The Elan Valley complex of reservoirs can be found ~ 40 kms east of Aberystwyth and 4 mls SW of Rhayader. Wednesday 8 September NELM 6.5 Borg 101ED f6.2 refractor 31 and 13 mm TeleVue Nagler eyepieces OIII and UHC filters. This is the darkest location that I have experienced in the UK. By a road in a N-S valley the Milky Way blazed overhead from horizon to horizon. M8 in Sagittarius was clearly visible naked eye low to the south. There was no visible light pollution. This helped by an eastern aspect partly obscured by a long ridge of hills. M13 was an ‘easy’ naked eye object as was M33 later. Using the 31mm eyepiece to give x20 magnification I cruised the stunning star fields and nebulae (bright and dark) from Sagittarius to Perseus. A special recommendation goes to the area around the Double Cluster. These 2 combine with Stock 2 to give a magnificent view. Applying an OIII filter also brought out the very large but not bright nebulae of ICs 1848, 1805, 1795 and NGC 896. Numerous stars embedded in great swirls of diffuse nebulosity. I could also revel in a first view of the M31 area through the Borg. A novel experience was watching M33 rising above a sharply delineated hill top. So near and so far! Another couple of faint ticks were NGC 7320 the brightest component of Stephan’s Quintet at mag 12.5 in Pegasus and IC 1295 a mag. 12.7 planetary adjacent to the globular NGC 6712 in Scutum. After some sleep in the back of the car it took a couple of hours to drive home. by Unknown ADAS member #DoubleCluster #Nebula #GlobularCluster #PlanetaryNebula

This year ADAS attended the Timperley Country Fair on Saturday 21st September. The event had been cancelled last year which dented our funds a little bit. This year the sun shone for most of it and we had a wonderful and profitable day. As in previous years we had our reliable tombola stall, manned chiefly by Colin Steele and Paul Clark as the normally ever-present Ged was unable to make it. Don was running his Lunar Lucky Dip and Chris was running the Lucky6 game which was first tried earlier this year at Gatley. This triple-pronged attack, once again, proved very successful for us and we raised about £200 for the society's funds after all the expenses were paid. It might have been a little more had Don not sold out completely before 2 O'clock. The photo on the right (click it for a larger view) shows the ADAS stall with Don, Chris and Colin toting for business. Graham & Pauline, Tony, Graham S and Paul missed out on the photo but were there helping out. by Unknown ADAS member #TimperleyFair #Fundraising

Well, it was cloudy & wet at Sale Water Park at the critical times (as usual) for seeing the planets! We glimpsed Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter but, by the end of the evening at 11 pm, when people went home after an ADAS lecture presentation, it was still cloudy. By 11.30 pm when people had got home the sky cleared! Can you "adam and eve it"? The people who braved the weather clearly were disappointed but Adam Davison of the Water Park was pleased we had made the effort. by Unknown ADAS member #SaleWaterPark #Venus #Mars #Saturn #Jupiter

This February new Moon period has been very productive.  Five dark sky observing sessions with some good clear conditions.  My latest trip out was on the 28th, just before Foot & Mouth restrictions came into force and with a Moon setting around 10 p.m. While my telescope cooled down I used the Airport binoculars.  Initially, I concentrated on bright clusters to the south and fainter galaxies to the east away from the moonlight.  This resulted in a survey of Messier objects in Orion, Monoceros, Canis Major, Cancer, Leo and Ursa Major.  I was also able to pick up some fainter galaxies in Leo down to mag. 10.5.  The Coma Berenices star cluster looked superb in the 20x100's. A great surprise was picking up NGC 2467, a Bright Nebula at mag. 7.1 below 10 degrees elevation in Puppis. Moving on to telescopic observing.  I failed for the n th time to see NGC 3003 a long thin galaxy in Leo Minor, hmm!  I recovered to locate another failure NGC 2811, a very star like galaxy at mag. 11.3, low down in Hydra.  Working through the Canes Venatici and Coma Berenices constellations I located about 20 more galaxies.  Several from the Caldwell and RASC catalogues are recommended viewing and many are set amongst the beautiful Coma star cluster.  A few non-descript galaxies from the Herschel 400 list were also found in the Bootes and M102 area. Finally, the centre of the Coma Virgo galaxy cluster had risen high enough for a first serious look of the season.  Positioning the TelRad finder midway between Denebola and Vindemiatrix always finds the bright Messier galaxies M84 and M86 in the eyepiece FOV.  The starting point for Markarianís chain of galaxies these two ovals form the eyes of a galaxy face, completed by the large and horizontal NGC 4388 of a mouth below.  Using a detailed star map I was able to galaxy hop along the chain with always one or more visible within the eyepiece.  Finishing off at M88 and M91 I decided to call it a night. It was only when I put the telescope back in the car that I could see that a thin layer of ice had formed all round the tube.  I guess the snow had insulated my feet from the cold ground so I hadn't noticed. by Paul Clark #Moon #Messier #Nebula #Caldwell #Berenices #Galaxy

