S.A.M

Wiltshire AS speaker for February will be Prof. David Southwood talking about 'Mars: Delirium, Delight & Disasters, some personal stories', the meeting will be held at the Pavilion, Rusty lane, Seend nr Melksham SN12 6NS with a start time of 20:00 on the 5th. All welcome. Peter

Wiltshire AS speaker for December will be Dr Elizabeth Pearson talking about 'A very brief History of Rovers & Landers', the meeting will be held at the Pavilion, Rusty lane, Seend nr Melksham SN12 6NS with a start time of 20:00 on the 4th. All welcome. Peter

Wiltshire AS speaker for November will be Pete Williamson talking about how to 'The Sun & How it Works', the meeting will be held at the Pavilion, Rusty lane, Seend nr Melksham SN12 6NS with a start time of 20:00 on the 6th. All welcome. Peter

Wiltshire AS speaker for October will be Mary McIntyre talking about how to 'Creating Stunning Star Trails', the meeting will be held at the Pavilion, Rusty lane, Seend nr Melksham SN12 6NS with a start time of 20:00 on the 2nd. All welcome. Peter

I hope the tin of beans are still in date when you purchased the scope, I did not see the 'Box of Clouds' that comes with the scope or is that just hiding for a while? Happy viewing. Peter

Start with the Sun as it always changing? Always go to M42 in winter sky plus lots of other Messier objects, never bother with Spiral Galaxies I find them very boring! Peter

First speaker in new season is Andy Burns talking about 'Cataloguing the Heavens', meeting takes place at the Pavilion, Rusty Lane, Seend Nr Melksham SN12 6NS on 4th of September with a start time of 20:00, all welcome. More details can be found on our Facebook page, Wiltshire Astronomical Society. Peter

Get a new one to be on the safe side. Cost of filter, a few pounds, cost of eye....................priceless! Peter

August 1999, first total solar eclipse seen quite a few since! Kennady Space Centre, never lets me down, been three times so far and finally Transit of Venus from Big Island in Hawaii. Wish list: Northwern Lights, looking thru a large scope over 20 inches in diameter and not having a queue behind me? Peter

Next two total solar eclipses are in South America, so a long way to go and see them? As said before next good one for Europe is in 2026.

Went out on Saturday night to Castlerley Camp near Upavon in Wiltshire with some members of SPOG. Could see four planets in the sky not long after sunset, from west: Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and finally Mars. Looked at a few deep sky objects in Sagittarius and Scorpius before calling it a day not long after the Moon came up around 00:20. In the three hours I did not do much viewing as it was time to catch up with the other people what had been happening over the last few months. Also had a go at doing some astro photography of the Milky Way (not had time to really look at them yet) with my new toy (Canon 10 - 18 mm lens). Peter

I was shown it on Saturday night (while viewings with members of SPOG ) thru a Starwave 6 " refractor, it was there but if I was looking for it I could easy miss it? Lets hope it brightens a few more mag over the coming weeks. Peter

I would never buy a telescope like the one mentioned, you would get more satisfaction throwing your money down a drain.

Been cloud here for last two days.

Every time I go out viewing I keep an astronomy log of what I have viewed, sometimes I just view the brighter objects on display. A few years ago I decided to complete all 110 objects in the Messier list, after that wondered what I could do? Found a book about the Herschel 400, it took nearly five years to complete that list and now going thru the Caldwell list, some are covered in the 400 list and have about five to do from UK shores? Was lucky recently to be in Barbados and ticked a few more Caldwell's off the list, probably will not get all of them unless I live south for a few years? Peter