Welcome to Astronomy in Herefordshire

Latest News:

News and items of interest to Herefordshire Astronomical Society members

• Next Activity - Observing Session - Thursday 27th March 

Our next activity is the monthly observing session to be held towards the end of March. After our successful observation session in February (the first for two years), let's hope we have another clear night on the 27th. Have a look below at some of what we were looking at in February. 

We will meet at our Lugg Meadows site - more information about our site and location here.

As always, look out for emails from Mark and Chris giving details and any last minute alterations. We will endeavour to stick to these dates unless weather means 'sliding' it, in which case it will likely be a few days earlier or later and members will of course be advised. Each date is centred on the first Thursday after Third Quarter.

If you are not on our emailing list, please contact Mark and Chris for the latest news - contact details here.

• Partial Solar Eclipse - Observing Session - Saturday 29th March 

We have two observing activities in the space of a couple of days in March. There will be a Partial Solar Eclipse on Saturday 29th March. The eclipse has first contact at 10:04 and finishes just after midday. 

There will be plenty of people with various gadgets for SAFE observing (filters, H Alpha scope, Herschel wedges and mylar viewing glasses etc). 

With solar observing, even if it's partly cloudy we'll still be able to observe the partial eclipse - only total thick cover will spoil the view.

We have been given permission to meet on private property, for details of where we are meeting and instructions on how to get there and where to park, please contact Mark and Chris - contact details here.

• Next Talk - Kindle Centre - Thursday 3rd April 2025

We are delighted to welcome back Dr Steve Barrett to give us his talk "It's Not Rocket Science". This talk will be held at the Kindle Centre in Hereford.

As always, look out for emails from Chris with details of what HAS is doing next. If you are not on our emailing list, please contact Chris for the latest news - contact details here.

• Observing Session - Thursday 27th February 

At last, we had our first successful Observing Session since November 2022!

A very good turn out of members eager to be guided around the night sky and to view some of those treasures through a variety of scopes and binoculars. It was also an excellent chance to view the "planetary parade," featuring all seven planets - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune [OK, eight if you include looking at Earth?]. 

Saturn was the first of the planets to look for as it was first to set after the sun. Sadly, it was a very faint target and only visible in twilight and, as Chris predicted, it proved impossible for us to see on the night. Saturn was followed by Mercury which early observers were able to spot before it too sank first into some low clouds and then below the horizon. Neptune was next which, as the faintest and most distant planet would be a telescope target, but was way beyond the nous of our band of amateur astronomers to spot.  

Venus was next on parade - sailing bright in the twilight then night sky. However, she proved to be a jaw dropping sight through the larger scopes - not a bright round disk, but a tiny sliver of silver in a crescent (15.8% phase). 

Next in the parade was Uranus, the second most distant and faint planet, it suffered the same fate as Neptune.

However, we then alighted on mighty Jupiter - glorious views of the great gas giant with two thick bands and all four Galilean moons visible against the inky black of the night sky.

Last in the parade was Mars, a red disk against the black of the night sky. The seeing at our observing sight was deteriorating so just a red disk on the night with no hint of maria or ice caps.

So we observed four of the night's planetary parade. But that was not all, with lovely views of Orion's nebulae, open star clusters and Chris's laser pointer guiding us across the star studded night sky.

As well as the scopes and binoculars members had brought, Francis had set up his portable tracking mount with a colour camera on the end of a Samyang f2 135mm lens. This combination gives a really wide view of the night sky. With some nifty software, Francis was accumulating live images of beautiful nebulae. Here's what he captured on the night:

• Next Visit - Bletchley Park and Henley Boat Museum's Space Vault Exhibition

At our AGM, Keith outlined our plans for trips and visits this year.

Top of the list is a proposed trip to  Bletchley Park. Although not directly associated with astronomy, the place it holds in British history and the development of technology tickled the interest of HAS members. 

We are also hoping to include a visit to Henley Boat Museum to see their Space Vault Exhibition. This exhibition incorporates rare and historic objects brought back to Earth from the lunar surface, low-Earth orbit and outer space, from NASA’s Apollo missions and the Soviet space era to the US and Russian space shuttle programs, International Space Station and SpaceX. 

There's also The National Museum of Computing (TNMOC) in Block H at Bletchley Park - home to the world's largest collection of working historic computers. 

There's so much to see that we plan a two day visit and will find somewhere to stay overnight nearby. 