Check this one out! Paul C has confirmed a prediction that Comet Ikeya-Zhang will pass very close to M31 at or about 4th April and will be at a predicted mag of 5.3. He got a good view of it Friday 1st before he went to the GM in Timperley. In April it should make a good photo opportunity? The orbital elements from Chris Marriott at SkyMap for Comet Ikeya-Zhang are:- T=2002 Mar, TT=18.9784, q=0.507061, e=0.990111, w(omegaLC)=34.6666, Omega(UC)=93.3718, i=28.1206, H=7.5 and G=4. If you input these elements into SkyMap you can plot the position and track of Ikeya-Zhang to know where it will be and when! NB LC=lower case and UC= upper case. by Unknown ADAS member #Comet #Discovery

A supernova has been discovered in M74, announced on IAU Circular 7810 today. The position is 1 36 23.9 +15 45 13 (2000), about 4'.5 west and nearly 2' south of the centre of the galaxy. Reported to be about mag. 14. Obviously this could become quite bright if it is a type Ia event. F and FR-scale charts for SN2002AP have been posted to the following URL: http://www.aavso.org/charts/PSC/SN2002AP/ Good hunting, Paul B. by Paul Brierley #Supernova #Discovery

This is a talk given on Friday 1st November by one of the society’s members Chris Suddick. The talk takes a historical and present day look at how the universe was first measured and how this approach has led us to understanding more about the universe. by Unknown ADAS member #Video #Universe If you are interested in meeting Chris or listening to other talks and presentations then why not come to one of our meetings? You can find details of all our speakers here and to contact us go here.

Much debate on the ADAS@YAHOO news group about the fireball seen late Saturday night. Some think it was a NASA satellite re-entry others a real fireball. According to Richard B a real fireball landed in a "garden in Bavaria"! The composite below shows some of the observers and the Comet again from Saturday, with the Comet view including the horizon, Andromeda and Mum, Cassiopeia. This is a big file - 80k, but what the heck!? Film Fuji 800 ASA ROKKOR 35 mm F2.8 lens and 30 secs exposure. by Unknown ADAS member #FireBall #Comet #Discovery

Mark Crossley has "some" of the bits for the ADAS web cam, he says "Well the webcam and cables have arrived, now we need to wait for the 1 1/4 inch adapter from the USA. I (will) try the web cam on my laptop with the two extension cables and see if it will work at that sort of distance. I'll keep you posted. Mark. John Locker has sent over the image of Saturn from Sunday taken from his home(?) in the Wirral. They are getting better! by Unknown ADAS member #WebCam #Saturn

Ever noticed that orange haze you get when looking at the sky at night particularly over Manchester areas and other built up cities and towns. This is known as light pollution. Click here to go directly to the website to learn more This short video is from the International Dark Sky Association and explains a little more about the need for dark skies. https://youtu.be/dd82jaztFIo by Unknown ADAS member #Link #Video #LightPollution

