Talks and Telescopes at Westmorland Park

Posted on April 18, 2013 by gbond

Astronomy for beginners

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East Reading Festival, Sunday 16th June 2013

Posted on April 17, 2013 by gbond

East Reading Festival is again in Palmer Park, from 12 until 6pm. on 16th June 2013.

East Reading Festival is FREE. It’s a big fun day out for the whole of the
East Reading community, young and old and inbetween.
If you live in East Reading, this is your day to celebrate, so come along and
Be Part Of It!

The Reading Astronomical Society will be organising a stall.

It was a fun and interesting event last year and important to the society as the location is on our doorstep. For the many children who come, or are brought, to the event it is good to show that science is about hobbies and enjoyment as well as school-work. Let’s hope the sun shines and we can use some of the Baader film and projection skills!

ERF is on facebook.

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RAS visit Herstmonceux Summer 2013

Posted on March 19, 2013 by gbond

Too few tickets were applied for to justify a coach-booking, but the page is retained in case members who search to here wish to go by personal transport.

 

There are sufficient features of interest in the castle and grounds to occupy a whole day not forgetting the main reason for our visit, the Observatory Science Centre .

There is also a private telescope tour (£1/person) recommended for its astronomical history.

The cafe will be open all day, but catering can be prearranged if there is sufficient demand.

RAS Sec’
Chris Menmuir,
68 Woodrow Drive
Wokingham,
RG40 1RT

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Reading Science Week 2013

Posted on March 12, 2013 by jtalbot

Fri 15th and Sat 16th March 2013

The public are invited to participate in our Reading Science Week activities. We will be at the Museum of English Rural Life on the evenings of 15th and 16th March. There will be an indoor exhibition to demonstrate the work of the local amateur astronomers and some of the equipment used for observing and photography. Telescopes will be setup in the garden and if clear there will be observing of Jupiter and its satellites and a thin crescent Moon (better on 16th).

Amateur astronomers from, Reading, Newbury and Maidenhead societies will be present to manage the telescopes and there will be talks in a room nearby. The talks will be mainly by Scott Marley who is a professional science educator.

For further questions please email info@readingastro.org.uk

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East Reading Festival Report

Posted on June 12, 2012 by gbond

From Chris Menmuir, Sec’ and organizer of this event. I’d like to say many thanks to Gerry Bond and Malcolm Brown for their enthusiastic support today, and thanks to Anne Chadwick who delivered a box of public-friendly leaflets and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of “space bugs” for the children. We were located right next to the music tent, which despite causing us to shout for most of the day, meant that we had a steady stream of visitors. Amongst the hordes of children desperate to get to grips with the three telescopes on display, we had several potential new members and a few community group leaders. Expect me to ask for volunteers to help with talks and displays over the next few months! And if you’ve got any suggestions for how to remove sticky fingerprints from every single component of a telescope PLEASE let me know … Although we didn’t get to observe the Sun, we didn’t get wet either!

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Transit of Venus 2012

Posted on June 6, 2012 by gbond

The plan to go to Isle of Sheppey to watch the sun rise over the Thames Estuary was rendered a bit risky by the passing weather system. In the end a number of members elected to head west to Walbury Hill near Inkpen in the North Wessex Downs. Gear was erected more in hope than expectation but for a few seconds just before 3rd contact the sun appeared between two cloud layers. Actually to say the sun appeared is a bit of an exaggeration. It actually had not quite cleared the lower cloud layer before rising into the upper cloud layer. The whole thing over in about 10 secs but a good number of never-to-be-forgotten images were grabbed in that short time.

RAS on Walbury Hill

Keeping warm, waiting for the sun to come out.

A number of images are uploaded to our flickr pages

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Welsh Farm – April 2012

Posted on April 17, 2012 by gbond

John T writes,
Friday night was clouded out. Overnight and Saturday morning it rained and sleeted! But it cleared early evening and by the end of dusk around 10pm it cleared. We had absolutely cloudless skies then until we got too cold or tired. Lane End were observing until sunrise-twilight!!!

