I (Paul Clark) was observing from Gradbach on Sunday night. At 00:00 UT the comet was easily visible to the naked-eye with direct vision. It looked like a 'half Andromeda galaxy'. Visibility through the Telrad making it easy to point the 'scope. A bright nucleus gradated out to a ~17' coma. A straight tail was visible for about ~60' and very marked on 'jogging' the telescope. Conditions were very good. The Sagittarius star cloud being visible low in the south. by Paul Clark #Comet #GradbachHill

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 Unknown ADAS member #MilkyWay #GlobularCluster #Nebula #Comet

What a small world! The picture below was e-mailed by Eckart Suntheim. Pauline Cliff and Graham were looking at the southern skies from the bar at the Kingdom Hotel, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe with Eckart and talking digital video tecnology. The picture Eckart has sent seems to suggest he is well on top of technique. Graham C' picture set from Zimbabwe is at present too big to fit the remaining space on the web site. by Unknown ADAS member #SolarEclipse #AstroPhoto

Patrick Caldwell Moore has been knighted!!! (30th December 2000). ADAS members recently signed a petition, sent to the Astronomer Royal, advocating that Patrick should be honoured with a Knighthood and at last it has happened. Well done Patrick! We know he is responsible for capturing the imagination of many professional astronomers of today and even more amateurs, some of whom have met astronomical success. In this society Patrick has inspired Colin Henshaw (who co-discovered supernova 1987A). Congratulations Patrick from all at Altrincham and District Astronomical Society! NB To give everyone plenty of notice we have offered over a page about the TOTAL lunar eclipse scheduled for 9th January 2001 - a potential Space Odyssey on Earth. by Unkown ADAS member #PatrickMoore