LOCATION: Yarnshall Hill INSTRUMENT: 127mm f/8.03 OG MAGNIFICATION: mostly x41 SEEING: ANT III Transparency Good DATE/TIME: 08 04. 20:30 23:05. NLM +5.1 Members present. Kevin and Norman, Colin, PaulC, Nick and Richard Bullock. At the request of Kevin Thurston and also the forecast of a clear sky, myself and members of the society ventured out to one of our observing sites. Yarnshall Hill nr Shuttlings Low is a good site and offers shelter if windy. The sky was lovely and clear but not quite as dark as we had hoped nlm+5.1. I was using my 127mm f/8.03 Konus refractor and I was able to pick out a good selection of DSO's despite the telescopes small aperture. M65 & M66. Both galaxies were very bright and I could see in the same field NGC 3628 which was just visible as a faint haze. M84 & M86. Visible as two patches of bright stellar light with a couple of other faint galaxies visible in the same area. M3. I was Just able to resolve M3 and through my LV zoom set to 8mm x125 M3 is a bright granular ball. M51 NGC 5195. Both galaxies were visible and were very bright. I was only using the 24 Pan (what an eyepiece). And you could see the connecting gas between M51 and NGC 5195. M51 has a bright nucleus with faint spiral arms just visible with averted vision. M94. Another galaxy this time in near by Canes. It's bright and looks rather like a round unresolved globular cluster. Jupiter. Plenty of detail visible at x125. With both the NEB and SEB clearly visible as were other belts and zones. I then returned to the centre of the Virgo Cluster and just spent a while hopping from one galaxy to the other. Although my 127mm 4.75" Konus is small, it doesn't half pack a punch. by Paul #Galaxy #GlobularCluster #Jupiter

I've just spent the last half an hour outside, enjoying a naked eye view of excellent clear sky, down to approx mag. 5.3, yes 5.3, Epsilon Lyrae was visible with direct vision, as was Ursa Minor in it's entirety. Murphy's law holds true, it would seem. At least I can now say I saw a couple of Perseids as well, and strangely, a sporadic from the direction of Cygnus almost simultaneously timed with the second Perseid. The Milky Way was also clearly visible right across the sky. If only this had been last night, there would have been happier stories to tell. by Unknown ADAS member #MeteorShower #Perseids #MilkyWay

