We got "clear" skies for the first total lunar eclipse of the Millennium on Tuesday 9th January 2001. Can you honestly believe it? ADAS used the AAC video cam to record parts of the eclipse and was able to video the time of occultation of TYC 1359-1014-1 for our site in Timperley as 19hrs 46mins 35secs. The Sky Map Pro7 planisphere program predicted time had been 19:45:0. Not bad agreement? We missed the other disappearances of stars TYC 1372-1262-1 and TYC 1372-1115-1. All three reappearances were missed. Never mind it was good fun. The media interest was remarkable. The most notable feature from Timperley was the incredible darkness of the Moon well in the umbra. The camera could hardly detect it. Well worth the effort and cold. by Unknown ADAS member #LunarEclipse #Moon #Sun

I went to Tegg's Nose last night, (Monday 12th Feb) and had a very good time. It seems as if the problem with the skysensor has been sorted- looks like a very thorough lubrication of the mount's axes was what was needed. Arriving at Tegg's nose around 7.30,  I could see conditions were good, only a gentle breeze, and a clear sky, although I  couldn't help noticing after the trip to Llyn Brenig that Tegg's nose is nowhere near as dark. I would estimate the Welsh site to be almost 2 magnitudes darker, and does not suffer from any glow on the horizon. The skysensor seemed to behave itself while aligning and it took about 15 minutes to get the necessary 3 point alignment. Having used Sirius as the final alignment star, I moved over to M41, having never seen this open cluster before, which just about filled my entire field of view. I spent the next hour or so going through some of the open clusters:M35, 36, 37, 38 and NGC 1647 in Taurus. By this time, Leo was fairly well above the horizon, and I decided to carry on my previous exploration of the galaxies in this part of he sky. M65, 66,95,96,105,M65 had a very noticeable dust lane, being a 'side on' view. Using a copy of Paul C's '100 best NGC objects', I found NGC2903, a bright, mag. 8.9 spiral, and NGC 3607, in the same field of view I could definitely make out another 3 galaxies, checking on skymap later  there would have been 5 galaxies in view, 3605 3608 and 3599 confirmed, missing the mag. 14.5 UGC 6296, as a result of  sky glow. Then moving over to Canes Venatici , M51,  large and fairly bright, and the 'bridge' between the 2 galaxies showing clearly. This was another first for me, as were M106, M63, the 'sunflower'. Again, the sky glow at this altitude causing loss of detail in the image. The globular cluster M3 was another first, and also seemed quite dim for mag.6.2, individual stars only just being resolved. I decided to try a limiting magnitude test, on a dim object that I have found once before,  and  from the back yard at my house. On a good night, I would say that Tegg's Nose only had a darkness advantage of perhaps 0.5 mag. definitely less than 1, anyhow. Palomar 2 is a very small (2 arcmins.) mag.13  globular cluster, in Auriga, and being almost overhead by now, would be in the best position for viewing. this object is not in the Sky sensor database and requires manual entry of the co-ordinates, which prove to be a little inaccurate, but after a little very slow moving in RA and DEC, the tiny globular was found, but really needed averted vision to see. The Moon had not yet risen, so again, I think this shows up the limitations of this site for viewing dimmer objects. Moving over to Coma Berenices, more first sightings were M88,64, the 'black eye' galaxy, almost face-on and showing a distinct dark area; also M85, with the smaller, mag. 10.9, NCC 4394 in view as well. From Paul C's list came NGC 4147,a mag.10.3 globular, and moving over to Virgo , the mag.11 globular, NGC 5634.  I spent some time looking through the galaxies in the Virgo Cluster; M84,86,87,89,  and manually working the telescope along the galaxies in 'Markarians' Chain'. A lot of dimmer objects also seemed to pop in and out of view as well as seeing the brighter galaxies in this formation. I had my eye on my watch, as I was waiting for the beginning of a transit of Ganymedes' shadow across the face of Jupiter, beginning at 22.41. It was now 10.55, moving over to Jupiter, this was another first, having never seen a Jovian shadow transit before. The shadows' black dot had just started to pass across the surface, and I must have spent a good 10 minutes gazing at this, captivated. I took some photographs, which I am reasonably hopeful about, as I took a good deal of care regarding focus, but I have already found that Jupiter is quite a hard object to take good photos of, using film. Other members, such as Mark Crossley and Paul Brierly have had better results with Digital cameras.  By the time I had finished photographing, the Moon was quite well over the horizon, and I took some more photos , as had wanted to test that I could now get Prime focus after a previous adjustment error by Orion. All ok there, and after the last bout of attention from Orion, the squealing and inaccurate motor drives, skysensor problems seemed to have cleared up. All in all, this was a very good night, with a lot of first sightings for me, and all the equipment working as it should. by Dave Timperley #TeggsNose #GlobularCluster #Galaxy #OpenCluster #Jupiter

This video is of a talk by Eddie and Ewan the ‘Ant and Dec’ of the society. In their discussion one of them takes the part of supporting the moon landing and the other against the moon landing taking place. by Unknown ADAS member #Moon #Apollo #Video

Nov 1st 01:00 – 05:00 UT Cambrian Mountains, Elan Valley, Rhayader NELM 6.5+ Instruments: naked-eye, Borg 101mm refractor and 18” f4.5 Obsession. The best transparency and darkest conditions I’ve experienced in the UK. The zodiacal band, gegenschein and pre-dawn zodiacal light were visible. All views of objects this night were the best experienced from the UK, and using the 18” often the best from anywhere. First off, Comet 4P Faye very comet-like at magnitude 9.5 in Pisces. A showpiece view of NGC 891 followed. Normally a rather low surface brightness edge-on galaxy with knotted central dust lane. This became bright and detailed across the field of view. M33 was picture-like. The Perseus galaxy group overflowed the eyepiece. Galaxies were everywhere. The California Nebula was nice in the wide field of the Borg using a 24mm Panoptic and H beta filter. It was also visible to the naked-eye using the filter. M45 was swathed in nebulosity. NGC 1514 (the prototype planetary) was great in an OIII wide field. Semeis 147, a large, tangled and very, very faint supernova remnant could be traced in Taurus. The Horsehead nebula was obvious and detailed with the H beta filter and an ominous dark presence without the filter. M78 and associated nebulae were detailed and intricate with dark lanes. The Borg coupled with 31mm Nagler produced a first UK-based view of the Witch Head reflection nebula near Rigel. IC443, a supernova remnant in Gemini was picked up while scanning around with the 18” and OIII filter. As was the usually faint Medusa nebula. The Rosette displayed intricate detail. Further down the other Eagle nebula was seen in Monoceros as well as the Thor’s Helmet planetary. NGC 2392 is still a great ring planetary in the lovely open cluster that is M46. M81, 82 and NGC2403 all became very detailed galaxies. Many other objects were viewed and tiredness and twilight took me 10 minutes down the road to the B&B. A full English breakfast preceded a drive through wonderful sunlit countryside… …Mmmmmmmmm. by Paul #LightPollution #Comet #Galaxy #Nebula