...Entry for Tuesday 24th. February 1987. Observed in the evening.  Suspected a super nova in the large magellanic cloud near 30 Doradus!  Phoned  Richard and left a note with his mother.  The object seemed to brighten but I am very sceptical.  Could not confirm existence of the object in Norton's Star Atlas, Australis or the SAOC.  It was not on my sketch of the large magellanic cloud in the Webb Society quarterly Journal.  I could see it easily with the naked eye! Diary entry for February the 24th 1987. Rose slightly late and missed the old lady, but got the express taxi all the way to Rimuka.  I had asked Farai yesterday to set me for chlorine again using K Mn O  but the apparatus was conspicuous by its absence.  He sauntered in  and  I had to wait while he set it up.  Did chlorine with 4A then did a practical on flowers with 3A4 and 3A6.  In the afternoon I got a taxi to town with Diane.  She was getting a little disillusioned and thought she would not last for three years.  The form fours were skiving off afternoon lessons and Ramesh was getting pissed off.  Got a letter from Dad, went to the Ranch Motel and got a lift off the old lady who was coming home.  Had a siesta but was blasted out of my sleep by the telephone.  It was Jim Buckley who wanted details of 4A's timetable.  He wanted to give them extra lessons in English.  Shortly afterwards Richard phoned saying he had got my message.  He said his 20 in telescope was ready and that he had used it to observe the comet.  Arvin phoned after dinner and put me through to Gerard.  We agreed I should stay with Arvin tomorrow afternoon and that Gerard can pick me up around 2.30pm after his cricket match.  We can then have a meal and he can drop me off in the evening.  Observed in the evening.  Suspected a supernova in the large magellanic cloud near 30 Doradus.  Phoned  Richard and left a note with his mother.  The object seemed to brighten but I am very sceptical.  Could not confirm existence of the object in Norton's Star Atlas, Australis or the SAOC.  It was not on my sketch of the large magellanic cloud in the Webb Society quarterly Journal.  I could see it easily with the naked eye. February the 24th 1987 - A day I shall never forget. Tuesday 24th 1987 was just another ordinary day at school.  I went in first thing in the morning and carried out a gas preparation with my form fours - chlorine, using potassium permanganate.  Later I took two form three classes and carried out a practical on floral structure, probably using hibiscus flowers from the hedges marking the boundary to the school grounds.  At the end of the day I left the township with a colleague in a taxi, and after lunch had my usual afternoon siesta.  After dark I went out to my observing site to make some routine observations of variable stars.  This location was only a few yards from my room, but was well shielded from lights by numerous trees and bushes.  On the way I noticed that the 30 Doradus nebula in the large magellanic cloud seemed unusually conspicuous.  I set about my variable star observations, recording estimates of Eta Gem, R Dor, V Hor, I Car, and R Pic.  I then remembered what I thought earlier about the 30 Doradus nebula.  Maybe I should better check it out with my binoculars.  I was astounded by what I saw.  Just south preceding the nebula was a conspicuous fourth magnitudes star, which I was certain was not there before.  I was convinced that I had spotted a supernova.  I returned to my room and using my atlases and catalogues I prepared a rough sequence for the object so I could make an estimate.  My first estimate was recorded at 19.16 universal time at magnitude 4.6.  When I first saw it  I suspected it was slightly fainter.  To confirm the object I took several photographs with an undriven camera. A few years earlier I was shown a photograph of the large magellanic cloud in hydrogen H alpha by Ken Elliot of the Astronomy Department of Manchester University.  It was full of supernova remnants and stellar wind bubbles.  I was convinced that supernova had exploded in the large magellanic cloud quite often and that should one appear then it would be a conspicuous naked eye object, possibly reaching first magnitude.  By this time I had been living in Zimbabwe for several years and had familiarised myself with the visual appearance of the large magellanic cloud as part of my Milky Way project.  Any supernova appearing in the large magellanic cloud would be spotted immediately.  As the object was only fourth magnitude when I found it, I realised it was probably still brightlening, so I decided to watch it over the course of the night to see if it changed.  Three more observations were made, and each one was brighter than the previous one, at 19.56 UT  4.4 magnitude, 21.08 UT  4.1 magnitude, and 22.47 UT 4.0 magnitude.  This seemed to confirm my suspicions that I had found a supernova.  By the time I finished observing I had recorded further estimates of TW Hor, alpha Aps, and V. 744 Cenand and the "object" was quite obvious with the naked eye.  Walking back to my room I thought that the sight of the supernova in the large magellanic cloud reminded me of photographs of supernova that I had seen in other galaxies. During the observing session I took a short break.  I had to inform the outside world and the easiest way was to contact my friend Richard Fleet in Salisbury who had access to a telex machine.  Telephone links with the outside world still had to go through the operator, so I thought it would be easier if I called Richard.  He had in fact phoned me earlier in the day, saying his 20inch telescope was now ready and that he had used it to observe Halley's comet.  I phoned Richard but his mother took the call.  It was raining in Salisbury and Richard had already gone to bed.  His mother didn't want to go over to his cottage as she didn't want to get wet! The following day after school I visited the local libraries and checked out photographs of the large magellanic cloud in the astronomy books.  No object of fourth magnitude could be seen near 30 Doradus.  My excitement began to rise further. On February the 26th I was in my laboratory teaching a class when a girl arrived at the door with a message.  Children interrupting classes with messages was a very irritating problem and it was not the first time that I had queues of children at the door with petty messages to give to the class.  Sometimes I hardly got any work done and then I would fall behind.  I resolved that the problem would have to be raised at a staff meeting.  I nearly told the girl to clear off when she told me that I had a phone call.  The phone was in the staff room about a hundred yards away so I dashed over in case the caller decided to hang up.  It was Richard.  He confirmed a supernova in the large magellanic cloud, and said there had also been discoveries in Chile and New Zealand.  By this time I was elated.  Who was the first to see it?  At this point in time we didn't know.  Unfortunately Richard's mother didn't tell him of my phone call on the night of discovery.  He only heard about it over the BBC world service.  His mother then told him "Oh Colin phoned on Tuesday night, something about a supernova in the large magellanic cloud"! That night I observed it again and to my surprise it was only fourth magnitude.  In fact it had faded down to 4.2 magnitude when I was expecting it to have been brighter than magnitude 2.  It was obvious it was not behaving as a typical supernova.  I also made a colour estimates, at one degree on the Hagen scale, indicating it was slightly off-white.  The following night, February the 27th, it had faded to 4.4 magnitude.  What on Earth was it doing?(sic).  On February 28th, it was 4.5 magnitude.  I was going to England on March 1st, to attend an interview with the British Council scheduled for March 3rd.  I stayed with Richard that weekend and he dropped me off at the airports on the evening of March 1st  in Salisbury.  On the way we stopped on the dark road and I made one further observation and it was still at 4.5 magnitude.  Earlier Richard had contacted the Zimbabwe Heralded and an article appeared which outlined my role in the discovery of the supernova. I stayed in England for two months.  The interview that I had was successful and resulted in my move to Botswana a few months later.  Meanwhile the supernova brightened.  When I returned to Zimbabwe at the beginning of May it was already third magnitude and very red.  It continued to brighten and on May 16th I recorded it at its brightest at 2.6 magnitude, after which it began a slow decline.  I took several photographs of the supernova through Richard's 20 inch telescope which clearly showed the colour change before and after my stay in England.  My earlier photographs were processed in London, and with the aid of Peter Hingley in the RAS library, they were shown on Patrick Moore's Sky at Night programme on BBC television. I continued to monitor the supernova right through 1987 and into 1988, and I finally said goodbye to it on January 1st 1989, when I estimated it at 11.1 magnitude through Richard's 20 inch telescope during a short return trip to Zimbabwe. I am continuing my search for supernovae and my variable star observations continue, weather and light pollution permitting!! by Colin Henshaw, Gatley, September 1999. #Supernova #Discovery

NASA has announced a study to explore the impact of the conditions that astronauts might experience while travelling in space. NASA hopes to find out what physical changes occur to scientists on these missions and how much body function is required for a person to complete a specific task.The information will be used to develop methods that allow astronauts to have an easier time physically acclimating to daily life following space exploration. by Unknown ADAS member #NASA #SpaceFlight