The Monthly meeting will be held at Timperley Village Hall, 8 pm (19:00 UT) on Friday, 5th April. Speakers should include: Richard Bullock, (speaking on astronomy and the Duke of Edinburgh's Award) Peter Baugh, (The history of astronomy) and Paul Clark. (planetarium notes for April). ADAS PAIR IN LONG DISTANCE CHARITY RIDE Chairman, Chris Suddick, sent the following:- ‘As many of you are aware, Chris Suddick and Roger Livermore are cycling from Land's End to John O'Groats this summer starting on June 15th to raise money for charity. If anyone wants to cycle with them for part of the route then they are most welcome. If all goes to plan, they will be riding from Church Stretton to Warrington on Thursday 20th and from Warrington to Kendal on Friday 21st. See Chris or Roger for other parts of the route. Also, if anyone fancies helping out with motorised backup and carrying luggage for any part of the journey then they would definitely like to hear from you.’ Chris and Roger will be donating monies raised to: The  British Heart Foundation, The Rainbow Trust, and Unicef. ADAS GAINS LOTTERY AWARD! ADAS Observatory Director, Paul Clark, happily announced on the 27th March that the society has been awarded £4644 by The National Lottery Awards for All fund, to purchase a Meade LX90 8 inch SCT, an SBIGTV videocamera, and digital setting circles for the 14’’ newtonian. This will benefit the society, as we will now have an imaging capability on a mobile platform, and the 14’’ will become easier to use. Roger Livermore has been liaising with the Mersey Valley Authority, and has now arranged and finalised a date of 1st May, at 9.30 pm, for a star party to take place at Sale Water Park. Below are details from Roger: 'Appears in the Mersey Valley Summer events listing.  Reads:  Join the Altrincham and District Astronomical Society for an evening of stargazing and planet spotting.  See all the planets known to the ancients –Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn should be visible in the western sky.  Short talks and presentations if it’s a cloudy night.  Meet Mersey Valley Visitor Centre Rifle Road, Sale Water Park at 9.30 pm.’ The event is timed to take place during a period approx. 20th April – 20th May, when 5 planets will be simultaneously visible in the western sky, with Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn occupying an area of little more than 4x10 degrees within the northerly part of Taurus. The venue provides the opportunity for members of the public to come along and view the planets, via an assortment of telescopes and also has ‘plan b’ facilities in case of poor weather, in the form of a conference room seating 30, equipped with a projector. There are approx. 25 pairs of binoculars available for public use.? !  Although the Society Meade ETX90 and  the MIA binoculars will be there, anyone volunteering to come along with their scope would be very welcome. The April General Meeting would be a good opportunity to discuss the event further. Observing Notes Q SUN     Currently displaying increased sunspot activity, but no aurora warnings have been received over the Internet as yet. Having now passed the Springtime Solstice, the hours of darkness are quickly becoming shorter. Morning twilight on the 15th is at 02:54, sunrise at 05:40; sets 19:12, darkness at 21:30. R MOON     Last Quarter 4th, rise 02:29 set 09:37                            New Moon 12th, rise 05:44 set 18:40                            First Quarter 20th, rise 10:00 set 02:32                            Full Moon     27th, rise 20:11 set 05:15 The crescent Moon will occult Saturn on the evening of the 16th. Skymap predicted times of ingress and egress are 20:54 and 21:24 respectively. S MERCURY     Becoming visible in the evening twilight from mid month. A better view towards the end of the month as it’s elongation becomes greater. T VENUS     Also an evening object in the western sky, Venus is waxing presently, and will make a close companion to the moon on the evening of the 14th. U MARS     Dimmed to mag. 1.5, and very close to the crescent Moon on the 15th. Visible at an altitude of 22 deg. by twilight, setting at 22:44 V JUPITER Being almost overhead by dark, Jupiter continues to be a dominating figure in the early night sky, in Gemini, setting by 01:45 on the 15th.  There is a particularly interesting event occurring on the 7th, the shadows of Callisto and Io transit the surface of Jupiter simultaneously. Listed below are times when it will be possible to viewj ovian shadow transits, and times when the great red spot will cross the meridian: Date  Moon      In.        Eg.                       GRS 7th      Cal.      23:09   02:46                    9th, 21:04 7th      Io          23:57   02:12                  11th, 22:43 11th    Gan.     18:15   21:29                  14th   00:22 15th    Eur.      18:17   21:04                  16th, 21:53 16th    Io          20:21   22:37                  18th  23:32 18th    Gan.     22:16   01:31                  21st  21:03 22nd   Eur.       20:52   23:40                 26th, 20:13 23rd    Io          22:17   00:32                 28th,  23:31 W SATURN In Taurus, visible at an altitude of approx 21 deg. by dark, setting at 23:36 on the 15th. Occultation by the Moon will take place on the 16th. Ingress 20:54                                                      Egress 21:24 ....................... X URANUS     In Capricorn, hard to observe as rising in the morning twilight, around 03:45 Y NEPTUNE     Also in Capricorn, rising 40 minutes earlier at 03:05, Neptune will be hard to observe. Z PLUTO    In Ophiuchus, rising at 22:49, and reaching observable altitudes before being lost to the twilight. An abundance of comets There are currently 4 comets within reach of amateur telescopes, and as mentioned on the ADAS website, 2 will be close enough to photograph in the same frame. The first map shows the tracks of C/2000WM1 LINEAR, and 7P Pons-Winneke. As you can see, they are both fairly dim; the former becoming dimmer and the latter is brightening slightly. The map below shows the tracks of Comets Ikeya-Zhang, and C/2001 OG108 LONEOS. Both comets are steadily losing brightness, but will be observable for some time to come. FOR SALE: VIXEN VC200L 200 mm CASSEGRAIN REFLECTOR COMES WITH EQ-5 EQUATORIAL MOUNT, TRIPOD, SET OF UNIVERSITY OPTICS ORTHOSCOPIC EYEPIECES, AND OTHER ACCESSORIES. EMAIL mickwill@genie.co.uk FOR DETAILS. 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.

