LOCATION: Gradbach INSTRUMENT: TeleVue Ranger and 25 mm Panoptic MAGNIFICATION: x20 SEEING: ANT III LM: +5.9 DATE/TIME: 17th December 04 T=21:35:23:00 This was a short session tonight. I took the opportunity catch a break in the clouds and went up to The Gradbach Observing site and join Paul Clark. The reason for this was to see Comet Q2 Machholz under dark sky's. Despite bright moonlight, we were able to see Q2 Machholz with out optical aid. Through the TeleVue and Paul's Borg, the comet looked round and fuzzy with a tight bright nucleus. There was a one degree tail visible at 11 o'clock. We also had a good look at M42 and I enjoyed comparing the views through my TeleVue Ranger with Paul's 4" Borg Apo and, the ADAS Binos. The views were just superb. I was able to see the Fishes Mouth and the Trapezium Stars. NGC1980 and the open cluster CR 72 were very clear. I was also introduced to the running man with I have never seen before. I was using a magnification of x20 and I was also able to see M1, M35, NGC 2158, M44, M78, M81/82, NGC 2244, (but not the Rosette nebula). It was a really superb evening. Paul and I were able to trace the Milky Way from Cassiopeia up to the Zenith and down through Auriga and then Orion. This is the first time I was able to see the Galaxy at this time of the year. One reason why it was so visible was probably due to all the wet weather which has cleaned the air. I was very impressed with Paul's 4" Borg. Is a very nice piece of kit the stars were pin sharp which you would expect from an apo. We both had a great evening. Aye, the moon set and a very clear rain-washed sky gave some excellent viewing around the Milky Way. The 24 mm Panoptic *is* the King of the 1-1/4" eyepieces! The comet should appear ~ 1.5 magnitudes brighter when higher and closer in a few weeks... by Paul Brierley #Gradbach #Comet #Nebula #MilkyWay #Galaxy

The December meeting will be held at Timperley Village Hall, 8 pm, Friday 7th December. Instead of the usual monthly meeting format, there will be the yearly Christmas Quiz, featuring members of ADAS, Macclesfield A.S., Chester A.S., and Gwynedd A.S. The quiz will cover a variety of Astronomical topics, and the prize will once again be the coveted ‘Graham Sinagola Silver (foil) Trophy’, lovingly crafted by the man himself, with no regard to time or cost (it didn't cost anything!). Will ADAS keep hold of it for another year, or will one of the visiting teams manage to snatch it away from the incumbents?  Come! ‘The only way we won’t win this will be by losing’…. Vinnie Jones News and Events The last two dark sky trips were unfortunately cancelled due to unsuitable weather, also in the last month cloud has ruined opportunities to see two lunar occultations of Saturn, and also the Leonids maximum.  On a more positive note, Paul Brierley has suggested a visit to Tegg’s Nose on the 13th December, hopefully to view the Geminids maximum, and dark sky trips are planned for the 8th or 15th, and will be either at Llyn Brenig, or more local if the weather doesn’t look too promising. Check the dark sky page on the ADAS web site or call Graham Cliff or Don Utton at around 3 pm on the proposed dates to confirm they are on.  Graham Cliff has been exploring the feasibility of having a live web cam link with a site in Wales, to enable us to check on weather conditions before leaving. Although there is already a site that shows live web cam pictures from Wales, (see thedark sky pagefor its URL) but a dedicated link could possibly be better for us in terms of picture quality and location. A computer has been kindly donated to the Society by the Pharmacological Department at Manchester University, who are upgrading their current systems. It is now installed and working at the obs., (thanks to Ged Birbeck, for help in the ‘working’ part of this) and has a donated copy of Sky Map Pro 5 installed. Does anybody have a later version they could donate? It would be nice to eventually see a variety of planetarium software installed, enabling us all to explore the individual merits/weaknesses of each program.  We can now also explore the delights of ‘armchair astronomy’ (i.e. in the warm) at the obs., by attaching a web cam to the 14’’ Newtonian, and watching the results on a monitor inside. Any volunteers to be outside with the scope?…. The Christmas Tree Cluster can be found in Monoceros, adjacent to a mag. 4.6 star, S  Monocerotis, which  is also very close to The Cone Nebula, within NGC 2264. The cone is a dark section of the larger nebula, being 20 arc min. long. Staying on a festive note in Monoceros is The Rosette Nebula, NGC 2237, huge at 80x60 arc min, and containing the mag.+4.8 open cluster, NGC 2244. All these objects can be found using Betelgeuse as a starting point, please see the map below. Monoceros encompasses a wealth of open clusters as listed in the SAC catalogue, you can find a complete database of observable SAC objects in the files section of the ADAS News group, available for download.Moving to Andromeda, NGC 7662, The Blue Snowball, a mag 8.6 planetary nebula, it has dimensions of 17x14 arc seconds. The object is named after its striking blue colour.  See Mark Crossley’s web site (which is listed in the ADASweb site surf links page) for his recent web cam images. Finally finishing festive frivolities for now, last, and most tenuous, The Cork Nebula in Perseus, a.k.a. the mag. 11 planetary Nebula M76.  All these objects can currently be seen in the night sky. I’ve had a look in two different common names listings for any objects with some kind of Yuletide connection, but there don’t seem to be any more. Any missing? Above is a map for finding the Blue Snowball. The circle represents the field of view in 7x50 binoculars. Sky Diary Planetary and Solar rise/set times are given for the 15th of the month, UT. On 15 December, dusk will give way to darkness at 18:02, becoming twilight at 06:09 the following morning. Q SUN     Currently in Sagittarius, rising at 08:18 and setting at 15:52, daylight time will continue to decrease until Winter Solstice (the shortest day of the year as the sun will reach furthest south below the northern horizon on this date) on the 21st. There have been two alerts this month for Earth bound coronal ejecta, and the resultant auroral activity. Possibly the Sun has past the peak of its eleven year sunspot cycle, or it could just be that no solar flares or coronal mass ejections have come in Earth’s direction. R MOON     There was an occultation of Saturn by the Moon on the night of the 1st at 02:22, lasting for just over an hour did anyone manage to glimpse this through the clouds? Last Quarter on the 7th, rising 23:34 sets 13:11 New Moon on the 14th, rising 07:46 sets 15:39 First Quarter on the 22nd, rising 12:35 and not setting Full Moon on the 30th, rising 15:36 sets 08:37 S MERCURY     Will be too close to the Sun to observe throughout this month, starts to reach greater elongation in early January. T VENUS     Closer to the Sun than Mercury, Venus will not be visible this month. U MARS     In Aquarius, and by darkness will be setting from an altitude of approx. 23 degrees, setting at 22:08. V JUPITER     In Gemini, will already be 6 degrees above the horizon by dark fall. The giant will be visible throughout the night, setting at 09:54, well after Sunrise. Listed below are dates and times when it will be possible to view the Great Red Spot, and satellite shadow transits: The GRS takes approx.            Shadow Transits: 5 hours to cross Jupiter’s disc. Here are start times:                     Dec. 3,  Ganymede,  18:23 - 21:21 Dec. 8,   00:22 and 20:13             Dec. 5,          Io,       02:28 – 04:42 Dec. 10, 02:00 and 21:51             Dec. 6,         Io,        20:56 – 23:11 Dec. 12, 03:38 and 23:29             Dec. 10, Ganymede,  22:21- 01:20 Dec. 13, 19:20                            Dec. 11,    Callisto,    17:01 – 19:26 Dec. 15, 01:07 and 20:58             Dec. 13,        Io,      22:50 – 01:05 Dec. 17, 22:36                            Dec. 15,    Europa,   21:58 – 00:46 Dec. 20, 00:14 and 20:05             Dec. 18, Ganymede, 02:19 -05:20 Dec. 22, 21:43                            Dec. 21,       Io,       00:44 – 02:59 Dec. 24, 23:21                            Dec. 22,      Io,        19:12 – 21:27 Dec. 27, 00:59 and 20:50             Dec. 23,    Europa,   00:35 – 03:23 Dec. 29, 22:28                            Dec. 28,      Io,         02:38 – 04:53 W SATURN     In Taurus, Saturn will be 24 Degrees above the horizon by dark, and will be visible all night, setting at 07:16.  Saturn was occulted by the Moon on the night of 1 December, but was not seen in Manchester or North Cheshire due to cloud. X URANUS     In Capricornus, mag. 5.9 Uranus will be at an altitude of 17 degrees by dark, and will have set by 20:51. YNEPTUNE     In Capricornus, mag. 8 Neptune will be at an altitude of 8 degrees by dark, setting over an hour earlier than Uranus, at 19:28. Z PLUTO     In Ophiuchus, Pluto is not presently visible from our latitude. Comet 2000 WM1 Linear has brightened, and Paul C has mentioned it as an easy binocular sighting from Sale. As it moves closer to the Sun, the tail should become more apparent.  Here’s a map of it’s track across the sky for the coming month:  (as you can see, it won’t be visible for much longer!) Meteor Showers     The Geminid meteor shower will reach its peak on the 13th and Paul Brierley has suggested a trip to Tegg’s Nose to watch. The Ursid shower will reach its peak on the 22nd, Moonlight will partially obscure this event, which usually displays sparse rates. The Taurids will continue till the end of the month. Click HERE for November Newletter. (The links below have been copied over from Roger's December newsletter last year). 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