Society News Tonight’s meeting will be Dave Timperley talking about globular clusters.  Saturday 11th November is the Leeds Astrofest with talks and exhibitors.  Graham Cliff has details but internet information available at web pagehttp://www.astro.leeds.co.uk/astromeet.html. Manchester Airport Community Fund Paul Clark has sent off the bid to Manchester Airport Community Fund and we will receive initial feedback shortly. Application formally considered mid-January.  Given the bid is in part for the renovation of the clubhouse it is important that we make an effort to do an initial clean out and redecoration.  It is probable that the fund’s members will want to see the buildings if we are to receive support.  Working parties are required to make a start on the clubhouse beginning this Sunday, 5th, bring your own fireworks for 7pm firing. Dark Sky Sites It often seems that the skies are getting cloudier here, perhaps, but whatever there’s nothing we can do about that.  What we can do is to make the most of the clear nights we have and this is what the society is increasingly doing.  One way is by making dark sky trips often with quite large telescopes, as Dave T will testify.  In the last six months we have established a network of sites.  So far the darkest within reasonable range is Gradbach, Staffordshire at Grid ref SJ 000 662 between Wincle and Flash, off the A54 Congleton-Buxton road.  A more accessible site is Teggs Nose, Macclesfield Forest, 953 736, which has the advantage of good hard standing.  Lamaload reservoir, two miles NE of Teggs Nose at 976 746 has darker skies but poorer surface and is not as easy to get to.  Chris Heapy and Paul Brierley use a site at Siddington, SW of Macclesfield 873 725I a small lay-by, the area is dark but with occasional passing cars.  Promisingly Don has found a good site at the end of Lapwing Lane, Monks Heath near Chelford, 822 724.  My recent suggestion has been for a site that is close to Altrincham accepting that it will not be as good as the others yet is easy to get to, one possibility is at Ashley, Brickhill Lane, 787 833 just 3 miles away.  For northern skies Paul C found Hordern Stoops, Winter Hill, Bolton at 656 159.              . Shuttle Discovery Last month the 100th flight of the Shuttle was visible in the evening skies.  The launch of STS-92 discovery was delayed for several days.  In the middle of last month the ISS and Shuttle combination were visible at mag -2 passing through Ophuichus, Aquila and Pegasus.  On the 21st and 22nd October Discovery was seen by several members as a separate object trailing the ISS after it de-docked by 25 and then 50 degrees at maximum elevation. The Shuttle was about one mag fainter than ISS.  There was an outside chance of seeing Discovery on its delayed last orbit as it re-entered for landing.  John followed the ISS well into eclipse suggesting that it had lights on Digital projector Having recently been asked to give a couple of talks using someone else’s material I was given the chance to use the Microsoft package called Powerpoint.  It produces images and text on a laptop and sends them to be projected onto a screen.  The talks were given  in the Bill Shankly suite at Liverpool FC, a shame Sean couldn’t have helped me out wearing his Man U kit.  I reluctantly tried out the still relatively new system but found just how easy it was to prepare and run a professional looking talk (speaker excepted).  Whatever happens to our MIA bid it would be useful if anyone has access to such a system for us to borrow it for use at meetings.  It might also encourage more members to give talks if it could be shown that good quality visual aids can be quite easily produced. Help! You will have noticed that this is a slimmed down newsletter.  The reasons are numerous and the problems are likely to get worse.  I’ve changed jobs, which mean working in Liverpool, and I’ve gone back to studying.  So if anyone can help do the newsletter or provide items it would be appreciated. OBSERVING NOTES Sun In Libra Moon  1st Q 4th, Full 11th, Last Q 18th, New 25th, Mercury  Morning apparition in Virgo, observe low in SE at -0.6 from mid-month Venus has emerged into the evening skies, Sagittarius, -4.4. Sets between 2 to 3 hours after sunset and so should be sighted this month.  Very close to the Moon on the 29th Mars in Virgo in the morning skies, +1.7, approaching Spica by the end of the month. Jupiter in Taurus -2.8.  On the 12th the Moon is between Jupiter and Saturn, with the Pleiades above them. Saturn in Taurus - 0.3.  The planet presents a sizeable disc of 20” and the rings are nicely tilted towards us and so visible in firmly held binoculars. Uranus in Capricornus +5.7, near  Capricornus Neptune also in Capricornus, +7.8, near  Capricornus Asteroids   Good selection this month . 3 Juno +9.8 Aquarius, 4 Vesta 7.9 Capricornus, 16 Psyche 9.8 Taurus, 115 Thyra 9.7 Perseus. 192 Nausikaa 9.3 Pisces, 324 Bamberga 8.9 Perseus.  On the 26th 8 Flora at 10.5 is just 6’S of  Cap. Meteors      Leonids badly affected by moonlight but still worth a go at maximum on the morning of the 17th   . Also could try on the morning of the 18th, no storm predicted but rate of up to 100 meteors per hour possible. Comets    C/1991 Y1 a difficult mag 12 comet in Andromeda.  There is McNaught-Hartley (C/1999 T1) at mag 8 in Centaurus currently heading northwards and brightening, due to enter northern skies next month. Variable Stars Mira fading from maximum.  Algol at minima 15th 0210, 17th 2259, 20th 1948, 23rd 1647 Satellites    Mir has just entered a two week period of evening visibility and can be seen every evening.  Moscow announced in October that it will be ‘ditched’ next February.  That means it will only be visible in the evening skies for this month and in January before its demise after fifteen years in orbit. More information from Roger Livermore on 0161-969-4507 or e-mail at Roger.Livermore@btinternet.com FOOTNOTE Roger now has TWO e-mail addresses, compuserve at page head will remain until btinternet works OK !!! You can receive ADAS news by joining Ad.Astra via http://ad.astra.listbot.com 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