I went to the 2nd Colloquium on Astronomy in the Middle East in Al Ain, UAE, yesterday and it was excellant. I delivered my paper on astronomy without a telescope, though one professional astronomer did give me a hard time. However, he was like that with most people. He was absolutely gobsmacked by the material I presented, and found it almost inconceivable that someone could spend thirty years making naked-eye estimates of Saturn, or lie flat on his back for eight hours making one observation every two minutes of SX Phoenicis. I told him afterwards, "I really did it," to which he replied "I could never make my students do that. It takes a lot of patience even to make one variable star estimate, let alone 180 of one object in a night or engage in a thirty year project. How on earth did you manage to discover SN1987A?" "With the naked eye!" I replied. There was a panel discussion on the establishment of a Gulf astronomical society. Delegates were present from Kuwait, the UAE, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. There are about five observatories in Saudi now, but all are professionally run, but there is no organisation for amateurs. by Collin Henshaw #Discovery

I must say I like it. It's extremely easy to use and the results seem quite good. Obviously my selection of targets is a bit predictable but I wanted to try something bright and easy first. The image of M27 is 10 minutes made of 10x1 minute exposures. To achieve that I just set it to track and accumulate and went for a coffee. Three cheers for the National Lottery. Also attached is a surface plot from one video frame I took of one half of Epsilon Lyra on the 21st. I thought the seeing was so good I had to do something. I think the separation is just over 2 arcsec and the peaks are about that far apart if you view from above. I'm not sure this proves anything but I liked the image! by Phil Masding #Equipment #Review For more information on the range of equipment we have for members to borrow, click here.

The monthly meeting will be held on Friday, 1st March, at Timperley Village Hall, 8  pm. Graham Sinagola will be speaking on astrophotography. Recent Events In the past month, there have been two visits to the observatory by a cub scout group from Stockport. The first event, on the 18th had clear skies, the 14’’ was brought out to observe with, and a slide show was given by Chairman Chris Suddick. Feedback from Richard Bullock was that both groups enjoyed the visits, but a shame the second visit wasn't blessed with clear skies. Approximately 20 ADAS members went to the National Space and Science Centre on Sat. 23rd. A computer failure at the centre caused some initial problems getting in, but the trip was a success, and enjoyed by all. Another visit may be organised for a midweek date, to avoid weekend crowds. Graham Cliff and Chris Suddick arranged an early meet at the obs earlier in February to connect the newly acquired web cam up to the 14’’, and display images on the computer. The good news is that everything is working OK, but unluckily, the sky was cloudy, and it was not possible to make any observations or record any images. A Messier Marathon has been suggested for the coming month, as we will be presented with the best chance of seeing most of Messier’s catalogue in one night. Taking care to observe in the correct order, so as not to miss anything, it should be possible to obtain sightings of up to 100 objects.  Given usual dates for dark sky sessions, the weekends before and after the new moon, would be Saturday 9th & 16th March. As usual, call Graham Cliff or Don Utton on the day no later than 3 pm to confirm details of Location/times etc. Roger Livermore has been in contact with Adam Davison of the Mersey Valley Countryside Management Department, with a view to organising an event at the visitor centre at Sale Water Park in May.  There are 5 planets close together in the western sky in May, and it has been suggested that this would be a good time to go and set up a variety of members’ scopes to view the planets. Facilities at the centre include a meeting room equipped with a digital projector, so the possibility is there for a presentation to be given. Roger has mentioned that the department will need to know whether or not this is to happen, so a decision should be taken at the meeting on Friday 1st. Given that the event is well attended by members of the public it will be a good opportunity to generate a little publicity for ADAS. Observing Notes q SUN Presently in Aquarius, moving to Pisces on the 23rd. Graham C. has recently reported a decline in Sunspot activity. The Sun rises at 06:24 and sets at 18:15 on the 15th; morning twilight is at 04:28, darkness by 20:12. R MOON          Last Quarter 6th,  rise 02:26, set 10:13                                     New Moon   14th, rise 07:09, set 18:34                                     First Quarter 22nd, rise 10:03, set 02:49                                      Full Moon    28th,  rise 18:18, set 06:21 S MERCURY    Rising a mere 14 minutes before the Sun, at 06:10, and setting at 19:43 on the 15th, Mercury will be very hard to spot this month. T VENUS     An early evening object in Cetus; visible for approx. an hour after sunset, falling below the horizon at 19:34 on the 15th. U MARS    In Aries, Will be setting from an altitude of approx. 30 degrees by darkness, setting at 22:39 V JUPITER     In Gemini, and high in the sky at an altitude of 60 degrees by dark, setting at 03:36. Below are times to view shadow transits, also times the Great Red Spot will cross the meridian: Shadow Transits       GRS Date      Moon    Start      End                                                 Date       Time 7th        Gan.       22:15    01:25                                               4th           21:06 8th         Io          21:46    00:01                                               6th           22:45 14th      Gan.       02:15    05:25                                               9th           20:15 14th       Eur.      18:35     21:23                                               11th         21:54 15th       Io         23:41     01:56                                               13th         23:33 17th       Io         18:10     20:25                                               16th         21:03 21st       Eur.       21:12    23:59                                                18th         22:42 24th       Io          20:06    22:21                                                23rd        21: 51 28th       Eur.       23:47    02:35                                                25th         23:30 31st       Io          22:01    00:16                                                28th         21:01 W SATURN      In Taurus, Saturn will be setting from an altitude of 51 degrees by dark on the 15th, As spring approaches, Saturn is no longer visible all through the night, and sets at 01:17 X URANUS      In Capricornus, will not currently be visible from the UK y NEPTUNE     See Uranus. Z PLUTO   In Ophiuchus, rising at 00:56, reaching a maximum altitude of 23 degrees by 05:50. Very faint at mag 13.9 Comets Below are maps of the tracks of comets C/2002 C1 Ikeya-Zhang, only recently discovered, and C/2001 OG108 LONEOS. Maps from Sky Map Pro. 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.

