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Guildford Astronomical Society

serving sw surrey since 1956

Observing Reports from our members

This will be a web page(s) for observing reports from sessions at the Observatory, or general observations by our members.

Image of M13 at Holmbury

Report sent in by Brian States

An image of M13 taken during a training session at Holmbury, sent in by Brian States.

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Perseids 2005 plans and observations summary

Written by John Axtell, GAS Observational Coordinator 2005

11 August (posted morning of 12 August)

PERSEIDS WATCH - WILL TONIGHT (12 Aug) BE BETTER?

It was clouded out at 10 last night (11 Aug) so I opted out and am pinning my hopes on it being better tonight. This morning's Met Office forecast for Guildford looks very promising, but the BBC showed broken cloud. I'm out now for the rest of the day until late evening, so will be unable to update this message with later information. However I hope we can make it, albeit post-maximum. I suggest that, like last night, each individual makes up his/her mind, after checking the weather. Hopefully I'll see some of you at Albury later.

regards, John

Perseids and Observing report for 8 August

Well, three of us made it to Albury last night, and the seeing wasn't too bad. The Milky Way was the best I've seen it for months and both M31 and the Double Cluster were visible with the naked-eye.

During the night's observing I counted 11 meteors and John Slinn had seen a few before I arrived. Perseids accounted for 6 that I saw, the remainder were probably from one or other of the Aquarid streams, both of which peaked over the last two nights.

Predictions vary as to the Perseid peak, some resources say 17.30 hrs on 12th, others say it'll be earlier around 05.00 hrs. Let's play safe. If anyone's interested then I suggest we have a Perseid watch at Albury Heath on the evening of the 11th, with a fall back on the 12th. Bring a deck-chair, a thermos, perhaps some binos and wrap up warm. Budding musicians can bring along guitars (or whatever) if they would like to entertain the rest of us! It's probably not worth getting there much before 23.00 hrs, the Moon will not long have set and it won't be dark enough.

I'll not be organising a cascade phone-round for this, just check the weather yourself and take your own decision as to whether it's worth going. I'll leave a notice on the Observing page of the GAS web-site. In the past I believe that in the event of mist, people have migrated from Albury to Newlands Corner, so it might be worth checking both places.

Transit of Venus on 8 June 2004

Observations, article and photos by Phil Beastall

One of the good things about teaching is that you can get young people involved in interesting events. So it was that somewhat before 6 a.m. on Tuesday 8th June 2004, I arrived at Guildford County School's sports field at Urnfield near One Tree Hill. Getting students to get up early is a slightly different matter and it was my wife and two sons who joined me at 6 o'clock ready for the start of the transit. This was ten minutes after my fancy clock that receives a signal from the atomic clock transmitter decided to pack up - the transit timings were all done with a ten pound wrist watch from a market stall. Read more...

Last updated 9 June 2004 [Back]

Solar Eclipse observed in Zambia - 21 June 2001

Report and photos by John Axtell

I remember that I was a boy of about 10 when I became aware that only Total Solar Eclipse to occur in England during my lifetime was going to be in Cornwall in 1999. All through the years I remained determined since that age to see that event, and as we all know in the event it was a cloud-covered washout. We actually did better than most, with wife Sue and daughter Jenny and some family friends we were lucky enough to get a partial gap in the clouds and saw something of the eclipse through thin higher clouds. To be honest I thought that was it and was at least partially satisfied. Read more...

Last updated July 2001 [Back]

Solar Eclipse observed in Zimbabwe - 21 June 2001

Posted by Shelagh Godwin. Photo by Jim Godwin

On 2001 June 21st I had the privilege of observing the first total solar eclipse of the new millennium. The observing site was the banks of the Ruya River in northern Zimbabwe. The combination of sand, trees, vegetation and the flowing water enhanced the eerieness of the light as the moon encroached over the Sun from the bottom left. We could hear the crickets singing, as if in the evening, as we had fun playing with our shadows, sharp in one direction fuzzy in another. At just before 3-15 local time (1315 UT) an impressive diamond ring to top right announced the onset of totality. The excitement was palpable as the shadow rushed over the river towards us and Read more...

Last updated July 2001 [Back]

GAS Messier Marathon - Saturday/Sunday March 4/5th 2000

Posted by GAS Members

The weather forecast was promising for an all-nighter. Attendance was high as is now usual for this event at Guildford. We had 7 telescopes in operation, 6 reflectors and one catadioptric. As well as the seven scope operators we had several other members and their friends and relatives on hand during the evening. Read more...

Last updated March 2000 [Back]

Solar Eclipse - 11 August 1999 - Abroad

Posted by Jonathan Silverlight (GAS member)

I had booked a trip to Iran with Explorers Tours nearly a year ago, but it was a surprise to meet Brian Shorter (another GAS member) and family at Heathrow! We observed the last total eclipse of the millenium from a village called Najafabad, near Esfahan. Read more...

Last updated March 2000 [Back]

Solar Eclipse - 11 August 1999 - Lands End

Posted by Jon Laver (GAS member)

I went to Lands End to (hopefully) see the eclipse. The Open University Geological Society (East Midlands Branch AKA John Colby etc) had organised a Geo-Camp at Trelowarren (a truly superb camp site!) for a couple of weeks, to look at the rather special geology of Lands End (it's an Ophiolite sequence) with a day off to see that eclipse. Well, I'll even put up with a fornight under canvas and cook (apart from using that take-a-way shop once or twice) to try to see something that special. So I put the LX200 (and all that associated kit, plus a full set of camping gear, food, water and all the outdoor all-weather geokit for two) into the car and took it easy down to Lands End. The camp organization was superb as was the geology AND we got to see the eclipse (just!). Read more...

Last updated March 2000 [Back]

QSO 0957+561 A/B The Double Quasar - Ursa Major

Posted by GAS Members

The following group of observers from Guildford AS would like to announce the visual observation of this object from the UK, in the early hours of this morning (8:1:2000). As a hurried search failed to uncover any other observations from British amateurs; we think that this may well be the first visual UK observation. In exceptionally transparent (zenithal limiting magnitude 5.7-5.8) and steady skies, (Antoniadi 1) this object, (aka the Double Quasar) was detected by Laurence Hall (LH) using x300 in an 18" f4.5 Dobsonian at 1.15am. The observation was confirmed by: Gavin Stacey (GS); Peter Dean (PD); Adrian Selby (AS); Kevin Mills (KM). Read more...

Last updated March 2000 [Back]

John Evans' recent visit to La Palma

Sent in by John Evans

I'm recently back from La Palma where, at 8,000 feet, observing conditions were constantly clear and the Milky Way shone like a ..... Read more...

Last updated 6 August 2007 [Back]