Myself and Richard B. enjoyed an observing session at Llyn B. on the Sunday night, an event of note was a bright fireball in the direction of ESE -ish, approx. mag. -4, that came to pieces with a bright flash, momentarily lighting the sky. Although the seeing was not as good as some other times, we enjoyed excellent views of Mars with both scopes, and also various deep sky objects. Just before packing up at around 03:30 Richard found Saturn lurking low in the east, and I noticed that Alnitak, or Zeta Orionis, had cleared the hillock on the Eastern side of the site, telling us that the Autumn is just about here. by Unknown ADAS member #Fireball #Mars #Saturn

Here is a link to a great article on the Voyager mission by NASA, as Voyager 1 has left, with Voyager 2 hot on its tail: https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/interstellar-mission/. by George Abraham (2020) & Unknown ADAS member #Voyager #NASA

Paul Clark and myself paid a visit to Llyn B, on Sunday 2nd March. After a hesitant start, the sky cleared very nicely. I had a look at some favourite Messier & NGCs before taking some images, and here is my tale of woe; I accurately guided a shot of M105 for 63 minutes, stopping there as my neck had got very stiff, and it felt like there was a red cross pattern burned into my retina from the guiding eyepiece. On getting the camera home and removing the film, I noticed the shutter speed was at 1/125 sec. - I had not set it to 'B' - @*%&! I've taken it gracefully, and the counseling is helping. During my retrospectively pointless period of self-torture, Paul was probing deeper than ever with his 18-inch monster - please see his report below. 20:00 – 01:00 Sunday 2nd March Llyn Brenig. Conditions – some cloud early on, excellent until midnight, then good. It was very transparent! The Zodiacal light was very obvious all the way up to the Milky Way. After setting up the 18" I had a spell using a newly acquired H beta filter. The Horsehead nebula was very clear with plenty of detail and contrast. My 80mm, f5 refractor gives 13x magnification and a 4 degree field with a 32 mm Plossl eyepiece. Throw in an H beta filter and a dark hood and it revealed the California Nebula in Perseus as a perfect copy of its namesake, a broad 2 x 4 degree nebula. It also revealed Barnard's Loop! This is an extremely difficult, huge low surface brightness curve of nebulosity reaching down most of the eastern side of Orion. This is possibly the remains of an old and near supernova. It could be seen north of M78 curving down to level with Orion's belt. The huge supernova remnant of Semeis 147 was visible in Taurus through the 18" and OIII filter. Another swathe of nebulosity was found along the east side of Perseus, Sh2-205. Dropping down to the spirograph Nebula in Lepus found a nice planetary but no colour. Another smattering of nebulae was evident near the Cone in Monoceros. Late night, late winter means galaxies galore. Recommended are NGC 2841, a mini-Andromeda, NGC3184, a face-on spiral and NGC 2683, an edge-on spiral, all brighter than mag. 10.5! Polarissima Borealis was picked up at mag. 15.3, the `nearest' galaxy to Polaris. Nearby IC 3568 is a fainter Blue Snowball planetary nebula. A hotch-potch of objects was picked up from the area between Hydra, Puppis and Canis Minor. Abell 30 is a large, annular planetary in Hydra with star `attached'. Sextans B maybe a local group galaxy and is a big and pale haze.I finished off by fishing detail out of bright Messier galaxies and indulging in the odd bright globular. by Dave Timperley #MilkyWay #Nebula #Galaxy #GlobularCluster #LlynBrenig

Session 1 Arrived 12:00. Scope assembled in the evening. Surprise, surprise a clear sky, a brief session hidden behind the wall of the swimming pool revealed mag. 6 skies. The spiral arms of the Whirlpool, an impressive NGC 4565 and a scintillating M3 were visible through the 10” travelscope. Session 2 The next evening I drove up to Monchique mountain range and parked at 750 metres. The whole of the Algarve was laid out to through east, south and west. M 83 is a showpiece galaxy from southern latitudes. At mag. 8 a central bar and arms were visible. A dozen faint fuzzies around and about to mag. 13, low down in Hydra and Centaurus followed. A couple of globulars in Lupus and Hydra were so different to the galaxies. I moved on to Scorpius and M4, more of an open cluster than a globular. Nearby is NGC 6144 a mag.9 globular cluster. This can be hidden by the glare of Antares. It also reminds me of home? (A 6144). I roamed around southern Ophiuchus picking up another dozen globulars. NGC 6453 is interestingly located near the big bright open cluster of M7. A while was spent around the steaming spout of the Sagittarius teapot. I observed many globulars, some nice open clusters and the obvious Ink Spot dark nebula. A final quarter moon stopped the show at 02:00. Session 3 Four nights later and a passing cloud bank had swept any haziness from the skies. A high wind kept me down to 700 metres amongst some protective trees. I’d hung a bottle of water off the back of the mirror cell to solve balance problems encountered during the first session. I’d also remembered to take along some filters this time! A few difficult galaxies were dug out of Antila early on. A browse around and north of M104 gave plenty reward with detail and galaxies. M53 the second Messier globular in Coma was in stark contrast to the nearby elusive haze of a globular NGC 5053. This is a good object to hone the observing skills of beginners. Four of the brightest galaxies in Abell 1656 were also visible (some contrast to the 100+ through the 18”!). M5 looked excellent in Serpens Caput along with the nearby edge-on galaxy NGC 5746. Indeed, I was very satisfied with the performance of the 10”. Turning to the OIII filter many planetaries were picked up in Scorpius, Sagittarius, Ophiuchus and Lupus. A stunning find is the Bug Nebula, NGC 6302 in Scorpius, an obvious squashed figure eight. I also revelled in the views of the Swan, Triffid and Lagoon nebulae. Interesting contrasts were a nice globular near a ‘stinger’ star in Scorpius and another globular and bright nebula, NGC 6726, in Corona Australis. To wrap up I spent time scanning the Milky Way and dark nebulae. The Pipe was very obvious and the full bulge of the centre of the galaxy was visible from the start of the Cygnus rift through and beyond Scorpius. Session 4 Another couple of nights sleep preceded the final session. This time I stayed relatively low but moved to a location less impacted by some light pollution to the south east. There was a gentle breeze, it was warm enough to wear shorts and I had a very relaxing session sat in a patio chair in the middle of nowhere… …apart from the wild boar! I’d called in at COAA in the interim and picked up some printouts of galaxies from Canes Venatici down through Coma and into the bowl of Virgo. Again I was very impressed with the detail visible through the relatively small 10” ‘scope. There are so many great views to be had, all brighter than mag. 12. If anyone needs recommendations, please ask. I spent quite some time globular chasing in Ophiuchus. Some big and bright, many small and dim. To finish I worked up through the wondrous Milky Way. From Scorpius, through Sagitarrius and over to Cygnus, magnificent! by Unknown ADAS member #GlobularCluster #MilkyWay #Nebula #PlanetaryNebula #OpenCluster #Galaxy