Last night was just wall to wall clear Dark Skies. Simply perfect. Comet Ikeya-Zhang was stunning, reminding Graham C of Comet Bennett from 1970. Although not quite as bright it was classic last night in every respect. The view through the MIA 20x100 bins and the two 18 inch and 16 inch Dobo's was reminiscent of the sketches made in past centuries of comets. You could even stretch the imagination to see smoke and flame associated with the long and obvious tail. The position of bright stars along the length of the tail made it look longer than it was, adding to the effect. The photos at left show some of the folks at Llyn B. Sixteen observers from Liverpool, Chester and Altrincham arrived in 13 cars and had a total of 10 telescopes. Many wet chemical photos were taken and Graham C hopes to have a shot of Ikeya-Zhang in the same field as M31! Here's hoping. Others went to Siddington and/or Gradbach. Reports are expected to come in soon from where ever people were. Watch this space. P.S. The best bits for Graham C, after the comet, were M51, mag 9, through the Liverpool Dobo and the "Treo in Leo" (sic) M65,66, NGC3628, mag 10, through Paul Clark's OBSESSION Dobo. Phil Masding was out imaging galaxies Saturday and e-mailed Graham C the image of M51 seen at left. Graham thinks the image looks "just like the real thing!" by Unknown ADAS member #Galaxy #Siddington #LlynBrenig #GradbachHill

