Thornbury

Astronomy

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Covid 19

The Covid-19 outbreak means that the astronomy group cannot meet face to face in the near future.

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During the Covid-19 difficulties the group is holding its meetings using the Zoom video conferencing tool. The meetings are held on the first Monday of each month, starting at 10.30am, and last between an hour and an hour and a half. The bulk of each meeting is usually made up of two talks on different astronomical topics. The speakers are always members of the group: our usual practice. Sometimes observations are reported by group members, observing being largely unaffected by the current difficulties.

The thumbnails below are of images taken at our normal meetings which, before COVID-19, were held in the Buckingham Room of The Chantry. (click on a thumbnail to see a larger image)

The membership varies widely in background and we are mainly a talks and discussions group, but with a small number of dedicated, telescope owning observers. We cover astronomy in the widest sense: observations, cosmology, space missions, history and so on. We do not explore the subject systematically - almost every meeting is a stand-alone meeting. We are particularly keen on covering the latest findings in Astronomy as soon as possible after they are announced.

A few days before each meeting a poster is placed on this website advertising the meeting’s main talk. The "Past Meetings" page contains a collection of these posters and anyone interested in joining us can examine these to get some idea of what we cover. The group welcomes new members.

Contact the Group Leader, Peter Jackson, on 418050 or by email to Astronomy.

If you have any comments about the web site, please sent an email to Webmaster.

Chris Lee - The Perseids

The Perseids meteor shower peaked in the middle of August. Chris Lee has sent a digitised drawing of the traces he observed from his back garden on Tuesday evening, August 11th.

Jupiter and Saturn

Bill Beere has issued a challenge to the group to photograph the coming near conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. See the link on the right.

Notice Board

• Two members of the group have selections of camera adapters which are surplus to their requirements. Take a look at the "For Sale" page (see the link on the right of this page).

• A small "Jessop’s refractor and tripod" has been offered for sale. Details are on the "For Sale" page (see the link on the right of this page).

• The Draconids meteor shower is caused by the debris left by comet 21 P/Giacobini-Zinner. The shower will peak on the night of October 8th/9th 2020. As the name suggests, the radiant is in Draco. At the time, Draco will be in the northern sky. It will be at its highest at about 20:00 to the Northwest. Sunset is 18:31 But Astronomical Twilight does not end until 20:22 so it may be worth waiting a little longer. The moon will be approaching its third quarter and will rise at 21:52 to the Northeast.