The monthly meeting will be held at Timperley Village Hall on Friday 5th, at 8pm. Phil Masding and Mike Tyrell will be giving a presentation on their observations and photography of the International Space Station, some of which was included in the August issue of ‘Astronomy Now’. Last month’s meeting was the AGM, where the following were elected to be the committee for the following Year: Chris Suddick…………..Chairman Don Utton………………Secretary Paul Clark………………Observatory Director Graham Cliff…………….Publicity Colin Steele……………..Treasurer Ged Birbeck…………….Events Sean Oldbury…………...Junior Representative & Refreshments Dave Timperley……….. .Newsletter Editor Dark Sky Observing There have been a few Dark sky trips in the last month. Don U, Paul C and myself went to Siddington; a first for Don and myself, there is a very good horizon although some light pollution to the West, from either Knutsford or Northwich. The parking is on the side of a narrow road, on a run off area from a sharp bend.  Although I found this a little off-putting at the start, there is virtually no traffic on this road, and a shorter journey than Tegg’s Nose, in fact only just on the Macclesfield side of Chelford, so very convenient. Only 1 car passed us in the 3 hours we were there. We shared views of the night sky with a bemused herd of cows in the field over to the right, who kept us company with occasional stares and a variety of noises. The ‘Main Event’ of the month was the NWGAS visit to Llyn Brenig. In terms of numbers of people who came, (approx 20) it was a very successful night, although the amount of cloud stopped much observing taking place. Later on in the evening, two people from Liverpool A.S. with a 16’’ Dobsonian. During a few clear minutes, some got a chance to look at M13 with it, and were very impressed, to the point of serious suggestions that ADAS should consider purchasing something similar for dark sky trips. Sickeningly, arriving back in Northwich, the sky was completely clear. Paul Brierley mentioned he had a good nights’ observing at Siddington. Another visit to Llyn Brenig has been arranged for Saturday October13/20th, coinciding with the Orionids maximum, Saturday November 17th, which coincides with the Leonids maximum, and Saturday 15th December, which falls the day after the New Moon.  Don Utton has a map available in JPEG format for anybody who needs it.  In mid-September, Paul Clark attended the Equinox Star Party in Norfolk. Below is an account of his visit, which clearly made an impression on him. Is this one for ADAS to attend ‘en masse’ next year. Paul Clark's Norfolk Star Party Report ‘Each year the Loughton Astronomical Society organizes a gathering for 10 days in early/mid September.  It is located deep in a forest near Thetford, Norfolk.  I was fortunate to be offered a berth in one of two caravans being towed down by members of the Mobberley Astronomical Society for the main event weekend of the 14/15 September. The Friday offered plenty of opportunity for checking out the equipment brought along by other astronomers! Telescopes of all shapes and sizes: - The homemade 4”, f20 refractor on a 7 foot wooden tripod and many homebuilt Dobsonians from 6” through to 18” aperture - Refractors costing £10k+ on £5k+ mounts! - Maksutov-Newtonians straight off a Russian tank? - Schmidt-Cassegrains and Maksutov-Cassegrains everywhere! - Suitcases full of £500 eyepieces! - 18” and 20” Obsessions, the Rolls Royce of Dobsonians.    The main event day was the Saturday.  By early morning the campsite was overflowing.  The trade stalls were doing plenty of business.  Between about 11:15 p.m. the cloud line passed through leaving an incredibly clear and very dark sky behind.  Activity could be heard all around the field as people set up for what was to be an unbelievable night of observing.    Everyone was looking at everything.  Naked-eye, binoculars, refractors and big dobsonians.  Mike’s 10” dobsonian was finding objects like clockwork and people wandered around the field getting a look through some of the many ‘scopes available.    Here are a few of many amazing observations.  Starting with a combination of UHC filter, a short tube 80mm refractor and 22mm TeleVue Panoptic eyepiece I went hunting for the North American nebula.  The field of view was nearly 4 degrees with about 20x magnification.  The hunt lasted seconds.  A superb, crystal clear view of this famous but very faint object was immediately obvious.  Additionally, the nearby even fainter Pelican nebula just fell out of the eyepiece.    Moving over to an 18” Obsession.  The owner, Gavin, lined it up on the eastern Veil nebula.  Looking through the Nagler eyepiece words failed me.  A string of obscenities followed as I moved the ‘scope along the length of the Veil.  I could hear Gavin laughing in the background.  All I can say it was like the difference between night and day.  I was looking close up at a huge 3D bright white image.  Like photographs only much, much better.  Impossible to describe.  I moved away to allow the others in line to view and wiped a tear from my eye.  Later I had the ‘scope to myself for half an hour and spent a long time wallowing in the view.    Having seen some detail in M33 through the OMC 140 I suggested we had a look with the Obsession.  High up it required a couple of ladder steps to reach the eyepiece.  Sorry to be repetitive, the view was unbelievably amazing! Better than any photograph. Broad spirals arcing out and around from the nucleus. Numerous bright HII emission regions.  The eyepiece filled with detail.  First one, then two and finally three arms followed outwards.    A brilliant and detailed view of Saturn and a few objects in Orion finished off the night.  M42 stunning through Mike’s ‘scope with the OIII filter…  4 a.m. and we had all collapsed into bed.    The morning dawned to a bright sun and clear blue sky.  A very tired crew travelled home.  I hope to return next year (maybe with an 18”..?).’ NWGAS MEETING A meeting for North-western astronomers has been arranged by Liverpool A.S., to be held on Saturday 20th October, in The Crypt Concert Room of The Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, Mount Pleasant, Liverpool.  The principal speaker will be Dr. Allan Chapman, who will be lecturing on ‘Galileo Galilei - the martyr who brought his own firewood’.  There will also be another four speakers giving short presentations on various topics. Also present will be a number of trade stands featuring equipment retailers, and a second hand astronomical bookshop. Admission is £2.00, £1.00 for OAPs, and parking permits need to be arranged in advance, by contacting Tony Williams on 0151 480 5265 email mailto:twastro@blueyonder.co.uk , or call Gerard Gilligan on 0151 794 5356. (Permits are not required for entrance to the car park, but there is a fee for parking without a permit. MIA INAUGURATION EVENING Held on Sunday 23rd September, the event attracted upwards of 30 people, although for reasons unknown, representatives of the Manchester Airport Community Trust did not attend. Honorary President Fred Talbot made an appearance and was photographed with various members being shown the new binoculars, hard standing area, and a variety of telescopes. The photographs were submitted to the Sale and Altrincham Messenger, but as yet have not been published.  