22nd May 2013
Photo showing Jupiter Venus & Mercury this evening at 21-45hrs
http://dbown100.tripod.com/220513_Jupiter_Venus_Mercury.jpg

20th May 2013. Upcoming conjunction of Planets.

This evening look for Venus in the North West, with Jupiter now only 8deg above and to the left of it. Start looking for Mercury, which is 3deg to the lower right of Venus. All three planets come together and are at their closest around the 26th to 28th.

1st April 2013

Comet Panstarrs visible again tonight after a long break due to Moon & cloud.
Now much fainter and further round towards the north it was a difficult object to find in binoculars from around 9pm. Look NW just below M31 the Andromeda Galaxy. Over the next 3 -4 nights it will pass quite close to M31. Get a look now before it become too faint.

170313 Comet Panstarrs seen this evening from 7-15pm. An easy naked eye object quite low on the horizon just north of due west, at an altitude of about 15deg. In binoculars you could see the lovely tail pointing straight up. DB

Around now is a good time to try looking for the planet Mercury. Look WSW after sunset. Mercury will be just above the much fainter planet Mars. Try the following web page for info
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/ataglance

Next month we may get a glimpe of a bright comet called Panstarrs. Get ready, go to the following web page for info:
http://www.space.com/19676-bright-comet-pan-starrs-visible-march.html

Come along to our meeting on Wed 13th at Bridgwater College and our Stargazing Evening at Parchey Bridge on Friday 15th.

Welcome to the new occasional Bridgwater Astronomical Society Blogspot

 

Wed Jan 9th: Our first meeting of the New Year took place. Four new members were welcomed to the meeting. The subject for the evening was 'Ten Minute Talks'. First off  Barry gave a very thought provoking talk about UFO's, followed by Terry telling us all about the bright star Fomalhaut, and then Nigel showed a short video and talked about the Leonid Meteor shower.

 

Thurs Jan 10th. A small team consisting of Terry, Simon & Nigel braved the elements to fly the flag for our Society at the BBC Stargazing event at Taunton Racecourse. Telescopes were on show, information flyers handed out and questions were answered. Terry took part in a 'live' quiz on Somerset Sound and the lads bobbed in & out of view on the BBC west news at 6-45, pretending to be looking through their scopes even though the rain was tanking down. Later on though, just before closing down time, they did get a few brief views of Jupiter. Well done lads!

 

Fri Jan 11th. Well, our own Stargazing event was cancelled due to total cloud cover. We now look forward to Feb 15th for another try.

 

Next Meeting: Wed Feb 13th. Gordon is giving us a talk   'The Big Bang Revisited'

 

As always, for more info go to the website at www.bwastrosoc.org.uk