We raised a toast to Chris for organising the weekend although he couldn’t be there. Good weekend had by all!!

Martin B writes,
Friday night we did manage to get a decent look at Mars in a short gap but that was all.
Saturday some of us lasted until dawn interfered shortly before 5 am .
Sunday night started good and we observed until just after midnight when cloud came in , but as we had an early start next day , I was planning to give up round midnight anyway . The transparency was good but seeing was not (on Sunday – the Mars view was probably better on Friday than Sunday) . Best weekend yet .
I saw about 50 Messier objects on Saturday and decided to have a go at a few NGC and Caldwell ones on the Sunday . The sky was brighter low down on Sunday though .

We could appreciate the movement of comet Garradd between Saturday and Sunday.

NHFarm2012

Well fed and ready for a night out. Reading AS’s Welsh group.

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Venus and Uranus Converge

Posted on January 27, 2012 by jtalbot

Venus

Venus

On the evening of 9th February 2012 Venus and Uranus will appear very close together in the sky as seen from Earth. This is purely a line of sight effect as Uranus is much further away from us than Venus. The planets as seen from here pass and re-pass each other throughout their journeys around the Sun.

When this happens it is called a conjunction. Sometimes the planets will be several degrees apart in the sky but this particular conjunction is a very close one and Uranus will be less than a degree from Venus.

Uranus is theoretically visible to the unaided eye from a very dark site but at magnitude 5.6 it’s right on the limit of what normal people can see. It is easily visible in binoculars though and you should be able to see it close to Venus on this evening.

The chart below shows what it will look like through a telescope with an eyepiece giving 1 degree field of view (FOV). You can calculate your FOV using this simple calculation…

Actual FOV (deg) =	Apparent FOV (deg) / (Scope Focal Length (mm) / Eyepiece Focal Length (mm))

For example a 26mm Meade Plössl eyepiece with apparent field of view of 60 degrees in a telescope of focal length 800mm gives…

Actual FOV = 60 / (800 / 26 ) = 1.95 degrees

Nb. eyepieces are sometimes labelled with their apparent FOV or you can usually look it up on the manufacturer’s website.

In a telescope Uranus appears as a greenish blob, distinctly unlike a star. Venus will show a smallish but very bright gibbous disk. It won’t be hard to know where to point your binoculars or telescope as Venus cannot be missed, it will be by far the brightest point of light visible in the southwestern sky as darkness falls.

The chart shows a normal orientation, depending on your telescope the actual view you see may be a mirror-image of this and/or upside-down!

Venus and Uranus

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Comet Garradd

Posted on January 22, 2012 by jtalbot

Comet C/2009 P1 Garradd, Aug. 24, 2011 (Richard Schmidt)

Comet Garradd

A comet discovered in 2009 by Australian amateur astronomer Gordon Garradd is currently visible from the UK in the morning sky. It is currently around magnitude 7 and can be seen with binoculars that have at least 10x magnification. The object is quite small so a medium sized telescope and fairly dark skies are needed for good views.

The comet is moving through Hercules close to the keystone asterism. It passes by the head of Draco in February. The chart below shows its movment during January and February 2012.

It is sporting a short tail now which is showing up nicely in recent images. The brightness won’t change much over the coming couple of months so there is plenty of opportunity to observe and image the comet.

Comet Garradd reaches peak brightness in February when it should be at around 6th magnitude. If you have really dark skies it could just be visible to the unaided eye around this time. The comet’s closest approach to Earth happens in March when it will be close to Ursa Minor and should still be around magnitude 7.

Finder Chart for Comet Garradd

Finder Chart for Comet Garradd

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Jochta’s Image at Santa’s Grotto

Posted on December 15, 2011 by gbond

Reading AS's social evening.

The scene at our Christmas social on 10th December.

 

 

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