Once again total cloud cover marred the occasion, so the opportunity was lost to show visitors views of the night sky. Mark Crossley displayed some of his impressive webcam work on a laptop, which generated a lot of interest. It was a shame that both of this weekends events were somewhat overshadowed by weather conditions, but on the positive side, both were well attended, and people still had a good time.  Better to show up knowing conditions are poor than not at all. Observing Notes Times are expressed in U.T., for co-ordinates 53Deg.27’’North, 2Deg.31 West, aka. ‘my house’. We revert to GMT at 2am on Sunday 28th October; don’t forget to put your clocks back.  On Monday October 15th, astronomical twilight is at 18:40, becoming fully dark by 19:10. Darkness gives way to twilight at 04:45. SUN    Currently in Libra, moving into Scorpius on the 23rd. Rising at 06:36 and setting at 17:15 on the 15th. The Sun continues its’ active phase. Alerts of Solar flare activity and possible subsequent auroral activity were given on the 25th and 11th September. Mark Crossley reported seeing naked eye sunspots to the ADAS newsgroup on the 26th . The SOHO website is a real mine of information regarding all things Solar.  http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/   There is an archive section here where it is possible to download files in a variety of formats, dates, specified by the user. MOON    Full on the 2nd in Aries,  rises 18:14, sets 05:41 on the 3rd.                            Last quarter on the 10th, rises 22:32, sets 14:57 on the 11th.                            New Moon on the 16th,   rises 05:42, sets 17:35.                            First quarter on the 24th, rises 14:46, sets 22.50. MERCURY    will be visible in the southern morning sky towards the end of the month, when it will be rising shortly after 05:00 in Virgo.  It will be very close to Venus by around 06:00 each morning in the later part of the month. VENUS    Rising in Virgo at 04:23 and sets 16:48 on the 15th, now almost at ‘full’ stage of phase. MARS    In Sagittarius, will be at an altitude of just over 11 deg. by dark. Sets at 21:47 on the 15th, and will be 0.1 deg. North of the moon at 20:00 on the 23rd. JUPITER    Now appearing earlier in the Eastern sky in Gemini, rising at 21:16 on the 15th, and will be 1.4 deg. south of the moon on the 10th.  This will be an interesting month to observe Jupiter, as there will be four double shadow transits occurring. Below are listed times when it will be possible to view these events and also the Great Red Spot: Shadow transits: Oct. 5th at 22:26, Io, lasting until 00:38. Oct. 12th at 22.30, Europa, with Io following at 00:19, ending respectively at 01:16 and 02:31. This is a Friday, so it may be possible to view this from the obs?? Oct. 20th at 01:07, Europa, Io at 02:12, ending respectively at 03:52 and 04:25. Oct. 27th at 03:43, Europa, Io at 04:05, ending respectively at 06:18 and 06:29. Oct. 28th at 22.31, Ganymede, Io at 22.33, ending respectively at 01:23 and 00:46. Great Red Spot: The GRS takes approx. 5 hours to cross Jupiter’s disk. Start times are given below. Oct. 2nd, 00:10 and 20:02. Oct. 4th, 01:49 and 21:40. Oct. 6th, 03:27 and 23:18. Oct. 9th, 00:57 and 20:48. Oct. 11th, 02:35 and 22:26. Oct. 14th, 00:05. Oct. 16th, 01:43 and 21:34. Oct. 18th, 03:21 and 23:13. Oct. 21st, 00:51 and 20:42. Oct. 23rd, 22:21. Oct. 25th, 23:59. Oct. 28th, 01:37 and 21:28. Oct. 30th, 03:15 and 23:07. SATURN    In Taurus, will be 5deg. above the horizon by the time darkness falls on the 15th.  Titan will be in close proximity to the planet on the nights of 4th – 6th,  12th – 14th,  20th – 22nd, and  28th – 30th; it should also be seen to cross paths with Rhea on the night of the 13th, and 20th. The planet will be in very close proximity to the moon when it rises shortly before 20:00. URANUS    In Capricornus, will be almost 20deg. above the horizon by full darkness, setting at 00:50 Uranus will pass within 3deg. north of the moon on the night of the 25th. NEPTUNE    Also in Capricornus, will be approx 15deg. above the horizon by nightfall, setting at 23:23. Neptune passes within 3deg. of the moon on the 24th, one night prior to Uranus. PLUTO    In Ophiuchus, sets at 20:20 on the 15th.  Setting from an altitude of 8 deg. from darkness. ORIONIDS Meteor Shower Maximum is on Saturday 20th, and should be well seen from Llyn Brenig, (as mentioned earlier) Given that the weather is OK. ASTEROIDS    I’ve concentrated on the area of Taurus, Gemini and Northern Orion for his month’s look at asteroids: 9 Metis, mag. 10.4 in Gemini, moving slowly towards the western end of Cancer. 79 Eurynome, mag. 11.7 in Gemini, is moving southeasterly towards Procyon. 40 Harmonia, mag.11 in Orion, is moving north northwesterly into Gemini. 4 Vesta, mag. 7.3 in Orion, is moving west into Taurus. 22 Kalliope, mag. 11 in Taurus, moving very slowly to the north-north east. 11 Parthenope, mag. 10.4 in Taurus, moving west. While on the subject of asteroids, Sir Patrick Moore officially opened The Spaceguard Centre At Powys, Wales on Saturday 1st October. The project is privately funded, but hoping to become part of The National Near Earth Object Information Centre, a governmental body that has been looking into the threat of asteroid/comet impacts. The centre has a variety of equipment, and can be visited by the public, perhaps an ADAS visit in the future? http://ds.dial.pipex.com/spaceguard/  Information about the centre is available on the website at left - just double click. Click HERE to link to Dave's  Newsletter for September 2001. The Sun from SOHO. (Dave T. recommended)!: http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov The Sun as observed this day  through the Mees white light telescope in Hawaii: http://www.solar.ifa.hawaii.edu/MWLT/mwlt.html Stars from ADAS's Sky Map 8 planisphere: http://www.adas.u-net.com/skymaps.html Planets via Sky and Telescope ‘What’s Up?’: http://www.skypub.com/sights/sights.shtml Asteroids via Heavens-Above: http://www.heavens-above.com Comets BAA: http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds Comets NASA: http://encke.jpl.nasa.gov/whats_visible.html Meteors  the IMO calendar via: http://www.imo.net Aurora alert  York University: http://www.aurorawatch.york.ac.uk/ Satellites from Heavens Above: http://www.heavens-above.com Variable stars, novae and supernovae AAVSO: http://www.aavso.org by Dave Timperley