Society News Tonight’s meeting (Friday 4th May) we have Sean talking about the Space Shuttle and Paul Clark on his recent observing from Tenerife.  Paul will also give an animated sky diary tour including the brighter deep sky objects of Scorpius and Sagittarius. Colin H will show slides of the lunar eclipse.  Graham Cliff showed the 200 MB Media Player CD of the Christmas Quiz video (contact him for copies).  Next September's meetings will move into the larger upstairs room at the village hall due to the increased membership of the society, thanks to Colin H for arranging.  We are considering splitting the secretary post as it is the most onerous.  Please remember that there is astronomical equipment for loan.  There is the Critchley Meade and the MIA binoculars but we’d like to have them available for Friday nights at the obs. Working Party Work is proceeding on the MIA front with us having received the binocular pillar and parallelogram mount.  There are quotes for the hard standing for an observing platform at the obs and we have marked out the area.  There are still decisions to be made on this and the meeting room renovations. Have fun at the working party tomorrow Sat 5th rain/shine. For Sale: Orion Optics GX200 f/5.6 Newtonian on Vixen Great Polaris Mount. Telescope and mount are in excellent condition.  Price £495.00 but I will accept offers from ADAS members. Please contact Paul Brierley on 01625 427148 or e-mail paul.brierley@easynet.co.uk Lamaload Observing Paul Brierley and Chris Heapy report on a good night’s darksky observing at Lamaload Res near Macclesfield on 20th April. The ‘scope used was the impressive 16 inch F/5.0 Dobsonian and the naked-eye limiting magnitude was +5.0.  Paul writes: -   ‘We arrived at Lamaload at 8:30 to find it closed because of Foot and Mouth Disease, so we had to make do with the entrance to the car park.  Chris soon had the ‘scope unpacked and after some teething problems we were ready to observe. Our first target was M3 in Canes Venatici.  Using a 24 mm TeleVue zoom eyepiece the globular cluster was easily resolved to the core it was certainly a tremendous sight even in the twilight you could see stars almost to the core.  We next had a look at M51/NGC5195.  This galaxy was very clear we could see the connecting dust lane that connects M51 to NGC 5195.  Also we were able to see the spiral arms in M51, which I have only seen in pictures.  We then had a look at M13.  Wow the eyepiece was just filled with hundreds of stars I've never seen anything like it. We then took a break and then pointed the ‘scope towards the Virgo Cluster.  I found M87, M84, M85, M86, and a whole load of other fainter NGC galaxies.  I think we must have seen about twelve galaxies in total.  NGC 4565 in Coma Berenices was another target.  I have seen it in my 8" Newtonian but only as a faint edge on smudge.  The 16" showed some detail.  We could see the dust lane as well as a bright nucleus.  M53 in Coma was another object we looked at. This globular cluster filled the low power eyepiece with hundreds of stars. Whilst in Coma Berenices we found M64 "The Black Eye" galaxy, and you could see why it was given this name.  A bright nucleus and tight spiral arms were visible in the 24 mm TV eyepiece.  M65/66 in Leo was also visible through the ‘scope and it was nice to see detail in these objects.  I hope that more of you will come out and join myself and Chris during the coming months.’ Asteroid Party This month sees a flyby of the potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) 1999 KW4 which will be visible in small telescopes at mag 10.7.  The Aten flies through Aquila on 25th at 0.0032 AU whereas in 2036 it will be closer at 0.015 size unknown, orbit uncertain.  It will be moving at about one degree per hour.  We are proposing an asteroid party to observe it; it will need to be after midnight, my obs is the suggested venue.  As a project we can try and get positions and timings on it over a few days.  If successful Mike Prescott and I will try and calculate the orbit.  We can also try and locate other asteroids.  A versatile asteroid resource is the Lovell Observatory which will give the location of any known asteroid, go to http://asteroid.lowell.edu Total Eclipse Next month Graham and Pauline will be going to southern Africa to see the first total solar eclipse of the millennium, we wish them a good trip and clear skies. OBSERVING NOTES This month’s ‘star’ attraction is the chance to see the elusive Mercury.  So if you haven’t seen it before why not give it a go.  It moves significantly from night to night, so if you need very specific information on where to see it either use a planetarium program* or if you don’t have one then give me call and I can give alt-az information for particular times. Sun   In Aries and moves into Taurus.   For calculating the latitude, longitude and size of sunspots try the software by Peter Meadows at: -http://www.meadows3.demon.co.uk/html/software.html   This is a simple to use program and well worth a try for monitoring sunspots. Moon  Full 7th, Last Qtr 15th, New 23rd, 1st Qtr 30th. Mercury  Best chance of seeing Mercury this year with a good evening apparition. Mag –1.5 at the start of the month in rises to maximum elongation on 22nd but by which time it will have faded below mag +0. Just N of Saturn on 7th and Jupiter on 16th. Moon to the S on 24th. Venus  Bright morning object mag –4.5, Moon nearby on 19th. Mars  Mag –2 low in Sagittarius, rises by 2200, Moon nearby on 10th/11th.  Opposition next month. Jupiter   Bright and visible in the west early in the month, setting by 2100, Moon nearby on 24th. Saturn In conjunction with the Sun on 25th.. Uranus Morning object in Capricornus , +6 rising at midnight. North of Moon on 15th.  Lies between 42, 44 and 45 Cap- near mu Cap. Neptune Also in Capricornus mag 8 near upsilon Cap. Pluto  In Ophuichus mag 14, nearing oppostion. Asteroids Rare occultation of a star by a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) on May 27/28.  1994 JR1 predicted to occult 11th mag star TYC 6240 0697 in Ophuichus , shadow may cross UK at 23.57UT.  Details from http://wwww.ast.cam.ac.uk/~baaa/occ.html The TNO is mag 23 and has dia 193 km.  The orbit is insufficiently well known to give accurate predictions at this stage.  Brightest asteroid this month is 532 Herculina +9 in Bootes, within 10” of 14 Boo on May 18. Comets  LINEAR 2001 A2 unexpectedly brightened substantially last month up to +7/8 in Monoceros but was very low and is now lost in twilight.  1991 T1 McNaught-Hartley mag 11 in Draco.  Brighter is 24P/Schaumasse at mag 10 in Auriga and Gemini. Meteors No showers worth observing this month.  A watch on the Lyrids by Colin Henshaw on the morning of the 21st April gave none. Variables Delta Sco still in outburst, Colin Henshaw has recent mag estimates Satellites Last month we observed the International Space Station from the obs on two occasions and on the 20th we may have got a sighting of the Shuttle Endeavour following it.  On the 20th they were both low in the west at mag +2 and 4 respectively. * Planetarium Program a reminder that there is a free planetarium program available via ADAS webpage links to Cartes du Ciel,  http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/index.html It lacks some of the features and slickness of commercial packages such as Skymap, Red Shift or Guide but it is quite suitable for many needs.  It shows comets and asteroids and can be used to control telescopes such as the Meade Autostars and LX 200 and the Celestron NexStars New Newsgroup: There is a new free newsgroup to give UK observers an alert warning.  Advertised in the April BAA Journal, for information check out at  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/star-ge More information from Roger Livermore on 0161-969-4507 or e-mail at Roger.Livermore@btinternet.com Ad.Astra newsgroup at http://ad.astra.listbot.com. Click HERE to access April newsletter. 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

