brewery Arts Centre on Saturday February 13th…

These events are really popular, and we regularly attract more than a hundred people to the Brewery to view the Moon through our telescopes. The MoonWatch events are free, and suitable for all the family – we even have stools so young ones (and short older ones!)  can reach the eyepieces of the telescopes to enjoy the view!

This is how the Moon will look through our telescopes at the MoonWatch…

At our February MoonWatch we will also try to show people the planet URANUS, which will quite close to the Moon in the sky on that evening…

We might even be able to show people Comet CATALINA too…!

So, hopefully the sky will be clear on that night. If it is, come along to the Brewery and we’ll show you some beautiful sights through our telescopes.

If you watch the TV news at all you’ll know that there was a lot of fuss made on all channels last week about the “grand alignment of planets” visible in the morning sky at the moment. Lots of very impressive-looking computer graphics were shown in the reports, giving the impression that the pre-dawn eastern sky is ablaze with planets as bright as lanterns, all clustered closely together in a celestial spectacle to leave you gasping with wonder…

I wish!

Unfortunately the reality is rather different. Yes, there are five planets “on view” in the sky before dawn, but they certainly aren’t as eye-catching as the TV people suggested! Well, not all of them; two – Venus and Jupiter – are strikingly bright. However, two of the others – Mars and Saturn – look just like stars, and Mercury is so faint, and still so low as dawn approaches, that finding it before sunrise is a real challenge.

But don’t let that reality check put you off! It’s still a fascinating and rare sight, so if you want to give it a go, you can find all the info toy need – including charts and observing tips – on our Secretary’s blog, here…

“Planets on Parade”

Thanks to the very hard work of EAS members, and the interest and support of the people who came along to it, our Stargazing Live “MoonWatch” last Thursday night – January 14th – at the Brewery Arts Centre was a great success!

Thankfully the sky was beautifully clear after sunset, and at half past four, as we set up the first of the half a dozen or so telescopes which we gathered in the Brewery garden for our event, the Moon was shining high and bright above us, and the view of its mountains, craters and seas was already spectacular.

It was already a very cold evening, and got colder and colder as the time passed, but a steady flow of people wanting to see the Moon through our telescopes kept us warm and busy! It was great to have so many kids there, and there were lots of excited shouts and gasps as they looked at the Moon through a telescope for the first time, marveling at the detailed view of its deep craters, jagged mountain ranges and dark grey seas. And they were even more excited when they were able to hold a big metal meteorite, and then a piece of the Moon itself…!

By the time we packed our gear away at 8pm, after almost four hours at the Brewery, we were all pretty frozen, but 50 or so people had seen the Moon through our telescopes, asked lots of questions, and even expressed interest in coming along to one of our meetings, so it had definitely been worth it.

Thanks to everyone who came along to support our event, from the members of the Society to the members of the public. And a special thank you to the Brewery Arts Centre for continuing to make us so welcome there.

To support the BBC’s “Stargazing Live” programmes we’re holding another of our popular “MoonWatch” events at the Brewery Arts Centre on January 14th… full details here…

It isn’t my best ever picture by a long shot, but at least it is a picture. The weather has been so attrocious that nothing has been possible. Short glimpses between clouds has been the best I could manage so far since about October. Anyway, managed to grab a few shots of Orions Great nebula, M42. Quite pleased given the difficulties on the night given that my mount decided not to autoguide properly. I used my Meade 8″ LX200R mounted in equatorial mode on my yard pillar in Kendal. The telescope had a f6.3 focal reducer attached to increase the field of view giving an effective focal length of 1260mm. I used my red-filter astro-modded Canon EOS400D at ISO1600. I took quite a few shots which I didn’t use for various reason  poor, trailed stars and cloud!  The final image is a composite of 227 seconds in total, comprising 1×120 seconds, 1×60 seconds, 1×20 seconds, 3×9 seconds subframes. These were overlaid in Photoshop to produce the final image – the shorter exposures allow the bright central portions of M42 to be not burnt out – they certainly were in the longest exposure.

Clearly, it needed more light but given the frustrating passage of clouds and the telescope issues, I’m quite pleased with the result. As Liz, my wife, said ‘You’d have been really pleased with that a few tears ago…’ To true but the better you do, the higher the standard you expect!

Due to the poor weather forecast and road conditions, there will be no EAS GEMINID WATCH tonight.

At the moment the weather forecast is not good for Saturday night at all, lots of cloud with no breaks, so as of 10am on Friday morning it looks unlikely there’ll be an EAS Geminid Watch. But forecasts change, so please check back here later tomorrow for a further update.

Thanks!

StuA

Everyone please note, Monday night’s meeting is STILL ON.

I heard back from Anna that there is no flooding there, so tomorrow night (Monday 8th) is still our Christmas social night. If you’re coming, bring some festive food to share, and something to drink while you’re eating. There’ll be a very brief news round up, then one of Graham’s spectacularly entertaining quizes, then we just hit the buffet table.

Look forward to seeing you all there!

Stu

At the start of the month we were delighted to welcome back one of our very favourite guest speakers – Nick Howes, who drove an incredibly long way to come and give us a passionate talk “The Legacy of Apollo”. Nick’s lavishly-illustrated talk took us through the glory of the Apollo missions, from the birth of the Apollo program to the final footsteps left on the Moon, and asked: what next? When will we go back? And why haven’t we been back already? It was a fascinating talk, which everyone in the large audience enjoyed.

After the talk Nick showed our members some pieces of actual Apollo hardware, including some very special items which had flown in space on Apollo missions. Nick also brought lots of meteorites with him and many members bought their own personal “piece of space” before Nick joined us across the road in the local pub for a well-deserved drink and bite to eat, before setting off on a long drive back down south again.

It was a fantastic night, and we all hugely appreciated Nick’s visit.

Before Nick’s talk, the meeting began with a round-up of recent astronomy and space news. There were reports of the recent beautiful display of the northern lights which was visible from Cumbria and was observed by several EAS members…

The meeting also heard about the striking “parade of planets” which has been on view in the eastern sky before dawn. Over the past few weeks, Venus, Jupiter and Mars have been coming together in the east, shining like stars in the hours before dawn, and several EAS members have been photographing them…

The next astronomical event we will be observing (or TRYING to observe!) is Comet CATALINA, a comet which has been delighting observers in the southern hemisphere for a while now but has not been visible this far north. However, that will change in a couple of weeks time, when Catalina pokes its head over the eastern horizon before dawn, and then well start to look for it. Here’s where it will be at the end of the month, and in early December, an hour or so before sunrise…

Finally for this update, we have a MOONWATCH scheduled for next weekend. Because the Brewery Arts Centre will be holding its annual and hugely popular “Mountain Festival” we can’t use their garden that evening, so we’ll be using an alternative observing venue. Keep checking this blog, and the “Meetings ad events” page, for updates and details.

All you need to know about the total eclipse of the Moon is here…

https://cumbriansky.wordpress.com/2015/09/09/guide-to-the-september-28th-total-lunar-eclipse/