Tonight’s meeting (1st June) is scheduled to be Chris Heapy and Paul Brierley.  (editor's note Chris and Paul were unable to make it. Dr. Colin Steele stood in with a talk on "Calendrical Systems", see him on the June late breaking news page by clicking HERE). At the time of going to press it was not known what the subject would be but is likely to be on observational astronomy and imaging.  There are no formal meetings for July and August; the next meeting will be on Friday September 7th at 8pm prompt when we will have moved to the upstairs room of the Timperley Village Hall.  That meeting will be the AGM and there will be a talk by Mike Molnar on Pluto.  Paul Clark got an item into this month’s Astronomy Now society page on the Manchester Airport Community Fund award.  The working party took place on 5 May and we managed to tidy out the meeting room, do some painting and re-carpet.  There were some repairs to the external structures and clearing and burning of rubbish.  The fence has been redone and is much more substantial, whilst some of the late-planted hawthorns have taken and should grow quite quickly to give us back the hedge in 3-4 years.  Paul has been arranging with contractors to do the hard-standing- one problem was that they wanted to demolish the new fence and hedge that it had taken us so long to get fixed!  For the next session we’ll need a newsletter editor.  Due to work and studying the current incumbent has a lack of time, energy and inspiration. I’ll still be able to help but anyone interested please contact chairman Chris or myself. May Observing Reports As hoped for, many of us managed to see Mercury and we had two good Fridays at the obs where we observed it firstly to the right of the brighter Jupiter and then well above it the following week.  Several members at other locations with larger telescopes were able to see the phases of the planet.  Chris Heapy and Paul Brierley have been active with the 16” Dobsonian and Paul’s new 12” Orion out at Siddington.  Paul Clark and Colin H joined them for an evening of galaxies, globulars and planetary nebulae.  Our other dark sky sites remain out of bounds with the continuing Foot and Mouth restrictions.  Elsewhere John Tipping’s homemade and very portable 6” Newtonian has seen first light.  He has already made some difficult observations of the features of Mars with the planet being very low in the sky.  The runes finally held good for the Aten 1999KW4.  Most of the Spring Bank Holiday weekend was clouded-out.  However on Monday 28th the weather cleared, I dashed back from Everest (the Imax film) and was joined by Paul C, Graham C, Peter and Alison Ward.  We got in the midnight hour before the clouds came in again.  The asteroid was visible in the OMC140 and 10” LX200, gradually moving through the head of Serpens at about mag 11.5 var.  As Paul noted it moved quite perceptibly in a minute and was ahead of the 1 April orbital elements.  Radar observations have just found the asteroid to be a binary; one half is at least three times the size of the other.  Both are less than 2 or 3 km across.  It has a very peculiar light curve with brightness fluctuations of 0.1 to 0.2 mag, in about three hours.  Reports now in from Don and John T having got the Aten with 8” SCT and 6” Newtonian on 28/29th. Diary Dates Gatley Festival July 1.  Priority -Tombola and help needed to staff the ADAS stall. Perseids Star Party currently scheduled for the ADAS Observatory Saturday August 12 UK Space Centre, Leicester to be announced for July/August. Also considered is a trip to Manchester Printworks to see the Imax space film.   During the summer stay tuned to ADAS webpages and Ad.Astra newsgroups.  We will continue to meet at the obs on Friday evenings and at the Quarry Bank PH on Wednesdays from about 9.30. NorthWest GAS Meeting A meeting of the NWGAS took place on 19th May, hosted by Gynedd AS at the Gard Fon pub, Y Felinheli which overlooks the Menai Straits. There were representatives from Gynedd AS, Chester AS, Liverpool AS, Manchester AS, Don Utton and Graham Cliff on behalf of ADAS. The Campaign for Dark Skies continues with some success, it seems that potential financial savings has the greatest impact. The Federation of Astronomical Societies (FAS) is considering setting up an E-Group for news etc. We mentioned that we already have a group (Ad.Astra) and that it works well. The premium for public liability insurance is likely to increase to around £15 due to a change in insurer. Manchester AS in collaboration with Salford AS are embarking on a group project to make five 16" Dobsonians.  Liverpool reminded everyone that they are holding a convention on 20th October to which we are all invited. There are a couple of slots open for anyone interested in giving a 20-minute talk.  Several societies have visited the factory of Liverpool Telescope Technologies and impressed.  We mentioned that we’d been to Llyn Brenig several times, thought it was the best dark sky site around, and asked if there was any interest in a joint NWGAS session some time - probably late summer. Liverpool, Gwynedd and Chester all said yes. It was agreed that details would be worked out later and it would have to be finalised on the day.  Gerard Gilligan (LAS) said he would try to send details of their local contact. We returned by way of Llyn Brenig, Graham not having seen it before, and Gerard had described in more detail where they go. The sheltered site first found by Paul is now blocked off with a padlocked gate. The exposed site '1' (53deg 6.44' N, 3deg 32.16'W) has a temporary 'foot and mouth' keep out notice. The LAS site (53deg6.25'N, 3deg 31.2'W), which is about a mile away, is at the end of a 1/2-mile long narrow but well paved track. There is plenty of space for around half a dozen cars, a couple of picnic benches, and a locked toilet building. The horizons are reasonable but are somewhat limited by trees and hills however it is clearly more sheltered than the exposed site. I would think a good alternative if it was too windy at '1'.  The next meeting will be hosted by MAS at their Godlee Observatory on 15th September. Varuna   Last November this object was found which was perhaps the largest in the Kuiper Belt except for Pluto and its moon Charon.  Combining data obtained from two different types of telescope, the researchers have calculated Varuna's diameter to be 900 km (550 miles). Varuna's large size threatens Pluto's status as a fully-fledged planet as it now seems to be merely the largest of a swarm of similar large worlds in deep space. Until now, Pluto and its moon Charon were the only members of this ancient ring of icy bodies for which accurate sizes were known. At 900 km across, Varuna is only slightly smaller than Charon (1,200 km), the tiny moon that orbits Pluto (2,400 km). The data also indicates that Varuna is more reflective than most other small worlds for which accurate measurements are available - though it is less reflective than Pluto or Charon. Curiously the object had been photographed in 1953 but not recognised for what it was. Scientists say that Varuna goes some way to vindicate the views held by the late US astronomer Clyde Tombaugh. He discovered Pluto in 1930 looking for what he called Planet X. He continued his search after its discovery believing there were other worlds out there waiting to be discovered.  Astronomers are hopeful that further discoveries could be made in the Kuiper Belt, following the launch of the Shuttle Infrared Telescope Facility. It will be deployed in 2002 and is expected to measure the diameters and reflectivities of dozens of Kuiper Belt objects. OBSERVING NOTES Sun   Solstice on 21st and eclipse visible from South Atlantic and parts of southern Africa. Moon  Full 6th, Last Qtr 14th, New 21st,Last Qtr 28th . Mercury  Not visible, inferior conjunction 16th. Venus  Brilliant morning object mag –4.3, max elongation 46 degrees on 8th. Moon nearby on 18th. Mars  At opposition on 13th. Very bright at mag –2.4 but low on border of Sagittarius and Ophuichus. Moon is nearby on 5th and 6th. Jupiter   In conjunction with the Sun on 14th. Saturn Too near the Sun to be observable. Uranus In Capricornus rising by 2300, mag 5.8, Moon nearby on 11th. Neptune Also in Capricornus , mag 7.8 Pluto  In Ophuichus mag 13.7, probably needs a 10” telescope to see it from these light-polluted skies.  As Mike will be talking about the planet in September has any member actually seen it?  Last year I imaged it with a 200mm telephoto camera lens on a CCD but have not caught it visually.  This year Philip Masding and Mike Tyrrell have imaged it with a geostationary satellite trailing across the field. Satellites International Space Station visible in the first couple of weeks in the month. Click HERE to access May newsletter. 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 Rodger Livermoore