The recent inclement weather in Britain (the flooding) and the fact that this year (2000) is Sunspot maximum reminds me that the last bad storms were 1987/90, nearly one Sunspot cycle ago! This was the last time we had major Aurora Borealis, just like we have had this year (2000)! And apparently the USA has had clear skies, hot weather and drought in the midwest! The start of 2001 has had reports of coldest ever temperatures in parts of the USA and Siberia whilst Moscow has had warmer than usual temperatures. All blamed on global warming!? At least the EURO's value is NOT blamed on global warming or will it? Is there even any correlation between Sunspot cycles and El Nino? In fact is there any chance of anyone out there getting  research data identified to chase up the BAD WEATHER Storms/Sunspot connection and NOT simply a temperature connection? Dr. Chris Butler of Armagh observatoryand planetarium, Northern Ireland has already demonstrated that there exists a temperature connection between Sunspot cycle length and temperature in the literature. That is for the last 200 YEARS at least! ie when there was NO global warming!?  I remember recently an explanation on TV that the solar wind detector satellites sent up by NASA were there to check for particle densities in near Earth orbit to anticipate satellite interference problems. However there was also speculation that higher Sunspot activity, increasing the Solar wind density, could also result in an increase in particles getting into the Earth's atmosphere. This potentially had the knock-on effect of causing more rain generally, therefore FEWER clouds and hence clearer skies, which meant then, in warmer climes, more evaporation and therefore more water in suspension in the atmosphere. This would subsequently fall elsewhere as rain because of the increased availability of the particles on which moisture could condense. And so NASA thought Sunspots and Storms/Heavy Rains are related - QED!? Are there any storm record achives that anyone knows of and which could be accessed by private individuals? Anybody out there got any thoughts on this interesting hypothesis? Wednesday 18th October provided an opportunity to check for Sunspots. The effort was a complete waste of time.  "TWO" groups only worthy of comment and certainly not worth photographing or even going to MEES in Hawaii for a decent picture! Sadly the naked eye Sunspots reported below have gone and been replaced by a line of Sunspot "minnows"! C'est la vie.  They were seen Friday 22nd September from Shrewsbury rail station (on the way to Portmeirion) using pin-hole projection, to other rail users amusement. Did anyone see any Aurora caused by them? YIPPEE!!!! Two NAKED EYE Sunspots! Can you believe it? At LONG last!!!!!! Click ON the thumbnails below to get the BIGGER pictures. You will then need to go BACK in your browser to return to this page.  The BW picture is courtesy Paul Brierley from England taken at 10.15 UT 21st September. Even better you can have a look yourself at the Mees White Light Telescope image set from Hawaii, from which the first thumbnail below was taken. If you try it visually do not forget to use last year's eclipse shades!? MWLT access is indicated below. Check out Aurora predictions from Alaska at http://www.hamradio-online.com/aurora.html The Sun from Manchester England showed 4 Sunspot groups 7th July at 3pm BST. One Sunspot was possibly naked eye!? Keep a check on the Mees White Light telescope page if you cannot observe for yourself. Go to the web links page for access to the Mees White Light Scope. Click HERE to quicklink the links page. by Unknown ADAS member #SunSpots #Sun #Aurora

This week we had a very informative talk by Rickard Bullock about the astronomical happenings in 2014. Richard takes us month by month through the things we should be looking for in the night sky to get the best from our stargazing. by Unknown ADAS member #WhatToWatch #Video If you are interested in learning more about astronomy or stargazing in 2014 come to our meetings in Timperley, Altrincham on the first Friday of each month.

