Members have been observing the magnificent Jupiter at opposition in October this year. The southern equatorial belt is back and the great red spot appears to be moving in the middle of the belt rather than in a hollow below it. Clcik the image to the left to see a photo by member Paul Curtis.

Until the USA Lunar Orbiter photography in the late 1960s, the Moon’s surface was not mapped in the fine detail that it is now. Observers often found strange shadows under certain lighting conditions which were hard to explain. Some wild “discoveries” were made!

One object was the so-called “O’Neill’sBridge” announced in 1953 – which does not exist. On the other hand, “Larrieu’s Dam” from 1955, is an interesting, misshapen crater that exhibits what looks like a straight road on top of a dam, crossing dark water. Click here for the full article by member Gordon Lloyd.

Members met up for a barbecue at chairman Phil Alner's house in Fleet. Phil and Pat cooked up a great feast enjoyed by all. Then to top it all we actually had a really clear night so there was lots of viewing !

Members images of Comet Garrad. Click on thumbnails at the left.

The brightest supernova for 30 years was visible in September 2011. Click on thumbnail to the left for an image taken by member Paul Curtis.

Members have been observing Saturn at opposition in April. See images at the left.

There were about 12 to 15 attendees at the Farnham 'Introduction to the Military Observatory' on the 12th March. The sky was cloud covered although there was a slight break allowing the moon to poke through for 10 minutes. 4 Cody members attended. See images on the left.

Members of the society attended a club observing evening in March. We had 4 scopes and 6 members viewing. A good viewing evening had by all.
See images to the left.

The society attended the Stargazing event at Intech in Winchester this November, setting up 2 telescopes and the society stand. The evening was clear and very well attended. There was a continuous stream of visitors looking through the scopes and getting advice from volunteers at the stand.

Members of the society met at the Cody observatory on the night of 12th August to view the Perseid meteor shower. About 12 members attended and managed to see a total of 40 meteors up to 01.45. See the pictures to the left of images taken by members Phil Alner and Paul Curtis.

Members of the the society manned a stand at the Intech amnesty evening at Winchester.

Members of the society attended the event this year, also helping to man the SAGAS stand. The meeting was held in the grounds of Herstmonceux castle (the former home of the Royal Greenwich observatory). There were exhibitions, telescopes and some exceptional speakers at this years festival, including Chris Lintott, Stuart Clark, Ian Ridpath, Ninian Boyle and Nik Szymanek. And best of all the weather was superb with a clear night on the saturday when the observatory telescopes were open for public viewing. There were excellent views of Jupiter, M13, Albireo etc through these historic telescopes. One interesting observation - the 100 year old optics in these telescopes were clearly not as good as in modern telescopes ! And the scopes have to be man-handled into position - no such thing as GOTO !!

A green comet with two tails !

M42, Orion Nebula, Meade  LX200 SCT  f6.3, Canon 450D EOS at prime focus. Average of 8 images x one minute exposures, Jan 2009

2009 is officially the International year of Astronomy. Take a look at the website here to see what is going on.