The society was again involved in Timperley Country Fair on Saturday 18th September to raise money for the society as a group having charity status. The weather was expected to be inclement i.e. pouring rain and gales. Cats and dogs weather. The Fair was expected to be a sad event as the Friday night before we had the best view of dark skies for months. The Gavin Critchley Meade was a treat finding everything it was pointed at! Jupiter was superb as was Saturn. We even saw Uranus and Neptune(?). Messier objects were real easy! The Moon although low was in fine fettle. Thanks Gav. The Fair however was dry and with good attendance we raised £182. The picture mosaic below summarises the day. No telescope because of the expected inclement weather, Ged and Don setting up, people buying, Colin Steele and stall staff doing a photo shoot for the record and Don with his, Christine Lavender's and Christine McCominskey's LUNAR LUCKY DIP (EVERYONE A WINNER). The kids loved it. They picked NASA straw test probes from the 'LUNAR' surface and won a lolly, a fine prize or lesser prize as luck would have it. Seems like we will have it again next year. by Unknown ADAS member #TimperleyFair #Fundraising

(RASC=Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, NGC= New General Catalogue) The drive across to Llyn Brenig was tedious.  It was early evening on a Sunday.  The weekend had already been long and I wondered if it would be worth the effort.  I reached my normal turn off to find the gate padlocked shut.  Turning off a little further down I drove for a long way through a gloomy forest until a clearing appeared.  This looked fair and after another 100 yards I was back on the road!   I drove back to the start of the clearing to set up.  On stepping out of the car I realised immediately that the trip had been worthwhile.  The Milky Way arced clearly across the sky from west to east and the constellations were hiding amongst an almost overwhelming number of stars! I started low in the south-west in Cetus.  I was hoping to pick off some galaxies that had been missed previously owing to the poor transparency and light pollution that plagues observing sites south of Manchester.  NGCs 157 and 210, at mags. 10.4 and 10.9 respectively were easily found between and adjacent to convenient finder stars.  Moving right down to the horizon I was then amazed to pick up the large galaxy NGC 247 at an elevation of 5 degrees!  This galaxy has in integrated magnitude of 9.1 however, being over 20 arc minutes long and 5 wide has a relatively low surface brightness of 14 mag/sq.arcmin.  I could trace an elliptical glow from the finder star at one end up and across the FOV for about 15 arc minutes. Another galaxy missed on several occasions is a member of the Local Group NGC 147.  This time I had brought along a particularly detailed finder chart and the 14.2 mag/sq.arcmin galaxy finally faded into view.  On the way I had seen M31, 32 and 110 blazing out from the dark sky.  NGC 185 was also picked up again, another Local Group member. Dropping right down to the horizon I had a try for some objects in eastern Cetus and Fornax (The Furnace).  NGC 908 was an undistinguished galaxy however, NGC 1360 is a large bright planetary.  It has a bright central star with a round diffuse halo about twice the size of the Ring Nebula.  Moving up to the dizzy elevation of 15 degrees NGC 1232 is a galaxy with a bright central condensation and NGC 1300 a diffuse faint face-on spiral, both in Eridanus.  Shifting a little to the east Lepus was now available below Orion.  The galaxy NGC 1964 proved awkward right next to a star with an inadequate chart.  IC 418 appears as a non-star-like planetary at mag. 10.7.  This can be seen in the February Astronomy Now as The Spirograph Nebula. The sky was still very clear and dark, with the telescope optics showing no sign of dew it was Bright Nebula time.  I had hand marked a nebula NGC 1333 on a chart of the Perseus/Pleiades region.  It had been commented upon in one of the magazines as worthwhile.  On first sight I thought I’d found a comet!  A bright oval coma with dense nebulosity hiding a star as the nucleus, recommended.  Next I tried for the Tank Track Nebula.  This is adjacent to zeta Orionis, the left-most star in the belt.  The glare of the star did not overwhelm the nebulosity to the east, however it was much brighter with zeta Orionis just outside the FOV.  The nebula had an obvious dark notch just like in the photographs.  I then took the opportunity to have a look at the Rosette Nebula for the first time under dark sky.  This was best seen using an Ultra High Contrast filter held over the eyepiece of the finder scope!  Possibly even more spectacular then the Great Orion Nebula.  A definite must for anyone, this large wreath of turbulent nebulosity surrounds a bright mini-Gemini star cluster.  Nearby, I also found Hubble’s Variable Nebula, a fan shaped brightness hiding a star at the pointy end.  Bright nebulae in Orion were also easily found this time.  Mini comets, blobs and curtains of light all worthwhile. Monoceros and Canis Major were now both well up.  The Herschel 400 lists numerous open clusters in this region.  Of the twelve I identified I can recommend NGC 2301 in Monoceros and NGC 2362 in Canis Major as well worth seeking out.  At mags. 6 and 4.1 respectively they are bright and interesting.  To finish of I sought out a couple of galaxies in Ursa Major.  NGC 2742 was challenging at 11.4 whilst NGC 2768 is well worth finding at mag. 9.9.  By now the moon was rising and it was time to finish. I have been using the Herschel 400 and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Finest 110 NGCs catalogue to guide my observing program.  I can certainly recommend the RASC Finest 110 NGCs.  None of the objects listed have disappointed.  The H400 can be a bit tedious, with some nondescript open clusters and galaxies. by Paul Clark #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Nebula #GlobularCluster #LocalGroup