Have a look at www.geolsoc.org.uk/cosmicdust. It is a notice of a forthcoming meeting in London but has some interesting comments about cosmic dust. by Geoff Flood #CosmicDust #Link

Location: Llyn Brenig Duration: 17:30 – 00:30 Conditions: Clear with a low of -7.5 Celsius. Uncertain of the road conditions, Don and I convoyed from Denbigh. After a false alarm on an iced/snowed road in the forest we found the track down to the lakeside clear, indeed the Liverpool 30” was already setup when we arrived at 17:00. After setting up we had views of Comet Kudo-Fujikawa in Hercules. A short tail was evident. I messed around with a few objects and filters while it grew dark. NGC 246 is a brilliant planetary in Cetus, bright and mottled with superimposed stars. By 19:00 it was fully dark. I spent the next hour painstakingly picking off another dozen globulars in the Andromeda galaxy. A combination of detailed SkyMap charts and photos are essential. I was using a black hood at the eyepiece which gave me much improved viewing compared to my previous attempts. I stalled at around mag. 15.7, turbulent sky, a cooling mirror and the bright snow contributing to the difficulty. After a break and some socialising I had another go at the Perseus galaxy cluster, Abell 426. This time I could see over 40 galaxies clustered around NGC 1275. I covered all the objects on my 1 degree field chart, reaching a mag. of 15.5. After another break for chocolate and collimation I looked at NGC 2403. This is a mag. 8.9 galaxy in the barren wasteland of Camelopardalis. Starhopping over from Ursa Major was the easiest approach. I can recommend this object. The central part is bright and mottled with a spiral-like structure and under the dark skies an enormous outer halo is visible. This tripled the visible dimensions to about 25 arc-minutes. I re-visited Eridanus to find another 17 galaxies, nothing of real interest. Don had got into gear and was taking photographs. Orion beckoned. A wallow in the bright splendours preceded a detailed look at NGC 1999. This is a small nebula lying just south of M42. At high power a dark central keyhole is visible. I believe I finally saw the dark notch that makes up the Cone nebula! Other nearby bright nebulae were also picked up. Moving down, the Rosette showed turbulent detail and dark lanes with the aid of the OIII filter. Slightly lower is Sh2-282, a broad pale N-S streak of nebulosity. Even lower still is IC2177 aka the Eagle nebula. A N-S band with the bright nebulae of Gum 1 and Ced 90 at each end. Numerous nearby and involved open clusters make this a very interesting area. These are also visible in binoculars! West of Sirius can be found Thor’s Helmet, NGC 2539. This appears exactly like a Viking headpiece, essential viewing at x158 with the OIII filter. I finished off with the magical M46 open cluster and the large and bright annular planetary NGC 2438. by Paul C. #LlynBrenig #Galaxy #Nebula