At tonight's meeting (Friday 2nd March), Colin Steele (congratulations on the new addition to the family) will be speaking on Meteor Astronomy. Paul Clark will also be demonstrating planetarium software.  This month's newsletter has been edited by Dave Timperley, standing in for Roger, who hasn't been very well, but is happily now on the mend. Dark Sky Observing The past month has seen more visits to both Tegg's Nose and Llyn Brenig by ADAS members. Friday 16th saw 10 members visiting Tegg's Nose:  Don, Paul, Peter, Geoff, Graham and Pauline, Kevin and Norman, Mark and Chris. Here is a short extract from Graham Cliff's report: 'Those that went got there disappointed. We were met with mist, cold and poor night sky visibility. But it just got better. By the time we looked at M42 through the 20x100 binoculars, the only word that described the view was STUNNING!' I had visited Tegg's' twice that week myself, and with the Skysensor now behaving properly, concentrated on a search through the Messier galaxies in Leo, Virgo and Coma Berenices, with a lot of first sightings for me; two other first sightings were Ganymede's shadow transiting the face of Jupiter on Mon. 12th, and Io on Sat. 17th. Information on these events is available in all the popular monthly astronomy publications, and, for myself, are definitely in the 'not to be missed' list. There have also been 2 visits to Llyn Brenig, an excellent dark site in North Wales. It is easily 1.5 (perhaps 2) magnitudes darker than Tegg's', although the tree line makes for a more limited range of objects to view. Don Utton has been back during daylight and apparently found a slightly more open spot, with the downside of a little sky glow on the horizon, perhaps from Colwyn bay, or Liverpool. Friday 23rd saw 4 members visiting. A quick note from Roger: 'On the 23rd Don, Colin H, Paul C and Roger went to Llyn Brenig. Open clusters, galaxies, nebulae and planetaries. Colin was busy doing variable star estimates including rho Cas back from last year's dramatic fade, and eta Gem where he compared visual and binocular estimates.' It has been suggested to make more frequent visits to both regularly used sites, perhaps along the lines of Tegg's' on the Friday around the Moons' final quarter, and Llyn Brenig around the time of the New Moon, to take advantage of the more distant site at its darkest. Messier Month March is the best month for observing Messier objects. Theoretically, it is just possible to see all of them from the UK, although Paul Clark, a particularly knowledgeable observer, has commented that to get 100 would be an achievement. With dark sky trips become more frequent and successful, it is suggested that we have a couple of attempts at 'The Messier Marathon' this month. Again, the first could be Tegg's' Nose around the last quarter, and Llyn Brenig around the time of the New Moon. Perhaps there are some of us who will attempt the full marathon from dusk to dawn. New Binoculars and other Equipment Both Dave and Roger once again have functioning Goto 10” telescopes following recent repairs (fingers crossed that'll remain so).  Roger thanks Stockport Binocular and Telescope Centre for their chasing. Dave was none too impressed that it took four revisits to Orion Optics to rectify his mount problems, although everything is now working well. Mark Crossley also now has a Meade LX200 that has been kitted out with a power supply enabling it to be operated mobile.  Mark has gone a step further by setting it up for control from a very compact palmtop using The Sky planetarium program. The new 20x100 binoculars have been a big success with everybody who has used them, with their light gathering capability and wide field of view. Below are extracts from reports published on the ADAS web site by Don Utton and Paul Clark: Don: The Orion Nebula was impressive, best seen with averted vision and definitely worth another look at from a dark sky site. Jupiter was bright as usual with the four Galilean Moons tightly grouped around it. Not far away the Pleiades were the best view of the evening, the 2 1/2 degree field of view really showing them off well. Finally a quick look at Saturn, the rings were just resolvable and Titan could be clearly seen to the west. So just a quick initial look which promises good viewing with a darker site and a sturdier tripod. Definitely a major asset for observations. Paul: With the binoculars at Llyn Brenig: ' I have to say this is probably the most amazing hour and a half of observing I've ever had!’ ‘The views to be had through the 2.5 degree field coupled with significant light gathering power are absolutely stunning!’ ‘The Pleiades were just magnificent set against the darker, wider sky!’ ‘M42, the Great Orion Nebula just spanned across the field, certainly more than 1 degree. M43 and the 42 Orionis nebulae were very obvious just above.’ ‘Moving on, M41, down below Sirius was just, ha, brilliant. I cannot believe it!’ M79, a mag. 8.4 globular could be picked up low down in Lepus, higher up the bright nebula of M78 along with another nearby NGC something were easily swept up.' ‘The Rosette Nebula was unbelievable in these!’ Using the UHC filter over one eyepiece the ghostly wreath extended for 2 degrees around the central cluster. ‘It was just stunning!’ 'The Xmas Tree was perfect. M35, magnificent, really rich. The Beehive was superb. M46 and M47 in Puppis looked lovely, M46 a beautiful haze. A third nearby mag. 6 cluster adding to the view. Slewing over to Cassiopeia I chanced upon NGC 7789, my favourite cluster, good in a finder, excellent in these binoculars and superb in almost any power amateur telescope.' Observatory Developments Paul Clark has confirmed, in a mail to the Adastra news group on 17th Feb, receipt of the Cheque for £2815, from Manchester Airport Community Trust Fund, made payable to ADAS. This is a really great achievement, and the society owes its thanks to both Paul and Roger for putting together the proposal. The binoculars have already been purchased, and soon to follow will be the parallelogram mount. The supporting letter apparently is urging us to spend it as soon as possible! The other part of the donation is for improvements at the observatory itself, and so it is a shame that just as the funding arrives, Council sub-contractors have caused extensive damage to the hedging that provided such good security, and to the grounds of the observatory itself. On the brighter side, following a visit to a council meeting by Graham Cliff, Don Utton, Peter Baugh, Paul Clark, and Chris Suddick the news is better.  A positive result was obtained, and the council have offered to make good the damage previously caused by the sub contractors. OBSERVING NOTES Sun          In Pisces. Moon      1st Qtr 3rd, Full 9th, Last Qtr 16th, New 25th. Mercury   Poor apparition in low in morning skies, not visible from UK Venus      From setting at 2100 at start of the month the planet swoops back towards the Sun with conjunction on 30th.  It will also quickly become a morning object. Mars        Rises just after midnight, mag –0.2 in Ophiuchus, Moon close on 16th. Jupiter      Mag –2.1 setting by midnight, in Taurus. Saturn       Mag 0.2 in Taurus, Moon nearby on 16th. Uranus      Morning object mag 5.7 in Capricornus. Neptune   Also in Capricornus mag +8. Pluto         Difficult morning object in Ophiuchus Comets     McNaught-Hartley, mag 9 in Hercules/ Draco.  Within the range of large binoculars or small telescopes. Meteors    Virginids visible in the early month. Variables  R Leonis at maximum and well placed for observation of this deep red star. Satellites   Mir is visible in the evening skies during the first week of the month.  It has hung on to life for a few extra weeks and is due to have a controlled decay due 15th March.  This should definitely be the last chance to see what has become an old friend. More information from Roger Livermore on 0161-969-4507 or e-mail at Roger.Livermore@btinternet.com Page updated 6th April 2001. Go BACK in browser to page return. The links below have been copied over from Roger's December 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 For the previous newsletter, click here.