Society News Tonight (Friday Dec 1st) is the annual ADAS Christmas Quiz with a return to the open invitation to astronomical societies in the north-west.  Tonight we hope to have teams from Manchester, Bolton, Chester and Gwynedd.  Welcome to the teams and visitors.  The ADAS team (aka the Hale-Boppers) is Mike Molnar, Paul Clark, Colin Steele and Roger.  The questions have been set by Chris and Derek McComiskey and Don Utton, who have all resisted the customary bribes (free telescopes, eyepieces, clear skies!?).  The prizes have been given by Gavin Critchley many thanks to him for the generosity and to all involved. As a résumé, the society meets every Friday, at the ADAS observatory Grove Lane Recreation ground from 9pm but if clear the obs now opens at 8pm to enable more observing, but the GM is always the first Friday in the month at the Village Hall.  The obs houses a 14” Newtonian reflector.  After the obs. and monthly meeting we adjourn to the Quarry Bank PH.  Wednesday evenings also find us congregating at the Quarry Bank from 9.30 on for astronomy talk.  Next meeting at the Village Hall is on Friday the 5th January 2001.  In addition the society is becoming increasingly active observationally with members making trips to dark sky sites seemingly at every chance of a clear sky.  Announcements and arrangements of such trips are frequently made via the Ad.Astra newsgroup.  The group can be joined to keep up to date with ADAS by free subscription, visit http://ad.astra.listbot.com Graham Cliff maintains the website at http://www.adas.u-net.com.  For more information contact committee members, or Roger Livermore on 0161-969-4507, Roger.Livermore@btinternet.com  (NB this address not yet reliable). Manchester Airport Community Fund Paul has heard from the fund and has answered the initial questions.  We do need to be able to arrange insurance on a portable telescope and suggestions would be appreciated as to how this can be done.  Working parties with Graham C, Stuart, Paul, Don and others have cleared out the obs meeting room.  Dave Timperley carried out repairs and repainting, being careful not to disturb the spider family for which he may have to apologise to those not so fond of arachnids.  Unfortunately we’ve been subject to the exceptional weather with water from the field coming in and damaging the clubhouse carpets. The carpets have been removed and the drainage of the site improved.  The drying out of the obs meeting room will take some time. Grazing Occultations In looking for possible joint ventures with other societies Graham Cliff and Mike Prescott have run a search for lunar grazing occultations visible by ADAS and local societies of NWGAS.  This follows our May success of the graze seen by six ADAS members.  From the program that Mike wrote for the BAA, they came up with three for November and December 2001, which will be researched further.  Meanwhile other ideas for activities appreciated. Astronomy: Observing Today It can be problem knowing just what to observe on those precious clear nights.  We don’t always have the time to search or remember what’s happening.  One solution is to have a website or page that largely does it by providing the quicklinks to sites that provide good information.  As an experiment ADAS will be trialling this idea.  The first month will be by using the Internet version of this newsletter found from the ADAS homepage. Subsequently it could be on a direct link off the homepage or linked to an ADAS member’s page.  It should only require progressive refinement of the links and the checking of their availability.  The first suggested links are as follows: - 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 OBSERVING NOTES New Moon at Christmas with a chance of deep sky observing. (Do not forget the lunar eclipse Jan 9th next)! Moon  1st Q 3rd, Full 10th, Last Q 17th, New 24th.  Near Jupiter and Saturn on 9th. Sun In Sagittarius.  Partial eclipse visible in USA 25th, Gavin in Houston should catch a 30% eclipse with first contact at 0943, max at 1100 and last contact at 1223. Mercury Not readily visible Venus has emerged into the evening skies, brilliant object mag. –4, near the Moon on 29th. Mars in Virgo+1.5, diameter only 5” at present. VenusJupiter in Taurus –2.7 and visible all night. Saturn in Taurus - 0.3. Uranus in Capricornus +5.7, near i Capricornus, one degree north of Venus on 23rd. Neptune also in Capricornus, +7.8, near o Capricornus, two degrees north of Venus on 11th Asteroids 4 Vesta +8, close to e Capricornus on 17th. 2 Pallas +9.7 in Virgo, 16 Psyche +9.5 Taurus, 115 Thyra +9.2 Perseus, 324 Bamberga +9.5 Triangulum. Meteors Geminids Full Moon interferes but as these meteors are bright and slow still worth observing.  Try the Ursids 22/23 at 10 per hour radiating from the bowl of the Plough.  Quadrantids Jan 3rd morning. Last month’s Leonids affected by moonlight.  From Edinburgh-Pentlands I did get a reasonable rate on the morning of 17th Nov. Comets C/1999 T1 McNaught-Hartley binocular object +8 low in Hydra/ Virgo but moving north in the morning skies. Variable Stars Algol at minima 8th 0042, 10th 2131, 13th 1820, 30th 2315 Happy Christmas and clear skies. by Rodger Livermoore For the previous newsletter, click here.

Last night saw the final event of the 2007 "50th Anniversary" celebrations of the Lovell telescope at Jodrell Bank. There were two ADAS members present. Myself, using a Konus 120mm F8.3 Refactor mounted onto a Vixen GP-DX. And Colin Bowler who was using a fine Celestron C8 and Vixen GP-D2, together with a 10" Callisto Dob. Also present at last night's event, were members from Macclesfield AS. There certainly was, a lot of telescope's on show. And the event was a sell out, but I don't know the actual numbers, but there must have been over 100+ people there, braving the sub zero conditions. Soon after the event started at 19:00ut, we where all treated to a magnificent -4 Geminid at 19:40ut. This bolide appeared from the direction of Castor and slowly moved north-east fading near the boarder with Lynx. The meteor had a nice luminous trail, which lasted several seconds. Once the excitement had died down, it was time to show the crowds some celestial views. My first target was the Moon. Using my 24mm Panoptic (x41) the Moon was very clear and sharp, despite it's low altitude. Through this eyepiece there was a lovely view of Earth shine, illuminating the Moons dark crescent. With higher power, we were treated to views of mountains and craters which really wowed those who were looking. After what seemed like an hour. I finally found a fading comet 17P/Holmes. The comet is now a very diffuse object, and looks more like a brighter version of M33 and it was difficult to see with the light pollution from the visitors center. We next had a look at M31, and this galaxy was quite a show stopper! I was able to show them both M31 and the two satellite galaxies M32 and M110. It really looked magnificat through my Astronomic CLS filter, and even at low power, you could begin to see some faint spiral arms. Next up was M45, followed by M42. Using a Baader UHC-S filter and 24mm Pany. M42 was a glorious sight. And I had many people queuing up for a peak, at this huge Stella nursery. Later in the evening I turned my 4.75" "OG" onto the star of the show. Mars. At x200 with a red filter. Mars was very clear but only during those moments of steady seeing. The main feature visible was Syrtis Major, and what I thought was the North polar cap. I later found out back home, I was actually looking at the huge Helas basin.Mars was a real show stopper and I had any number of visits to my telescope, once word had been passed, I was looking at the red planet. By 22:00 the event was over. And after wishing every one a Happy Christmas, I went home happy, that I might have encouraged more people to take a look at what's up there. by Paul Brierley #JodrellBank #Moon #Meteor #Comet #Mars #Galaxy

Last Saturday night saw 4 of us down at Llyn B again, this time seeing conditions were perhaps the best we'd ever seen there. The Milky way was visible from horizon to horizon, and earlier on, it was possible to see all of the 'Teapot' asterism in Sagittarius. Spectacular Views of the Veil Nebula were had through Paul's 18'' dob, via a 2'' O111 filter and a 31mm Nagler eyepiece. This had to be truly one of the best sights available through an amateur telescope, again the seeing conditions allowing so much clarity and detail to shine through; I managed to hop from the western section over to the eastern part without much problem, and it too was truly awesome, beautiful, unforgettable. I took the chance to take a look at some of the more 'difficult' DSOs, e.g. M101, and NGC 891, a side-on mag.10galaxy in Andromeda that really is hard to see much of in an 8'' scope. by Unknown ADAS member #LlynBrenig #MilkyWay #Nebula #Galaxy