If you haven't already signed up for this trip, please contact Keith (here) to find out more.

Observing Session:

As always, look out for emails from Chris giving proposed date and details and look out for any last minute alterations. We will endeavour to stick to these dates unless weather means 'sliding' it, in which case it will likely be a few days earlier or later and members will of course be advised. Each date is centred on the first Thursday after Third Quarter.

If you are not on our emailing list, please contact Chris for the latest news - contact details here.

Remember that there are some great online observing guides - a good one is run by Telescope House. Look out for the monthly night sky emails from Chris.

Observing Highlights 

Observing highlights for this month:

• Royal Museaums Greenwich - Night Sky Highlights

• BBC Sky at Night Magazine

Links for weather and observing forecasts:

• Met Office Satellite image. UK Visible Light

• Clear Outside (FLO)

• Glendale Aurora Alerts UK 

Meetings:

With meetings now allowed indoors, we are delighted to be able to have a mix of virtual Zoom talks and talks back at the Kindle Centre. Our next meeting will be:

Many of our speakers at the Virtual Talks have allowed us to record and share their talks for society members to view if they missed the meeting. We've started a HAS YouTube channel here where you can visit or subscribe to and watch these talks.

To watch recordings of previous talks, they are on the "Recordings" page  here.

Our last recorded meeting was a talk given by Owen Brazell. Owen allowed us to record the talk and you'll find it here:

FAS News

Look out for emails from Keith with the regular FAS Newsletter and news and information about other events and talks that you may be interested in attending at FAS and other Astronomical Societies

Member's Photos 

Taken any astronomy photos over the last few months? Share them here with HAS members! 

Take a look at what HAS members have managed to do over the years on our Images page (here). 

HAS members have risen to the challenge of imaging all 110 Messier objects! Check out how we're doing on our Messier Marathon page (here).

Below are some recent images taken by HAS members:

Visit:

Once or twice a year, members like to jump in cars or climb in a mini-bus and make their way to go and see something interesting outside of Herefordshire (passports not required - so far). Previous trips have been to the Spaceguard Centre, the International Astronomy Show, the National Space Centre, Jodrell Bank, the Norman Lockyer Observatory outside Sidmouth, the Herschel Museum in Bath and the Hanwell Community Observatory just outside Banbury.

At our September meeting, Keith described the potential sites we could visit and took a poll of those present. Based on your feedback we've now had a fab trip to visit to the Spaceguard Centre in Knighton and Keith is now looking to organise a longer visit to Jodrell Bank in 2024 with an overnight stay to make the travel easier.

Look out for emails from Keith explaining more about the proposed visits and asking members to register for the trips.

Our next proposed trip is to  Bletchley Park. Although not directly associated with astronomy, the place it holds in British history and the development of technology tickled the interest of HAS members. We are also hoping to include a visit to Henley Boat Museum to see their Space Vault Exhibition. This exhibition incorporates rare and historic objects brought back to Earth from the lunar surface, low-Earth orbit and outer space, from NASA’s Apollo missions and the Soviet space era to the US and Russian space shuttle programs, International Space Station and SpaceX. There's also The National Museum of Computing (TNMOC) in Block H at Bletchley Park - home to the world's largest collection of working historic computers. There's so much to see that we plan a two day visit and will find somewhere to stay overnight nearby. 

Members pay for shared transport and any entrance fees as appropriate..

Star Party:

We've held Star Parties in the past, most recently at the Madley Environmental Study Centre (MESC). Let us know if his is something you'd be interested in or would be happy to help with.

MESC is right next door to the Madley Satellite Earth Station - a well known Herefordshire landmark. There are some location maps and directions to the MESC web site here.

Members Discussion Group

We've set up an online community for HAS members where you can raise questions, share your experience and suggest topics for talks or visits. We've created a discussion group on the Groups.io platform. This is a "fremium" based platform and promotes itself as "We don't run advertising and your data is never submitted to any ad tracking networks.". There are a lot of other astronomy and expert groups using this platform - it looks like a safe place to be online.

We've set the permissions for the group to be listed publicly but content is private - only HAS members can see what you post. We are moderating new members joining the group to manage spam bots and spurious content. This means new member requests have to be approved by an Admin before being admitted to the group. 

Once admitted you can follow discussions and post entries. It's an email based platform by default - you'll receive new posts by email from other members. However, if you don't want individual emails you can go online and change your "Subscription" to turn off emails and receive digests etc.

Have fun!