The monthly meeting will be held at Timperley Village Hall, 8pm.  Chris Suddick, Roger Livermore, Paul Clark and Mark Crossley will be demonstrating and discussing various astronomical software titles, and Paul Brierley will be speaking on the Leonids meteor shower. Paul Brierley is selling his 8'' scope, after upgrading to a 12'', and has asked the following details be made available: For Sale: Orion Optics 8-inch F6 Newtonian, comes with Vixen Super Polaris equatorial mount, 25mm. and 10mm. eyepieces, counterweights and finderscope. Asking price is £460. If you are interested, contact Paul on 01625 269 569 or email: paul.Brierley@easynet.co.uk This scope would be suitable for beginners and experienced observers alike. EVENTS Liverpool A.S.have arranged a lecture meeting to be held on Fri. 16th November, at The Crypt Concert Room, Liverpool R.C. Cathedral, Mount Pleasant. Bill Jones will be speaking on 'The Art of Telescope Making'. If you have any enquiries regarding this, please contact Ken Clark of L.A.S. on 0151 638 3270. The next planned dark sky trip will be either sat. 10th, or sat. 17th November. Please keep an eye on the newly created Dark Sky page on the ADAS website for more information nearer the time. Organisation was not too good for the last planned visit to Llyn Brenig, I think most people, myself included, thought that as the weather was cloudy in our area, that it would also be in North Wales. As it turned out, this was not the case, and 1 member of Liverpool A.S. showed up to enjoy beautifully clear sky in solitude. Paul Clark also reported clear sky from Anglesey on the same night. Another issue raised was regarding transport. There is clearly a need here to ascertain in future, who will need a lift there, and who has available space in their car. We also need to consider using one of the more local sites if conditions are borderline, as wasting time and fuel to spend a night stood around looking for a break in the clouds is somewhat frustrating.  Fingers crossed that the next attempt is more successful, given that we spend most of the time under our wonderful English clouds. On Friday, 12th October, Paul Clark, Myself, Mike Cook and other members of Mobberley A.S. went to Teggs' Nose, for a mixed quality night of observing. Conditions earlier on were good, I bagged a number of Messier/NGC objects, including a first for me, NGC 6826, the 'blinking' planetary nebula in Cygnus. Yes, it really does appear to blink 'on' and 'off'. I also had good views of Uranus and Neptune earlier on.  After a couple of hours the impending mist finally set in, and after a while away from my own scope, (after seeing Saturn and the double cluster through Mike's 10'' Dob+Televue Panoptic eyepiece which was truly amazing - I almost forgot to mention also that we could even see a section of the veil nebula through increasing haze) I returned to find that my primary mirror was completely dewed up. It was time to go, a little disappointing, as I had taken time to accurately polar align my mount, in the hope of taking some 'piggyback' photos. A rising Jupiter was lost in the clouds, and we unfortunately lost the opportunity of viewing the shadows of Europa and Io passing over the face of the gas giant. Observing Notes qSUN     Now in Scorpius, the Sun is continuing its' period of activity. I have not heard anyone report aurora sightings, but our star continues to manifest sunspots.  There have been four e-mail alerts in the past month advising of x-ray flares and an Earth-bound coronal mass ejection. rMOONThere are 2 full moons this month, details as follows Full on the 1st, rises 17:07, sets 07:03                    Photo taken Last Quarter on the 8th, rises 22:58, sets 14:16      Jan 01, 2001 New Moon on the 15th, rises 07:29, sets 16:39 First Quarter on the 22nd, rises 13:40, sets 22:51 Full on the 30th, rises 15:56, sets 07:17 On Saturday, 3rd November, there will be an occultation of Saturn by the Moon, approximately between the hours of 21:00 and 22:00. (I've veered on the early side by just over 5 minutes here, to avoid missing it) Weather predictions are tentatively favourable. Graham C has mentioned he will be attempting to video the event with his Nexstar 5. Any other webcam owners going to try? I'm  hoping to get some stills 'wi' film and chemicals' sMERCURY     should still be visible in the early morning twighlight in the South, rising at 06:10.  on the 15th. tVENUS    Rising at 05:52 shortly before Mercury, and 97% full on the 15th, it should be very noticeable at an estimated magnitude of -3.9. Venus will make a good guide to Mercury as they are in close proximity. Both of these planets will be rising later as the month progresses. uMARS   Will already be sinking from an altitude of just less than 18 degrees by the time darkness falls on the 15th, setting in the South at 21:50 vJUPITER    Rising in the North-east in Gemini at 19:17 on the 15th, Jupiter has once again become a prominent presence in the night sky, setting long after daylight at 11:40. Here follows a list of dates and times when it will be possible to view lunar shadow transits and also the Great Red Spot: Shadow Transits                                                    GRS   (duration approx 5 hours from start time) Date      Moon      Start     End                                 Date       Start 5th         Io           00:27    02:40                              2nd         00:45, 5th        Gan.        02:29    05:22                              4th          02:23,   22:14 6th         Io           18:55    21:08                              6th          23:52, 6th         Eur.        19:37    22:24                              9th          01:30,   21:21 12th       Io           02:20    04:33                              11th        23:00, 13th       Io           20:48    23:01                              14th        00:38,   20:29 13th       Eur.        22:14    01:00                              16th        02:16,   22:07 20th       Io           22:41    01:50                              18th        23:45, 21st       Eur.        00:50    03:37                              21st        01:23,   21:14 24th       Cal.        23:04    01:13                              22nd       17:05, 28th       Io          00:35     02:48                              23rd       22:52, 28th       Eur.       03:27     06:14                              26th        00:30,   20:21 29th       Io          19:03     21:17                              28th        02:08,   21:59                                                                              30th        23:37, A recent view from the authors' 8'' on a night of steady seeing....(!?-GC) wSATURN     In Taurus, rising at 17:11 on the 15th, there will be the previously mentioned occultation of the planet by the Moon on the 3rd. Now visible for the duration of the night, setting at 08:22 on the 16th. xURANUS     In Capricornus, magnitude 5.8, will be just past culmination at an altitude of 21.25 degrees by dark on the 15th, setting at 22:38. yNEPTUNE     Also in Capricornus, magnitude 7.9, Neptune will also have started to sink from a maximum altitude of 17.5 degrees by nightfall on the 15th, setting at 21:18. I certainly found Neptune more of a challenge than Uranus recently, the planetary disc only just being discernible. zPLUTO     Rising at 09:16 and setting at 19:14 on the 15th, Pluto is not currently visible from the U.K. Comet 2000 WM1     Moving from the Northern area of Perseus toward Aries, and predicted to brighten to magnitude 6.8 on the 15th. Expected to brighten to mag. 4.5 as it passes into Pisces at the end of the month. Should be visible in binoculars mid-December. Meteor Showers The Taurids shower will peak on the 3rd, but will largely be obscured by the moon. Some meteors should be seen on subsequent nights as the Moon wanes. The Leonids shower will peak on the 17th, albeit late in the evening, high rates have been predicted for this year, as the earth will be moving through 4 separate streams of debris from Comet 55P/Temple-Tuttle, the oldest of which dates back from the comet's pass in 1633. The densest counts will not be visible from the UK due to Leo not being above the horizon at the appropriate time. In spite of this, UK observers should still be able to enjoy seeing large numbers of meteors. Click HERE for October Newletter. The Sun from SOHO. (Dave T. recommended)!: http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov The Sun as observed this day  through the Mees white light telescope in Hawaii: http://www.solar.ifa.hawaii.edu/MWLT/mwlt.html Stars from ADAS's Sky Map 8 planisphere: http://www.adas.u-net.com/skymaps.html Planets via Sky and Telescope ‘What’s Up?’: http://www.skypub.com/sights/sights.shtml Asteroids via Heavens-Above: http://www.heavens-above.com Comets BAA: http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jds Comets NASA: http://encke.jpl.nasa.gov/whats_visible.html Meteors  the IMO calendar via: http://www.imo.net Aurora alert  York University: http://www.aurorawatch.york.ac.uk/ Satellites from Heavens Above: http://www.heavens-above.com Variable stars, novae and supernovae AAVSO: http://www.aavso.org by Dave Timperley

Friday 16th September saw the Timperley Country Fair again at Larkhill Field (GPS location +53degs 23.74mins N, -2degs 19.11mins W) with ADAS having a stall with Don's Lunar Lucky Dip and Ged's Tombola run with Pauline Cliff. Both made a useful income to supplement society funds. The thumbnails below show some scenes of the day. Don is looking at Sunspots by eyepiece projection, with Paul Clark on the phone arranging an extra-ordinary meeting for the Orange Tree to discuss funding! Click on the thumbnails for the ~100k images. by Unknown ADAS member #TimperleyFair #Fundraising

This is a full length documentary (45 minutes) about black holes made and televised by National Geographic Channel. https://youtu.be/dCxcIzpDgow (changed from original link) by Unknown ADAS member #BlackHole #Video