SOCIETY NEWS (This page now taken over by Dave Timperley) Hello everyone, and welcome back from the Summer break. The nights are already becoming longer, and once again provide true darkness within which to enjoy our hobby. At tonight’s meeting (the AGM Friday 7th September 2), Michael Molnar will be giving a presentation on Pluto and Charon. Although there has been little observing time, various ADAS members have still been active at the observatory, with some maintenance work taking place there. The main hut has a new coat of paint, and the grass seed planted to the rear of the buildings and along the drainage ditch has become well established. The new (stronger) fence and hawthorn quicks appear to have solved what was an ongoing security problem at this end of the grounds after council contractors destroyed part of the original hedge, while gaining unsolicited access. Work on making space in the small hut is still ‘under way’, but there is still a substantial amount of stuff in here that needs taking to the tip. If anybody would volunteer to fill their car boot on a Friday night and take it to the tip the following morning, it would be much appreciated. The clutter at the entrance to the main hut has also been cleared.    The latest significant development at the obs. is the new hard standing area and walkway, (not forgetting the new wider gate) which will enable 3-4 telescopes to be set up, and allow wheelchair access to same. The security of the obs. was slightly compromised for one night, with the gate having to be taken off its hinges for that end of the walkway to be completed. Various members stayed at the obs. until quite late that evening, which turned out to be uneventful, although I did get some strange looks from a few people on the field, sitting alone for a while on Don’s ‘novelty’ camping stool with a copy of Sky and Telescope.    Owing to the cancellation of this years’ Timperley Country Fair during the foot and mouth epidemic, Ged Birbeck and Don Utton spent a worthwhile afternoon running the ADAS stall at Gatley Fair in July. After-expenses profits came to approx. £70.    Last month sadly saw the departure to sunnier climes of our Secretary, Colin Henshaw, who has gone to Oman to teach biology. He has recently mailed the ADASTRA newsgroup to say he has just completed a thirty-year cycle of naked-eye magnitude estimates of Saturn, and will be submitting his results to the BAA for possible publication.   The proposed gathering at the obs. for the Perseid meteor shower over the weekend of August 12/13 did not take place due almost total cloud cover, which came as a disappointment. People at the obs. had mentioned sightings before and after the weekend of the showers’ peak.   Mark Crossley has kindly gone to the trouble of setting up a new newsgroup with Yahoo! for members with internet access. The Yahoo! Group is more versatile than the old Listbot group, as it is possible to choose delivery options for receiving either individual mails, a daily digest, or none at all, so you can just check for new information as and when required, by signing in. There is also a section that can be used to upload files that could be of interest to other subscribers. Presently there is a planetary nebulae database submitted by Paul Brierley, and a general observational database submitted by myself, mainly condensed from the SAC database Ver. 7.2, that contains most of the deep sky objects visible from our latitude, to visual magnitude 14. COMING EVENTS The following information was mailed to me from Clive Sutton: RECENT ASTRONOMY WEEKENDS AT BURTON MANOR, CHESHIRE Each year, 2 weekend Astronomy courses are held at Burton Manor College, near Chester.  The courses are residential, running from dinner on the Friday night through to lunch on the Sunday. There follows a brief account of the most recent courses, which each consisted of 8 talks by Bob Turner & Colin Steele, together with the opportunity to do some practical observing in the evenings. 1.   3 - 5 November 2000 - 'Practical & Observational Astronomy' This weekend focused on the practical aspects of Astronomy, in terms of both the actual observing and also a talk about observational equipment. The talks included a general introductory overview of the objects to observe in the night sky and how to locate them, as well as more specialised discussions in respect of lunar & solar observing (including eclipses), observing the planets, variable stars & deep sky objects, and also observations of high altitude atmospheric phenomena (including meteors, noctilucent clouds & aurorae). The talk on observational equipment was useful, discussing the pros & cons of a range of equipment, from binoculars to large reflectors & refractors, including considerations of the issues of cost, portability and practicality in terms of what the observer wanted to view. 2.   18 - 20 May 2001 -  'Astronomy around the World' The most recent course was more unusual, in that it was based on the Earth, both as a planet itself and in terms of the astronomy which was and is being carried out from it. The opening talk of the weekend focused on the Earth's place in the Universe, and also included a discussion of what is (or should be!) technically observable from various latitudes. Clearly, this varies over time, as a result of precession, and a consideration of astronomy in the ancient world was the subject of a subsequent talk (surprisingly Orion was not visible in UK latitudes in 11,000 BC, when pi Herculis was the pole star). Another interesting talk focused on calendars of the world, including descriptions of the (seemingly) complicated calendars used in India, China, Babylon and Egypt in the past, which were derived from solar and/or lunar calendars. This talk also looked at the history of the adoption of the Gregorian calendar (in 1582 by southern European countries, but not until the early C20 by Russia & China). One of the highlights of the weekend was a more lighthearted talk by Colin Steele, entitled "Report on the Fifth Planet!!", which was an imaginative description of how inhabitants of a (hypothetical) planet encircling Aldeberan might discover and come to explore the Solar System, cumulating in discovery of the Earth (i.e. the 5th most massive planet), which concluded that it might be difficult to establish (from Earth orbit) that intelligent life is present here. Other talks included the history and geology of planet Earth and also a discussion of Astronomy from outside the world (i.e. developments from space probes).  A computer program of aerial photographs of the UK was shown, with course participants attempting to identify their home towns/villages, and impressive photographs of the natural features of the Earth from space were also shown and discussed. General comments Both courses represented very good value for money (including full board & accommodation in addition to the excellent talks), with the added bonus of practical observing in the evenings.  On both occasions, the weather was kind, which was just as well, as several of the course participants had brought along their own telescopes. Future Astronomy weekends at Burton Manor The next weekend course at Burton Manor is scheduled for the weekend of 9 -11 November 2001, when Bob Turner & Colin Steele will be presenting talks on their own recent research and topics of particular personal interest to them, including: -  Solar flares, prominences & mass coronal ejections; -  Stellar evolution within globular clusters; -  The history of the Mount Wilson & Mount Palomar telescopes. Colin Steele will also be running a 1-day course aimed at beginners at Burton Manor on 6 October. Further details of the courses can be obtained from Burton Manor College, Burton, Neston, Cheshire, CH64 5SJ; tel. 0151 3365172; e-mail: enquiry@burtonmanor.com M.I.A. ‘OPENING CEREMONY’ Paul Clark advises an event has been arranged with representatives of the Manchester Airport Community Trust, (who provided funding for the new binoculars, mount, hard standing area, walkway and replacement gate) to take place at the obs. on Sunday 23rd September, from 7-9pm. Hopefully there will be good weather, allowing us to set up the binoculars and a couple of members’ telescopes on the hard standing, to demonstrate. I know Paul has been planning to take some webcam images of the Moon, to show in the case of bad weather. If anyone else has any similar work, please bring it along if you can. Please come if you are able to. It would be good to show that ADAS is a well-attended and active society. NWGAS STAR PARTY A Joint observing session with other clubs in the north-west has been planned for Sept. 21st,  (the 22nd as an alternative) at Llyn Brenig, near to Denbigh in North Wales. Drive time is approx. 90 minutes, and the general area is impressively dark.  The site is darker than any of the sites I have visited in Cheshire/Staffs, and is well worth the drive. While on the subject of dark sky observing, it has been suggested to make the Friday nearest the new moon a monthly fixture on the ADAS calendar for a dark sky trip, weather permitting. The decision on whether to go each month could be left until the Friday, perhaps meeting up a little earlier at the obs. before setting out. The visits could be to North Wales, or closer sites such as Gradbach or Teggs Nose Park. Although the option of observing at home has the convenience factor, it just isn’t the same experience as being under genuinely dark skies, and should serve to enhance the quality of our observational experiences and skills. OBSERVING NOTES (Times given are U.T.) For date 15th September, astronomical twilight begins 20:50 becoming fully dark at 21:28 Full darkness ends the following morning at 04:43 Moon There are 2 earthquakes on record stronger than mag.6 Richter scale on the date of this month’s full moon. A very good source of earthquake info can be found at:  http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/current_seismicity.html Full 2nd Sept; sets 05.22 rises 20:22 Last Quarter 10th Sept; sets 14:53, rises 21:56 New Moon   17th Sept; Sets 18:55, rises 05:19 First Quarter 24th Sept; Sets 22:03, rises 14:39 Mercury is presently too near the Sun to be seen Venus In gibbous stage of phase, presently an early morning object, rises 02:47, sets 17:41 on the 15th. Mars   visible in the early evening, it’s distance from the Earth now becoming greater, Mars will be dimming to mag. –0.5 by the end of the month, maximum altitude on the 15th is 9.6 degrees at 18:50, and setting at 22:04. Jupiter rising in Gemini at 22:59 on the 15th . Here are some times suitable for viewing the great red spot, and lunar shadow transits:  (the great red spot takes approx.5 hours to cross the face of Jupiter, the start times are given here.) GRS: 8th Sept. 00:19.  10th Sept. 01:57   12th Sept. 23:28   22nd Sept. 01:53   24th Sept. 23:23   27th Sept. 01:02 Shadow Transits:   10th Sept  - Europa’s shadow will be already transiting Jupiter’s disc when it rises at 23:19, And will finish at 01:14 on the 11th. Likewise, on 12th Sept, Io’s shadow will be crossing the planet’s surface when it rises at 23:12, and will finish at 00:30 on the 13th. Ganymede completes the hat trick, on Sept.15th, its’ transit beginning at 22:41, Jupiter rises at 23:59, and this event ends at 01:26 on the 16th. Sept. 18th , Europa’s shadow becomes apparent at  01:23, ending at 04:07. Cont… Sept. 20th , Io will cast its’ shadow on the planet between 00:11 and 02:23. Sept. 23rd , Ganymede will shadow transit between 02:39 and 05:26. Sept  27th , Io will again cast  its’ shadow between 02:04 and 04:16. Saturn Rising in Taurus at 21:16 on the 15th , its’ proximity to the moon means views will be better toward the middle/end of the month. Saturn is within 6 deg. of the moon on 10th Sept. Uranus In Capricornus, approx mag. 5.7, the planet will reach a maximum altitude of just over 21 degrees at 22:08 on the 15th of this month, and setting at 02:52. Neptune Also in Capricornus, approx. mag.7.9, and a degree or so lower in the sky than Uranus Neptune will already be beginning to set by the time it becomes dark enough to see, disappearing from view completely by 01:26. Pluto will be a challenging object at mag 13.8, in Ophiuchus. There is only really the hour between 20:30 and 21:30 to try. It will be setting from a fraction over 9 degrees altitude at 20:30. Asteroids 2 Pallas   mag.10.2, in Hercules, moving in a south-easterly direction toward i Ophiuchi. 4 Vesta    mag. 7.9, in Taurus, moving east toward the north-western side of Orion. 5 Astraea    mag. 11.8, in Capricornus, moving south westerly. 54 Alexandra   mag. 10.7, in Pegasus, moving to the east. Between Markab and the head of Pisces. 19 Fortuna   mag. 9.6, in Pisces, moving WSW. Nearby, are the dimmer 37 Fides and 67 Asia. Comet LINEAR C/2001A2  seems to have faded from view. Roger L and myself looked for it on a recent visit to Teggs’Nose, in my 8’’. Roger also tried the next night, from home with his 10’’LX200, with no success. ADAS is on "holiday" during July and August therefore there was NO newsletter. The newsletter above is Dave T' s first replacement for the Livermore Newsletter. Well done Dave!!!!!! See Sky Maps from Sky Map Pro 7 accessed from the news/events/diary page from HOME page. Click HERE to access Roger's May Newsletter. Click HERE to access Roger's June Newsletter 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