Sadly, Tony, a long time member of ADAS died suddenly on Friday 25th October 2013 following a massive aneurism. He collapsed outside the Gardeners Arms and was taken to Wythenshawe Hospital, Tony’s wife Edith and members of his family were with him when he died. Clearly our thoughts are with Edith and his family at this time. by Unknown ADAS member

From Friday 16th to Monday 19th July it was perfectly clear all night for 4 nights. Saturday 17th was even clearer? A sunset green flash was seen over La Palma. NELM ~7. My observing location was at 2000m on Mt. Tiede. I used a Borg 101ED f6.4 refractor with 31 and 13 mm Naglers and x2 Televue Barlow. Mounted on a heavy duty Manfrotto photographic tripod I steered using a red dot unit power finder and photocopies of the Milky Way areas from Sky Atlas 2000. Words cannot express the majesty of the naked eye Milky Way from a dark southern location. The wide field views possible with the scope provided a porthole into the darkest depths of our galaxy. Dusty, dark nebulae abound. A true sense of the structure and nature of our galactic home became apparent. Globular clusters provide good targets for small telescopes owing to their high surface brightness. I observed about 45 down to mag 11 scattered around our galactic centre. Open clusters are ‘stars’ in this scope. Pinpoints of light scattered against velvety black backgrounds. Normally elusive bright nebulae could be picked up against the contrasting dark (!) background sky. Galaxies, not the best for small apertures, were detailed! The Whirlpool and M83 both exhibited spiral structure. Amazing in a 4” scope! The finale at 01:00 on the Monday was an epic journey along and across the southern galactic border of the dark rift splitting the Milky Way. Starting at M7, I travelled past and through the Sagittarius star cloud, around the Lagoon, over M24, through the Scutum star cloud and on and on to the North American in Cygnus. A stupendous voyage! by Paul #Galaxy #OpenCluster #Nebula #MilkyWay