Monday/Tuesday 9/10 May 23:00 – 03:00 BST Elan Valley, Cambrian Mountains NELM 6.5+ Galaxies A list of bright and featured NGC and Messier galaxies culled from the Night Sky Observers Guide. All these observations were through the 18” Obsession with 13mm Nagler eyepiece giving a magnification of ~ 160. 4216 lies just west of M84, this is a superb elongated, needle edge-on galaxy. An almost stellar core is delineated by a dust lane to one side. 4535 east of M49 this face-on has a very mottled appearance. 4631 found in Canes Venatici is paired with the hockey stick. This is a big needle with bright mottlings and dark blotches 4656 and 4657 form the mottled ‘hockey stick. 4244 is nearby. A bulging, mottled needle. 4762 near M60 is an archetypal flying saucer edge-on galaxy with central dust lane. M99, a revelation! A perfectly formed 2 armed spiral. M90, is an oblique spiral with dust lanes. M61, has 2 main face-on spiral arms and the stub of a third plus dark delineating lanes between the arms. All the above gave excellent bright views with stacks of detail. More detail and somehow larger than I’d seen in any previous observations of these galaxies. When I turned the scope to M101 I realised why. M101 appeared as a photo. There were bright, full and complete spiral arms, additional part arms, all of the HII regions connected. Previous observations had picked up the brighter parts as individual features with barely glimpsed arms. Tonight it was the most complete full view of a face-on spiral galaxy that I’d seen… …until M51. This was another picture perfect view of spiral arms with defined dark lines and brighter highlights. Dark lane superimposed of the companion. Stunning!! The excellent transparency, lack of light pollution and telescope aperture combined to make this night the deepest deep sky experience so far!! M81 really does have huge spiral arms! I also used the 60mm Borg refractor throughout the 4 hours. A 24mm Panoptic gives a 5 degree field at x14. With the scope un-mounted, I drew the line at deciphering the stars and galaxies within the bowl of Virgo. Instead, I picked off objects near obvious asterisms. The many Messiers observed added to the tally for the 60mm. Ms 94, 64, 63, 53, 51, 3, 101, 81, 82, 92, 9, 80, 8, 71, 56, 52, 5, 4, 39, 29, 28, 27, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 16, 17, 18, 10, 11, 12, 13, 103 and 6 were scooped up. Spring time galaxies early on and summer Milky Way clusters and nebulae later. The remaining ticks for the finder scope are now mostly tricky galaxies. Numerous dark nebulae were silhouetted against the bright Milky Way. The conditions were similar to 2000m on Mt Tiede, but much colder! A smattering of NGCs fell. An excellent catch was 5053, this low surface brightness globular near M53 was barely visible through the 18” from Yarnshaw Hill, yet I could pick it up with a 60mm scope! I turned to the bright nebulae. Scanning with and without a UHC filter, the Veil (east, west and central) stood out within the single field. The area around the Double Cluster was awash with nebulosity. The Gamma Cygni nebulae filled the view. The Milky Way was flooded with haze from Sh-157 in Cassiopiea, past Cepheus, through Cygnus and on down to the Lagoon nebula in Sagitarrius. BTW Comet 9P Tempel put in an appearance. This night was all too short. by Paul #Comet #Galaxy #OpenCluster #GlobularCluster #Nebula

This is a report from Saturday October 12th. I managed to grab 3 hours of observing through a gap in the bad weather. The conditions were average for Gradbach however, not as bad as I first thought when completing some later observations and logging some pretty faint galaxies. I have become quite addicted to nebular filters! A new 2” OIII from Germany coupled with the wide field of a 31 mm eyepiece shows up endless nebulosity around the Milky Way. I also use a 1 1/4” filter with a 13 mm eyepiece for some higher power views of planetary nebulae. First off was NGC 7008, this is a large planetary on the Cygnus/Cepheus border. I’d failed on the star hop from Deneb previously. The effort is well worthwhile with lots of ‘lumpy’ detail, superimposed stars and an almost bi-lobed look. Next I had a good go at the Cepheus region. The larger aperture really makes this constellation come alive. I found several nebulous regions from the Sharpless catalogue. A few planetary nebulae NGCs, ICs and Abells, some with good detail were observed. Finally, an excellent view of the large face-on spiral NGC 6946 revealed spiral arm detail. Moving over towards Cassiopeia I made out the Bubble of the Bubble Nebula and two large areas of nebulosity nearby, Sh2-157, a broad curving arc and NGC 7538 (as noted in November’s AN this is indeed the twin of M78, with 2 cloaked stars). Pegasus was transiting the meridian and despite a rather light sky looked high enough to go for a few galaxy groupings off the bottom right-hand star of the ‘Square’. Three areas of interested were explored. First down to the southwest around NGC 7385, then up to the northwest NGCs 7463/4/5 and others formed an excellent grouping. A longish hop towards the middle of the square found a faint grouping. This is Hickson?? I was downbeat with the difficulty I was having picking out some of the objects however, when I came to log them the magnitudes 15.5 and fainter explained why! A light haze was starting to encroach from the southwest so I spent the final 20 minutes using the lower power wide-field eyepiece with and without OIII filter to explore the area between Cassiopeia and Perseus. Starting at the Double Cluster, full of colourful and doubled stars, I swung north to Stock 2, a magnificent field of diamonds. Northeast from here the fields become filled with nebulosity (OIII required). IC 1805, IC 1848 and NGC 896 offer clusters of cloud covered stars. This whole area is excellent for low power and wide field views. by Paul Clark #Nebula #Galaxy #DoubleCluster #MilkyWay #GradbachHill

Richard and myself had a productive few hours at Gradbach on Sunday night. I started off early and spent the time digging through DSOs in Cygnus. Richard arrived a little later. He soon set up his new coffee grinder. The LX90 worked very effectively throughout the session. 8 inches was lots of aperture under the darker sky and object location very precise. I observed some bright and interesting planetaries near Deneb, NGCs 7026, 7027 and 7048.An HII region Sh2-112 was easily seen and the Cocoon Nebula was readily apparent using the UHC filter. Use of filters is mandatory to get the best out of a lot of planetary and emission nebulae. I wandered over to Delphinus to the Blue Flash. NGC 6905 at 11.90 was very bright and oval. The Veil was viewed using a 2 inch Deep Sky filter, not the filter of choice but a good view of the whole of the eastern arc was visible in a single FOV. The Footprint nebula and a nearby supernova remnant, Sh2-91 were identified near Alberio. Finishing off the DSOs the Crescent nebula is really a highly recommended showpiece object! The Blinking planetary also performed to it's name. With the arrival of a beautiful crescent moon we finished off whirling through a few nice double stars using Richard's LX90. by Paul Clark #GradbachHill #Nebula #Supernova

8 PM - The weather at Tegg's was rubbish. Graham and Pauline C, Kevin T, Richard B and Don U all turned up by Sunset with faith and hope but the weather had NO charity! The cloud had simply thickened instead of thinned and even the Moon could not be seen through what covered Tegg's Nose visitor centre. No chance of Ikeya-Zhang et al. Why oh why be an astronomer in Britain!? 3 PM - Half a dozen or so members of ADAS are braving cloudy skies to travel to Tegg's Nose near Macclesfield at Sunset today to have a go at Comet Ikeya-Zhang, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and the Moon. The NOAA-15 satellite weather image shows extensive cloud cover but it is very thin. As this is being written (1 pm) Timperley has this cloud of course but the Sun is shining through and its small(!) Sunspots can be well seen against the solar disc. The objects to be seen this evening are all bright enough to be seen through "thin" cloud if it is "thin" enough. Fingers crossed. Graham C will be getting there before Sunset at about 5.30 pm to get set up in daylight. See you there! by Unknown ADAS member #Teggs #Sun #SunSpots