What can you see through an un-mounted 60mm mini-Borg with 24mm Panoptic and 13mm Nagler at 2000m under clear and dark sky? The Double Cluster and Stock 2 can be seen in the same field of view (fov). The nearby large hazes of IC 1848 and 1805 are embedded with stars. The dark nebulae of B3, 4 and 5 are visible (?!) in Perseus also the California Nebula without filters (and naked-eye with H-beta filter), the Running Man, Great Orion and NGC 1980 nebulae. The westerly border of the Lambda Orionis nebula can be wafted across the fov. Barnard’s Loop is visible all the way around to the ‘knees’ of Orion. Numerous groups of bright Milky Way open clusters fill the w-i-d-e fov. The 13mm adds a little more power and darkens the sky background. Galaxies galore! The groupings of Messiers 95, 96 and 105, Messiers 65, 66 and NGC 3628 are superb. Finally, NGC2903 could be seen in the mane of Leo along with a lovely juxtaposition of the Owl Nebula (M97) and M108 in Ursa Major. Oh, it’s started to cloud over. Have you got your equatorial aligned yet..? March 7th, 20:00, Mt. Teide, Tenerife, Canary Islands. by Unknown ADAS member #Nebula #Galaxy #DoubleCluster

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 Sagittarius and over to Cygnus, magnificent! by Paul C. #GlobularCluster #OpenCluster #Nebula #Galaxy #MilkyWay

The Monthly Meeting will be held at the usual time and place on Friday, 4th January. Presentations will be given by Bin Wu, speaking on Chinese constellations and the Chinese New Year, and Mark Adamson from Manchester A.S. will be showing his photographic work, well worth seeing, if you remember his presentation last year.    A meeting was held at the obs. on Thursday 13th December, to discuss possible purchases to be made with both existing society funds, and hypothetically what to do if our bid to The National Lottery ‘Awards for all’ fund is successful. The outcome of the meeting was posted by our Chairman, Chris Suddick on the Yahoo! Newsgroup the following day, and this subject will be discussed further at the January meeting. General areas of discussion included purchasing imaging equipment, digital projector, an 8’’ SCT, a 10’’-12’’ Dobsonian scope, digital setting circles, and improvements/repairs to observatory structures and the 14’’ scope. The bid for lottery money is being arranged by Observatory Director, Paul Clark, who has mentioned there is some urgency in coming to a decision on what to include in the application, due to the approaching end of the financial year. Dark sky observing   The last visit ‘en masse’ to Llyn Brenig on the 8th December was very successful, as already mentioned on the ADAS website. The sky was totally clear, and many hours were spent viewing and imaging celestial objects. Graham C acquired some good images of M31, Orion and Gemini, putting his new 85 mm F1.4 lens to the test. I was less successful on this occasion due to a stupid mistake, forgetting to switch my shutter speed to ‘B’, resulting in blank prints. The following weekend was more successful for myself, and I obtained some good images of the North America Nebula, and I’m still awaiting slides of M44, 45, and the Rosette Nebula from the processing lab, fingers crossed. This night also produced a good number of Geminids meteors, the shower having peaked the previous night. Quite a few were extremely bright, one in particular arcing right across the sky to the Western horizon where it broke up into a number of separate pieces.  Paul Clark and myself also went to Llyn Brenig on the weekend of the 22nd, and after a bit of a false start due to an unexpected influx of cloud, had a good night, which was incidentally the night the Ursids Meteor Shower peaked. Some meteors were noticed, but they were fewer, and generally not as bright, certainly nowhere near as dramatic as the Geminids of the previous weekend. On a personal level, I have noticed a huge benefit going to Llyn Brenig as opposed to my back yard, which is not as badly light polluted as Altrincham. It’s like having a bigger telescope. The views I have had from there in my 8’’ Cassegrain surpass results obtained at sites in Cheshire with my previous 10’’ Newtonian. The next trip is planned for the weekends of the 5th and 12th January. Please call Graham Cliff on 0161 969 7995 No later than 3pm on the day to confirm if the trip is on or not, or if you would like to go, but need a lift there. The fast - moving Aten class asteroid 1998 WT24 recently passed by the Earth, closest on the night of Dec.15th-16th, at a distance of approx. 1.25 million miles, or 5 Earth-Moon Distances. Moving through Gemini, Auriga and Perseus at a rate of approx. 1 degree per hour, brightest visual magnitude being 9.5.  This object is classed as a potentially hazardous asteroid, (or PHA) it’s orbit crossing the Earth’s path very closely. It moves quickly, orbiting the Sun every seven months.( it had dimmed to mag.16 within 13 days of passing the Earth) It is due for another pass (not as close) in November 2004. Below is an amateur image of the Asteroids’ trail, set against a background of static stars. Paul Brierley is the only ADAS member to report observation of the object. Observing Notes... Q SUN      With The passing of the shortest day on the 21st December, the Sun will again begin to rise a little earlier and set a little later, although the nights will not become significantly shorter for a while yet. Sunrise is at 08:17 on the 15th, setting at 16:23. Graham C recently posted over a photo showing sunspots on an image from the Mees white light solar obs. There have been recent warnings from Astroalert regarding Aurora, but no-one has reported anything happening locally, although the past 2 warnings have come out when the moon has been near full, making any auroral activity hard to discern. R MOON      Currently in Virgo, Moving to Capricornus on the 13th. 6/01/02  last quarter, rising at 00:09, sets 12:10 13/1/02 New Moon, rising at 08:37,  sets 16:02 21/1/02 first quarter, rising at 11:22, sets  00:04 28/1/02 Full Moon,  rising at  15:56, sets 08:10 S MERCURY     In Capricornus, should be visible in the first part of the month, in the Southwest shortly after sunset. Rises at 09:04 and sets at 18:05 on the 15th. T VENUS     In Sagittarius, and within 5 degrees of the sun, will not be visible this month. UMARS     In Aquarius, moving to Pisces mid-month. Will be setting from an altitude of approx.34 degrees on the 15th, finally reaching the horizon at 22:20. V JUPITER     In Gemini, and still visible throughout the whole of the Night, and at an altitude of approx.18 degrees by dark on the 15th, setting the following morning at 07:38. Below are times when it will be possible to view the Great Red Spot, and the Galilean lunar shadows transiting the surface of the planet: Shadow Transits:   Great Red Spot (takes approx. 5 hours to Date   Moon   Start   Finish                                                                   cross the face of the planet, start times below) 5th         Io       23:01  01:16 7th         Io       17:29  19:44 9th       Eur.      19:06  21:55                                                                     Date        Start 13th       Io       00:55  03:10                                                                     5th           23:14 14th       Io       19:24  21:39                                                                     6th           19.05 15th     Gan.     18:17  21:21                                                                     8th           00:52, 20:43 16th     Eur.      21:43  00:32                                                                    10th         22:21 21st        Io       21:18  23:55                                                                    12th         23:59 22nd     Gan.    22:16   01:21                                                                    15th         21:29 24th      Eur.     00:20  03:08                                                                     20th        20:36 28th        Io      23:13   01:28                                                                    22nd        22:14 30th      Cal.     23:00   02:02                                                                    29th        23:00 Good seeing conditions are required to see the GRS, but it can be plainly seen with direct vision. I observed it on 1st January from my home location in an 8’’ scope and returned periodically to it during its passage across the face of the planet, to discern it’s movement. W SATURN     In Taurus, and at an altitude of approx. 35 degrees by dark on the 15th, setting at 05:04 the following morning. The Cassini Division is easily seen in my 8’’ scope given good seeing conditions, even from my light polluted home location. X URANUS     In Capricornus, at an altitude of approx. 12 degrees by dark, setting at 18:57. Y NEPTUNE     In Capricornus, only 2 degrees above the horizon by dark, most probably not visible. Z PLUTO     In Ophiuchus, at a challenging mag.13.9, will rise at 04.44, reaches an altitude of 5 degrees At approx. 05:25, being lost to the dawn twilight at 06:10 on the 15th. Comet 19p Borrelly  moving slowly in Canes Venatici, in the general direction of Ursa Major, at a dim mag 12.2 on the 15th, is still theoretically visible, although no-one has reported a sighting. I’ve added this to my target list for the next dark sky trip, here’s a map of its movement throughout this month: If anybody has any information or announcements they would like to be included in next month's  newsletter, please email me at Davey.T@btinternet.com The links below were originally set up by Roger Livermore. We hope they are useful. 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 For the previous newsletter, click here.