ADAS had a Tombola Stall at the Country Fair. With the large crowds attracted by the lovely weather at this year's event we had, perhaps, the most successful day ever and in fact ran out of prizes just after lunch. There were lots of enquiries about the Society and a great deal of interest was shown in the subject of Astronomy, we were even asked if we could provide examiners for the Astronomers Badge by the local Brownies Group, which will be arranged shortly. by Unknown ADAS member (published in Issue 2 of View Timperley 'https://issuu.com/viewtimperley/docs/view_timperley_issue_2') #TimperleyFair #Fundraising

Date: Tuesday April 22nd. Location: Llyn Brenig Conditions: Hazy low down then hazy high up! I had low expectations given the conditions earlier in the day, however, the conditions on arrival were surprisingly good and I had a relaxing 2 ½ hour session. I started off in the deepening twilight looking at the Messier galaxies in Leo and the surrounding bright NGCs. The M105, 95 and 96 groupings showed out very nicely. I moved over to the galaxy cluster Abell 1656 in Coma Berenices to finish off a chart from last time. Again, wall to wall galaxies, I must be able to pick up about 100 in a 1 square degree field of view? OK, maybe a slight exaggeration. Another couple of dozen down to mag. 15.8 were picked up. The whole cluster was now becoming familiar territory and I browsed around recognising many faint streaks and smudges between the field stars. A brief respite was had using x300+ to view the obviously blacked eye, `whirlpooled' and NGC 4565 galaxies. The same power was thrown at the globular clusters M53 and M3. All the sights were magnificent! M3 was a huge splat of pinpoint stars drawing the mind and eye in forever. The Corona Borealis galaxy cluster, Abell 2065, is on the Deep Sky Challenge list of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. I could pick up the brightest member, PCG 54846 at mag. 15.3, with direct vision. A couple of others at mag. 16+ flirted with my imagination. A brief tour near M101 found nice knotted spiral detail. Nearby NGC 5907 is another excellent edge-on spiral with central dust lane; I then cruised around the centre of the Virgo cluster and along Markarian's Chain at x300+. Galaxies swam in and out of the eyepiece, some with stacks of detail. After failing to get to grips with Seyfert's Sextet near the head of Serpens I realised that the haze had risen to unworkable levels. Home by 02:30. by Paul C. #Galaxy #LlynBrenig #GlobularCluster

A short description of the joys and challenges of astronomy from Colin Henshaw in Saudi Arabia: The night sky from Saudi does not look all that much different from that seen in the U.K. except that you have another twenty or so degrees of southern sky. At southern culmination the circumpolar constellations are upside down, and this will apply to more and more of the northern sky as one proceeds south. The Southern Cross, Alpha and Beta Centauri are just visible from Jeddah. In 1996, during the apparition of Comet Hyakutake, I went out into the desert with a German expatriate. On the way back he noticed some bright stars above the southern horizon and he asked me what they were. I said it was the Southern Cross. He was absolutely amazed, never expecting to see it from a northern hemisphere location. From Tabuk the southern horizon cuts the Southern Cross in half. During the summer, excellent views can be obtained of Scorpius and Sagittarius, and the Milky way presents a glorious sight from a dark sky location. Recently I took some long exposure images of the Milky Way star clouds in Sagittarius and Scutum, and also some wide angle images of the Milky Way from Sagittarius to Auriga. Zodiacal Light can also be seen, which is very impressive. However the best skies I have ever had were from Botswana, where I photographed the Zodiacal Light and the Gegenschein. From my home outside Tabuk I have reasonable skies, but light pollution from Tabuk is severe. #SaudiArabia #MilkyWay #Botswana #SouthernCross #Comet

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 #GatleyFestival #Fundraising

