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Welcome to the web-site of the Cotswold Astronomical Society.
New members are always welcome, why not come for a trial visit ?
Forthcoming events - 2012
6th June - Observing the Transit of Venus on Cleeve Hill
9th June - Monthly Meeting at Shurdington Social Centre - James Fragdley - Life in the Universe
14th June - Stargazing (S61) - Short talk & observing if clear at the Cheltenham Science Festival (9pm)
15th June - Stargazing (S85) - Short talk & observing if clear at the Cheltenham Science Festival (9pm)
16th June - Solar viewing at the Cheltenham Science Festival (family fun day)
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The May/June issue of Mercury is now available for download from the Members Only area of the website.
Contents include:
- Coordinator’s Report
- Dates For Your Diary
- Observing Directors notes
- Membership sec’s report
- SETI on the moon - an update
- Isle of Wight Star Party
- Report of the AGM
- Solar Sessions Snaps from Slimbridge
- Treasurer’s report
- News From Mount Tuffley
- Award voting form
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Those of you who watch Sky at Night may be aware of the Moore Marathon,
which is planned to celebrate 55 years of Sky at Night. The idea is that
we try to observe all of Patrick's favourite 55 objects during the
month of April.
As we have more than 100 members then this should be a doddle, and some members might like to find them all!
For more information, please visit the web site.
http://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/sky-night-55-moore-marathon
If you would like to take part, please let the Coordinator (Peter Cadogan) know and he will happily
co-ordinate a group response. It will be a nice way to say thank you to
Patrick for inspiring so many of us over the years.
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Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th were our main evenings for night time public observing as part of Stargazing LIVE this year.
On both nights, the weather was not really cooperative, but we did manage to see a few things in clear patches on the Saturday evening, but the Sunday evening was clouded out with leaden skies and light drizzle.
However, this did not dampen the enthusiasm, and we had around 300 welcome visitors over the two nights.
Many thanks to all the members who helped out over the two nights. We could not have made these events so successful without your help.
Click on read more below to see some pictures from the two nights.
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Read more...
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On Saturday 21st Jan and Sunday 22nd a number of Cotswold Astronomical Society members gathered with solar viewing equipment to show the Sun to members of the public as part of BBC Stargazing Live, at Imperial Gardens, Cheltenham.
Although the weather was pretty uncooperative, quite a few were able to get a good view on the Sunday, though on the Saturday there was only the briefest of clear spell.
Although we did not really count visitors, we probably had around 30 to 40 each day.
Click on Read More to see some more pictures of the event.
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Read more...
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Total Eclipse of the Moon - 10th December 2011 |
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CAS member James Weightman managed to capture these images of the tail end of the eclipse on Saturday 10th December from near Cirencester. Canon DSLR and 400mm lens.
(click on the images to see a bigger view).
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At
the Christmas meeting this Saturday, Alan Jordan will be giving us an
update on the Somerset scale model of the solar system and Peter Cadogan
will be running a special astronomy quiz, so please equip yourself with
a pencil. Don't worry if you are new to astronomy, because this will be a team event.
As you may or may not know, we have party food at the Christmas meeting
instead of just the usual tea/coffee and biscuits, so if you are able
to bring a little something along for this, it would be much
appreciated.
After supper, if there is time, Mark Gibbons is going to tell us about the Allen Telescope Array, which sounds interesting.
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Dr. David Whitehouse will be giving the talk at this weeks meeting (on Saturday 12th November), entitled "Space: The Next 50 Years".
David is a scientist, writer and broadcaster. He has a
doctorate in Astrophysics from Jodrell Bank. Was BBC Science
correspondent 1988 - 2006. He has won numerous awards as well as
European Internet Journalist of the Year. The author of four books; The
Moon:A Biography, The Sun:A Biography, Galileo, and One Small Step. He
also has an asteroid named after him. He now writes for the Huffington Post.
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BAA Beginners Workshop - Report & Pics |
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Well, we had a really good turn out for the CAS/BAA Back to Basics Begineers Meeting on Saturday 1st October.
We had around 80 at the meeting, and the Sun came out too - one of the hotest days of the year.
Talks and workshop sessions on Solar observing (Peter Meadows), Lunar
observing (Martin Morgan-Taylor), Planets (David Arditti), and
Astro-Imaging (Rik McRae) were complemented with a general overview and
equipment talk by Callum Potter.
An excellent lunch kept everyone well nourished for the afternoon session - many thanks to the catering team for that, and the T&C team for refreshments throughout.
During the lunch break, solar H-Alpha scopes were set up outside and a number of sunspots and small prominances were seen.There was quite a bit of wispy and thicker stuff, though, so not the best of views possible through the scopes.
Click on the read more link to see a few photos (by Tony Ireland) from the day.
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Read more...
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This week there are several evening passes of the International Space Station over Gloucestershire, which should be quite easy observe.
Martin Sinton took an image on Sunday 21st August when the ISS passed over around 21:46. Here is a cropped section, and if you click on the picture you will see the full image.
Here are some times for the rest of the week - these should be approximately right for Gloucestershire, but if you want details for your own specific location its best to use the website Heavens Above
| Date |
Mag |
Start Time (BST)
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| 23 Aug |
-3.5 |
21:26:25 |
| 23 Aug |
-1.6 |
23:02:32 |
| 24 Aug |
-3.4 |
20:28:16 |
| 24 Aug |
-3.2 |
22:04:20 |
| 25 Aug |
-3.4 |
21:06:11 |
| 25 Aug |
-1.6 |
22:42:25 |
| 26 Aug |
-2.7 |
21:44:07 |
| 27 Aug |
-3.2 |
20:45:53 |
| 27 Aug |
-1.3 |
22:22:25 |
| 28 Aug |
-2.0 |
21:23:53 |
| 29 Aug |
-2.7 |
20:25:34 |
| 29 Aug |
-0.8 |
22:02:52 |
| 30 Aug |
-1.4 |
21:03:44 |
| 1 Sep |
-0.7 |
20:43:50 |
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At the July meeting, this years award winners were presented with their trophies.
Rik McRae (left) was presented with the Dan Turton trophy for best astro-image (considering the equipment available for use).
Martin Sinton (right) was presented with the Robin Townley trophy for contribution to the work of the Society, and in particular for running events during Star Gazing Live, and observing evenings at Slimbridge WWT.
Congratulations to both.
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Science Festival in Pictures |
As part of this years Cheltenham Science Festival we arranged two observing evenings and safe solar viewing at the weekend.
On the following pages you can view a variety of pictures taken by members at the events.
Although we did not get to do any night-time observing, we had good turnouts, and enthusiastic audiences. Lets look forward to next year!
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Read more...
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