On Saturday 16th November several members of the Society attended the Jodrell Bank Astronomy Event. The evening began with a talk by Professor Jamie Gilmour about the make up of the universe, the physical difference between Comets and Asteroids what the planets are made of and how they came about. Following the talk, for the last hour wee went outside and members of the public were able to speak to the various astronomers and the lecturer and look through the telescopes at the wonders of the night sky – at least they would have if it had not been cloudy!! However there were occasional glimpses of the moon through the cloud which allowed a number of people able to take photos of the moon by simply placing the camera against the eyepiece. A number of people had iPads which could be used to show members of the public what was around in the sky if only you could see it and these also created a good deal of interest. We enjoyed a good night fielding some enquiries about ADAS and also meeting up with old friends from the astronomical community. Sadly we got lost on the way home and had to go into the Edgerton Arms to ask the way! by Geoff Flood #JodrellBank If you are interested in coming along to this type of event why not join the society here or contact us using the floating ‘Get in touch’ to find out when our next meeting is. You will receive a warm welcome.

Another successful evening at Delamere Forest Park Visitor Centre. My thanks to Don, Ged, Paul, Nick, Colin and Geoff for your support on the evening and special thanks to Richard for his two talks on The Moon and putting in the extra half hour at the end, all despite starting out with technical gremlins. Its a shame we didn’t get any clear skies but the moon did make a brief appearance as soon as we’d all packed away (typical). The feedback from people on the evening was very good. In the first session the Brownies seemed quite happy to get involved and to ask a few questions. In the second session Richard kept the audience rooted to their seats well past the end time. Kelly thought the evening went well and we are already booked to return in March and October of next year. Well done to everyone involved. by Kevin #DelamereForest #Moon #Outreach

The weather front which had been dropping large amounts of water earlier in the evening cleared away and at 00:00hrs (23:00ut) I walked out into my rain socked garden to find the sky clear. But not just clear but "REALLY CLEAR" I could see stars down to M+5.41 with M31 and NGC 752 visible the latter only with averted vision. I set up my DX300 on the observing pad and by 00:30 I was able to begin. Seeing= ANTIII (Fast seeing) Transparency= 6 Mars x240 x200 x150. Mars appeared to lie in the only part of sky where the seeing was poor. x240 Orange disk with only visible surface detail when the seeing improves. x200 and x150 with a yellow filter, did improve the view. It was a pity as I have yet to see this planet under good seeing. Features visible during my period of observation. Mare Chronium Lat 58 Long 137 Mare Sirenum Lat 33 Long 161 Possible hint of Southern Polar Cap. Messier 33 24mm Panoptic with Lumicon Deep Sky and 8-24mm LV zoom. I have not used my LDSF on the 12" with the new coating. What a difference!. Providing you don't mind blue stars (I don't) the sky is inky black with know sodium sky glow visible. This is certainly an excellent LP filter. M33 x50. Round bright haze with stellar nucleus. x150. You begin to see deeper. And the galaxy's spiral arms are faint but visible. There is some faint starlight glows visible with in M33 are these possibly the HII regions? . Visible in photographs. NGC 891 24mm LDSF x50 Grey needle with a bright center. x150 galaxy almost disappears. Darker skies then here for this one!. NGC772 24mm and LDSF Faint glow at x50 with know visible hint of any structure. With the naked eye. M31, M45, NGC 752, NGC 884/869, Auriga,Taurus, Gemini, Orion (is it that time again) . Perseus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Pegasus,Aquarius. by Paul Brierley #Galaxy #Mars #OpenCluster

Friday October 8th. Myself, Kevin and Norman. This was a reasonable session with intermittent misty clouds, the NELM down to 6 and a bit. A welcome outing! Supernova SN2004et at mag. 13 was readily located in NGC 6946. This magnitude 9.00 face-on galaxy showed plenty of mottled spiral arm detail. NGC 6939 a nearby open cluster is a good contrast. Western wonders NGC 6781 a planetary nebula at 11.40 in Aquila is a showpiece for big telescopes, a bright large smoke ring. M92, 27, 71, 76, 57 followed plus the obscure globular cluster Palomar 13, a ghost at 13.8. Cygnus clusters ‘n clouds The area between Deneb and M39 received a detailed inspection, another eye-opener! There are dense Milky Way patches, open clusters and glowing nebulae all offset by dark, dark nebulae. An excellent example being the rich open cluster IC 1369, B 361, a deep dark nebula and a dense star field in the area of the non-existent IC 1363. A bright planetary NGC 7026 is also nearby. Galaxy groups Some interesting galaxy triplets were next on the menu. NGCs 7769, 7770 and 7771 are just north of phi Pegasi at ~12.5 ish. NGC 7436 is in a field of half a dozen objects. A repeat visit is needed to pick off the remainder. NGCs 181, 183 and 184 are quite difficult with epsilon Andromedae blindingly occupying the FOV. Binocular bonanza A few goes with the Thurstan’s 11x80s were a delight! They provided excellent views of the Milky Way objects from the alpha Perseus Moving Cluster past the Double Cluster with Stock 2 and ICs 1805 and 1848 filling the field with stars and nebulae. Then on through Cassiopeia and Cygnus. A rewarding experience. by Paul #Galaxy #DoubleCluster #MilkyWay #OpenCluster #Nebula #Supernova #LlynBrenig