Over a long weekend 14th-17th October, I travelled down to Devon along with Mike C, Peter H, Bill , and Nick W-V to stay with Graham G on his farm. If I reel off the kit list that was available to us it will make you light headed... Takahashi Mewlon 250, 105-TMB, 130-TMB, 7" AP Starfire, 18" Obsession, 100mm Miyauchi binoculars, Ha scope for daytime, AP 105 Traveller, 12" LX200 plus more! Along with a selection of binoviewers and eyepieces to die for. Makes my C9.25 & Megrez seem a bit outclassed. The notes below are from a somewhat blurred memory, the events are OK, but I've started to get the nights mixed up! Thursday 14th The afternoon did not look promising, but after the evening meal the skies cleared somewhat and everyone set up. I spent some time aligning my mount and fine tuning the collimation of the C9.25. We had the odd shower of rain, so I wanted to make sure everything was right if I wanted to grab some imaging on subsequent nights. The skies between the odd bank of cloud were amazing, the rich milky way around Cygnus and dark rifts were so so clear. The coat hanger, NA nebula and just about any Messier object I could name (which isn't many!) visible to the naked eye. Lovely. The skies lasted until the early hours, finally clouding out completely around 1:00-1:30. Friday 15th The skies were not promising that evening. We resigned ourselves to going to bed. However we were woken by Graham at around 3:00 when he announced clear skies. Memorable moments included the Horsehead with a Hydrogen Beta filter in the Obsession. Again, we had patchy cloud and the odd shower to dodge. We went right through to day break. Saturday 16th During the day we had some stunning white light views of the Sun through Mikes 115 TMB and bino-viewers. The surface detail - granulation and faculae - were 'in your face'. It was easy to see the granulation change shape as it neared a Sun spot cluster. You could see the filamentary structure within the penumbra. The best white light views of the Sun I have seen. The Ha kit on Mikes Tak FS60 provided fine views of the full disk. Winding up the power showed that the detail remained sharp, what initially looked like a blurred limb to the Sun actually resolved to be a view of the atmosphere boiling away. Out after the evening meal, quite clear skies, but passing cloud banks and the ever present threat of a rain shower - spot a pattern here? I started off with a quick tour of the fav. objects that would set later in the night: Ring, M13, M15, Dumbbell, Blinking - all very enjoyable in the C9.25 Great views of the milky way again. I tried to take an image of NGC7479, but gave up after the Red exposures - imaging in the 'field' is much harder than at home where you have everything setup as you want it. I took a peek at 7479 in the Obsession, whilst this showed the bar quite clearly I was struggling to see the arms. With hind-sight, I should have wound up the power and I think it would have been much easier. I tried out the Megrez 80 on M81/82 (which also fit in the same field on the C9.25 with the Meade 40mm SWA). Again I was pretty pleased with the Megrez, it was outclassed in terms of colour fidelity by all the TMBs, APs, and Taks knocking around but it gave pleasing views none the less. I also did some sweeping around with the Miyauchi 28x100 APO bins. M31, M45, Double Cluster - fantastic. M31 filling the fov with dark lanes and M32 engulfed, M45 steely blue stars, Double cluster living up to expectations. The only view I had through Peters Mewlon was of M1. Structure was easily visible, and the field stars (which aren't that bright) showing clean airy disks and diffraction rings. Mind you my C9.25 was also showing clean disks and rings as well, something I never got with the old Lx200. Retired for some coffee and biccies around 1:30, came back out later to completely overcast skies. This was followed by torrential rain around 3:00-3:20. Still we thought we would sit it out in the observatory and wait for Saturn to get higher and to see if the skies cleared. They did clear of sorts, but it was a case of glimpses between the clouds. Still we had the 12" LX200, the 7" Starfire, and the 18" Obsession all pointed in the right direction. As we were looking through hazy cloud most of the time, the Obsession was giving the brightest, clearest views, the Starfire was giving fine views with the bino-viewers, and the Traveller was holding up remarkably - producing amazing image scale for its size with the Nagler 3-6mm zoom at 3mm (about 200x). Once the Lx200 was switched from a Nagler to a Monocentric ep its image improved markedly. Finally packed up as the sky was brightening and retired to bed. Sunday 17th I travelled back on the Sunday along with Mike and Bill, so we missed the Sunday night, which apparently was the best night of all - typical. I'll repeat the account that Graham gave me... We had a pretty decent night - we all turned in before midnight with the alarms set for 3:45. Cracking sky and outstanding seeing for Saturn, on visual we had scalloping on the inner edge of crepe ring, fleeting Enke, frequent steady spokes in outer ring. I got the 7 inch AP up to the 4mm monocentrics (780x) in the steadiest periods but the star (forgive the wrong pun) was that half an hour after dawn with the image finally washing out in the refractor, we had what was probably amongst the nicest possible of views through the 18" Obsession!! with the 3-6 zoom and that contrast booster filter! Arghhh! Well done guys, shame I missed it. I must congratulate Graham & Fran on their hospitality and especially Fran for the wonderful meals she provided. by Mark Crossley #Devon #Saturn #Galaxy #Nebula #MilkyWay #Sun #SunSpot

Peter J Baugh, Chair, ADAS In the late 1960s, Jane & I and Tony & Edith became neighbours in Timperley near to Navigation Road Station.  Tony and Edith have lived in their house for about 45 years.  Although Jane & I moved house in May, 1975 we have remained very good friends exchanging Christmas gifts ever since.  We, until 2012 always got together just before Christmas for a drink or two. Before our move, we had already organized bake & take parties with other friends and neighbours including Geoff & Ann Flood.  Early memories of New Years Eve parties involved linking baby alarms from house to house so that we could listen for any wailing & cries. After the girls decided to have Thursday nights out, the boys countered by having Wednesday nights out at the Gardners’ Arms on Deansgate Lane. I remember exchanging tobacco with Tony on many occasions as we both enjoyed a pipe smoke in addition to more than several pints of Boddingtons. Tony was always a good raconteur and good and bad joke teller.  He reflected on his time in the army in India and used to break into a few words of Gujarati.  On his way back from India, he had to stop off in Israel around the time of the King David hotel incident in 1946. During his army years, he was active in radar communications. He also related stories about his teacher training at St. Mary’s College, Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, and usually involving sport.  He was a better than average athlete and I think I recall a time of 50 s for the 400m was within his capabilities.  After retirement he kept active and swam with a group at Altrincham Leisure Centre getting there before 7.30 am to ensure that he could lane swim. In 1979 or thereabouts we both became members of ADAS, I with sons, Jonathan and David, and later, James.  We met at the Obs. every Friday and monthly at Altrincham Library.  The pub venue was the Quarry Bank Inn close to the Obs.  Many happy hours were spent late at night outside the pub with James, aged 7, and his friend, Ste, exchanging jokes with Tony. Towards the end of his working life he studied a degree in physics at MMU for which he was awarded a distinction.  He also attended South Trafford College for language study, including Spanish, Italian and German for which he was awarded A level and GCSE certificates. Tony was active in ADAS, holding the chair of the society in the mid 80s, keeping the log book up to date each week and banking the money for a variety of treasurers.  He loyally assisted Ged at many of the Timperley Country Fair events.  He has visited Jodrell Bank with the society on open night & national astronomy occasions and met up with the Astronomer Royal and Patrick Moore. With Edith, he went on several long haul eclipse trips including Curacao and India enjoying the observations in the sky and on the beach!! His escapades with the Wednesday (and Friday) drinking group are well-known and on one occasion the group joined the music train at 18.50 h alighting at the Golden Pheasant for several pints, one of those occasions when fine weather allowed the group to imbibe outside.  At 21.30 h the group decided it was time to catch the train back to Navigation Road.  On alighting from the train a little after 22.00 h the group turned the corner and approached home. “Tony”, someone uttered, “We are stopping off at the Moss Trooper for a nightcap”, ok?  Tony made no attempt to get his door key out to open his front door and proceeded to march rapidly in the direction of the pub.  After several more halves (not pints) he made his way home unassisted, not feeling much worse for wear, such was his resilience with his favourite beverage. As you will be aware, Tony was with Ged when he taken ill on his way to his favourite pastime, a pint in the local.  He had recovered from hospitalisation in 2013 and he and Edith had had their share of hospital treatment and operations over the last few years from which they had both recovered well, although Tony had not attended monthly meetings, recently. Both Edith & Tony are an example to us all in their solid and admirable characters, their attitudes and interest in life and their family.  Tony will be sadly missed by Edith & the family, many people he knew and his friends at ADAS. Peter J Baugh, Chair, ADAS Jacqueline Aremia It was so lovely that all Dad’s friends from the society attended his funeral on Friday. Here is a poem that we dedicated to him at his service on the day as an avid scholar and stargazer  – it is a beautiful description of the keen astronomer that  he always was:- In Starry Skies In starry skies, long years ago, I found my Science. Heart aglow I watched each night unfold a maze Of mystic suns and worlds ablaze, That spoke: “Know us and wiser grow.” And with each season’s ebb and flow, My soul with faltering steps and slow, Still wanders up far-glimmering ways, In starry skies. Nor do I heed Life’s gaudy show, But onward, upward I shall go, Until new star-lands meet my gaze, And where, perhaps in after days, I’ll learn the things I long to know In starry skies. Sterling Bunch Kind Regards Jac Aremia