On Saturday, 30th September, Don Utton, Paul Clark, Paul Brierley and myself went to observe at Lamaload reservoir. Driving there, I was a little daunted by the weather conditions and felt that this was perhaps going to be a waste of time due to the amount of cloud cover. Don and myself arrived at just after 7.30, and luckily, the cloud was beginning to break, although it was still spitting a little. the only obvious stars at this point were Arcturus, and the 3 members of the 'summer triangle'. After a few minutes' wait, we could see that the cloud really was dispersing, we decided to go ahead and set up. Paul B. and Paul C. arrived just as we had set up and I was in the process of alignment procedures for the Skysensor, and Don was aligning on Polaris. After getting a 2-point alignment using Arcturus and Mizar, I went to M13, out of habit, and as usual, it was bright and well resolved in the 10'' scope. Next up was NGC 5466, a mag. 9.2 globular in Bootes, but unfortunately this was obscured by one of the trees at the bottom of the car park. Paul C. had quickly set up his 140mm Maksutov, and below is a lising of his observations: M 11      Open cluster      5.80  Still good at a low elevation. M 26      Open cluster      8.00  I didn't realise it was so faint. NGC 6572  Planetary nebula  9.00  A nice white planetary in Ophiuchus. IC 4665   Open cluster      4.20  A nice bright cluster in Ophiuchus. M 30      Globular cluster  7.50  Easy to find in Capricorn. Uranus    Planet            5.73  A nice disc was visible. NGC 6543  Planetary nebula  8.30  The Cat's Eye is still open in Draco.. M 33      Galaxy            5.70  Tricky with the FOV. M 74      Galaxy            9.40  A pale face on spiral.  Easy to find next to a hat asterism. NGC 404   Galaxy            10.30  Lovely contrast to nearby yellow beta Andromedae. M 52      Open cluster      6.90 I  Always have trouble finding this easy Messier. M 103     Open cluster      7.40. M 2       Globular cluster  6.50   Looks better with time. M 15      Globular cluster  6.40   Looks better with time. NGC 7331  Galaxy            9.50 A pale streak on the way to an unseen Stephans' Quintet. M 56      Globular cluster  8.30  Always faint and diffuse. M 57      Planetary nebula  9.00  Good at x100. After finding M57 and M56 myself, again a couple of favourites, it became apparent with these fainter objects, that the seeing conditions were not as good as our prevous visit to Gradbach Hill. This was confirmed when after going to NGC 7331, a mag. 9.5 Sb galaxy in Pegasus, that I used last time as a starting point to hop to Stephans' Quintet, which is almost in the same FOV at X80, was noticeably fainter. after a little guidance from Paul C., the correct FOV was obtained for Stephans' Quintet, and it was noticeably not there. It was at this point that I ran into problems with the Skysensor. I had omitted to take it out of 'Alt-Az' mode on starting up, and unfortunately on the next attempted slew, the scope ran into one of the tripod legs and I had to stop. When using a larger telescope on this setup, e.g. my 10'' F4.8 Newtonian, the Skysensor needs to be in 'Ra-Dec' mode, or 'X-Y' mode to function properly. (i.e. not running into the tripod when slewing to objects nearly overhead) After returning the scope to 'initial positon', (180deg. to the ground, and pointing approx. west) at switching on, a worrying noise came from the Dec.motor and the scope was not moving. Luckily, Paul B., who also uses a Skysensor was on the ball, and it was discovered the scope was out of balance on the Dec.axis, probably due to the scope mounting rings being insufficiently tight, over time the tube had slipped downwards,causing the imbalance. After rectifing this and using Paul B's suggested alignment stars, Schedar in Cassiopea (a new star name for me), Vega and Altair, I was up and running again, although for some reason the slewing accuracy was not quite as good. I put this down to 2 reasons: (1) As with other 'GOTO' equipment, the Skysensor needs to know where it is to perform well. I had not created a new location for Lamaload as I live within 20 miles, which can only amount to a few minutes' latitude and longitude difference.(Dave - checkout the Lamaload GPS lat/long from the Tegg's Nose page on the ADAS web site! Graham C). Objects were still being placed in the eyepiece most of the time, but not with the usual accuracy. (2) I had not been careful enough in lining up the bubble level on the equatorial mount, which I know was a little bit out - at home the flagstones in my back yard are about as perfectly flat as they could be and I have just taken this for granted.   After getting a 3-point alignment and regrettably having wasted almost an hour, observing was resumed. Here is a list of some objects seen: NGC 7662 'Blue Snowball'      mag. 9.2 planetary nebula, very strikingly blue, even without any kind of filter NGC 7009 'The Saturn Nebula' mag. 8.3 planetary nebula, quite bright, but would need higher magnification than 80X to notice its shape. M15    Globular Cluster, mag. 6.35 ,  very bright core, many stars resolved in my 10'' M71    Globular Cluster, mag  8.3   ,  less dense core, again a lot of stars resolved. M103  Open Cluster,  triangular shape, has 1 very noticeably red star that stands out well. Andromeda Galaxy, big and bright as usual. Uranus - faint, but a definite greenish-blue disc was seen, again I think I needed higher magnification. Omicron Cygni - Very nice triple star, 1 yellow, 1 blue, 1 white. the yellow and blue elements rival Albireo in noticeable contrast. I had also attempted to go for some dimmer globulars, Palomar 1 , NGC 6749, 6760 but by this time the cloud cover was coming in again.  Don Utton observed Uranus, Neptune, M33 and M110 (NGC 205).  He has remarked the latter of these 2 objects are not available to him from  his garden due to light pollution - he felt that although we only had a short period (approx 2 hours) to observe, the trip was worthwhile because of this.     After approx 2 hours the sky  clouded over again just about completely. We waited a while to look for any likely change in the conditions but decided to call it a day. Personally, I found the evening a little disappointing(?), but it was a learning experience re. the Skysensor, and perhaps I will not be quite as absent minded when setting up next time! by Dave Timperley #Galaxy #OpenCluster #Uranus #Neptune #GlobularCluster

What’s six miles wide and can end civilisation in an instant? An asteroid — and there are lots of them out there. With humour and great visuals, Phil Plait enthrals the TEDx Boulder audience with all the ways asteroids can kill, and what we must do to avoid them. https://www.ted.com/talks/phil_plait_how_to_defend_earth_from_asteroids/ by Unknown ADAS member #Asteroid #Link #Video