Observing Session at Tegg's Nose 13th. July 2001. Present: Paul Clark, Colin Henshaw, Mike and Warren Cook, and Don Utton. Primary objective: To observe Comet C/2001 A2 (LINEAR). The comet was seen by everyone, and was around mag 4.5. Colin Henshaw found that it was very diffuse and because of that he could not defocus the comparison stars sufficiently to make a magnitude estimate. Paul Clark suspected a tail but Colin Henshaw couldn't confirm it. Both suspected it with the naked eye. While everyone was setting up, Colin Henshaw secured an estimate of Delta Scorpii, which was still bright at about 2m.0. Warren and Mike looked at deep sky objects using their Dobsonian, and superb views of M13, M27, and M57 were obtained. We also looked at several objects in the Sagittarius area like M8 and M25. We also looked at the Double Cluster in Perseus. Colin Henshaw tried to photograph the comet, but he experienced problems with his drive. Cloud came over for at least 45 minutes which frustrated everbody. When the Moon rose we packed up and went home. Two foxes were seen by Paul Clark and Colin Henshaw on the way back through Wilmslow. Once he had got back Colin Henshaw secured some more variable star observations from his back garden, but was forced to stop again through cloud. Towards dawn it cleared again, and just before he turned in he decided to investigate the planetary line-up visible before sunrise. Venus and Saturn were spotted first, close to Aldebaran, and later he was able to find Jupiter. Mercury was then seen below Jupiter using binoculars. by Unknown ADAS member Paul Clark's Report Friday 13th July with lucky CLEAR skies. Don (with the Critchley Meade), Warren and Mike (with Mike’s 10” Dobsonian, 15x80s and Short tube 80 refractor), Colin (with bins.) and Paul (with the 20x100s and his OMC 140) gathered at Teggs Nose at about 11pm on Friday 13th.  The sky was clear and became surprisingly dark. This was the first session for some time for four of us.  It became cool and very pleasant.  The first target was Comet LINEAR 2001/A2.  Soon found in all the instruments (Don managing with the Meade after I’d given up with the small finderscope).  This became an impressive sight in Pegasus as the night became darker, shining at about mag. 5 with a large coma and tail to about 1 degree..  Colin and I were also convinced we could see it with the nakedly by about 1 am. After browsing around for a while I became very surprised at the darkness and clarity of the sky and started to work on some Herschel 400 objects low down in Ophiuchus.  Initially I had a great deal of success picking off globulars and planetaries (the Box and Little Gem nebulae) in between ‘rests’ with the brighter Messiers. Colin did a few variable estimates including delta Scorpii however, his efforts to photograph the comet were frustrated when a cloud bank passed through at a critical time. Meanwhile Warren and Mike were getting some very impressive views with the 10” Dobsonian.  The Dumbbell and Ring Nebulae were excellent, an OIII filter greatly enhanced the contrast between these objects and the darkened background sky. The Milky Way became brighter and could be followed down as far south as the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud (M24). This tempted me to go for some more objects lower down in Sagittarius.  Half an hour of ‘failure’ followed.  No new objects but some excellent views of the brighter Messier objects.  The globulars M22 and M28, the Lagoon, Triffid and Swan nebulae. During this time I missed some bright meteors and Iridium flares… My view of the night was through the 10” with an OIII filter.  Mike called me over to see ‘something’.  This turned out to be the Swan Nebula (also known as the Omega nebula or M17).  The view was the best I’d had and when the filter was added revealed great filamentary detail as well as the obvious Swan shape. The rising last quarter Moon washed out an attempt to find the Veil Nebula in Cygnus and brought a halt to the proceedings at about 1:45.  It was great to be out again under the stars. Paul Clark. by Paul Clark Map by Ken using Sky Map Pro 7 by Chris Marriott. #Comet #DoubleCluster #Messier #PlanetaryNebula

X-OriginalArrivalTime: 13 Oct 2001 14:30:44.0986 (UTC) FILETIME=[A4C8B5A0:01C153F3] Report on Observations of Naked Eye Stars in Pegasus Aim: To observe as many naked eye stars as possible inside the Square of Pegasus, from a dark site in Oman, so as to draw a comparison between skies here, Llyn Brenig and elsewhere. Method: A dark site was visited at an isolated location in the Hajjar Mountains, and once dark-adapted a count was made of the naked eye stars inside the Square of Pegasus. The region was at a high altitude, so there was so there were no problems with atmospheric extinction. Stars observed on the perimeter of the square (Alf And - Bet Peg - Alf Peg - Gam Peg - Alf And) would be counted as being inside the square. Once a star had been positively identified it was ticked off in Norton's. Observations were concluded when no more stars were detected. Results: The following stars were identified: Star                      mv Ups Peg              4.43 Tau Peg              4.60 - 4.62 (v) Psi Peg               4.66 56 Peg               4.76 Phi Peg              5.08 HW Peg            5.32 - 5.62 (v) 75 Peg               5.49 87 Peg               5.56 SAO 108443     5.68 85 Peg               5.80 69 Peg               5.96 - 5.98 (v) SAO 108400     6.16 60 Peg               6.20 65 Peg               6.29 SAO 91321       6.41 SAO 91133       6.57 Observations were made on October 12th., 2001, between 16.13 UT and 16.39 UT. Conclusions: Sixteen stars were identified, of which SAO 91133, at 6m.57 was the faintest. References: Marriott, Chris; SkyMapPro7. by Colin Henshaw #Oman

The longest day in the Northern hemisphere and it's shortest in the Southern hemisphere. The day of the total eclipse in Zimbabwe on the Mozambique border. The eclipse was absolutely incredible. These pages will have the day from the view point of Graham and Pauline Cliff of ADAS who spent 2 weeks in South Africa and Zimbabwe working up to the eclipse day on 21st June. Well done EXPLORERS it was a brilliant experience! Watch these pages. (NB DV initialise failure and bad IRQ's are slowing progress!) by Unknown ADAS member

Report from St. Martin’s Isles of Scilly darkest and clearest sky I’ve seen. 6"Reflector and 15 x70 Bins Saturday 11th September Half hour walk back from pub meal under clear sky to horizon Milky Way wonderful!! (Too tired after overnight journey to Penzance to observe) Monday 13th September Very clear between showers, too windy for telescope. 15 x70 bins, 22: 30 -23:35, M51 best I’ve ever seen it, M101, M13, M31. Noss 2-2, 22:20-26, bins and naked eye. Tuesday 14th September 6", Windy, 22:30 - 23:45. Searched for Toutatis (asteroid 4179) 40mm 2x converter, but wind was too strong to confirm whether I saw it. Friday17th and Saturday 18th September Last chance to observe. 21:00 to 00:35 21:05 ISS naked eye 67 degrees North. Flare 21:46 Pegasus -5 Mag. 22:35-00:50 TOUTATIS 6"R 40mm 2x converter near Kappa Cap +4.73 23:05 Looked at other things till 0:20 to see how much it had moved. 15x70 bins M51, M101, M71, M27, M13, M92, M31, M15, M33 (impressive) and for the first time M74 and M30 by John T #Galaxy #MilkyWay #GlobularCluster