Desperation had set in. A hint of a few hours on Tuesday was enough to brave the conditions. A first quarter moon delayed start until 23:00 and intermittent hill fog prompted two re-locations to more low lying sites. First off was an attempt to view M74 between the clouds. Finding M77 put me off target by a mile. Moving up to M74 a small shift found half-a-dozen galaxies just off 1 Arietis. A quick shift down the road and a wide-field cruise with the OIII filter found lots of nebulosity between Auriga and Taurus. The Flame Nebula, IC405, is very large and more suited to an even wider FOV. Scanning around found the edges and some prominent areas. Moving across a bright 6 star asterism found the Bright Nebula IC 410. This was impressive surrounding a nice cluster of stars at mag. 7.5. Moving towards M38 I found a smaller and fainter cluster with nearby nebulosity, IC 417 with Stock 8. M38 was excellent next to NGC 1907. A field further on found the 10’ nebula of SH2-235. Imagine a supernova remnant twice the size of the Veil. Such is Sh2-240. A short hop off the top horn of Taurus may find this huge but, very faint object. I had shaded the brightest areas onto a SkyMap chart using information from the Internet. I thought I could see/imagine something however, the mist came in, nebulosity was everywhere. Another relocation brought crystal stars, M35 quite visible against the Milky Way background. This time Simeis 147 (a.k.a. Sh2-240) became apparent as a broad, pale 1 degree plus long filament. Other knots of nebulosity could also be made out. Two knots of nebulosity, IC59 and IC63, can be found by the middle star of the Cassiopeia ‘W’. A high power and UHC filter are required, IC59 is more obvious. Keep the bright star out or it will flood the scene. Abell 2 is a large, faint planetary just off the bottom right star of the ‘W’. Finally, IC10 is a large mag. 13.3 local group galaxy, also in Cassiopeia. Near to 2 stars it can be seen as a pale, diffuse oval glow. by Paul Clark #Nebula #Galaxy #MilkyWay #Supernova

ADAS was visited by Richard Bullock's Scout Group from Wilmslow this evening at 8 pm. Not surprisingly it was cloudy with attendant rain showers so there was no use of the scope. Chris Suddick showed his slide set which was well appreciated by Richard's group. Clearly they had listened to his recent astronomy presentation because Chris got many positive, correct answers to his many questions. Again Graham C took a group photo for the ADAS web pages. The Wilmslow gang can be seen in the group at the left. Apologies to parents who had expected a return home by 9 pm. The ADAS presentation did not finish until 8.55 pm! by Unknown ADAS member #Outreach

Thursday, 17th August, the IAU celebrity lecture at UMIST was again hosted by Patrick Moore and featured Prof. Jocelyn Bell Burnell who discovered pulsars!! ADAS members were there and as guests of Colin Henshaw, Graham Cliff and Tony Aremia retired at the end of Professor Bell Burnell's lecture to the MAS's Godlee observatory at the top of the UMIST main building on Sackville Street, Manchester, England. So too did everyone else! The pictures below speak for themselves!!!!! Colin clearly enjoyed the comments made by Prof Bell Burnell about 1987A and particularly that it was NOT a pulsar! It is not that often that a pulsar discoverer (JBB) is in the company of a supernova discoverer (CH)!!! On  Friday, 11th August, members of ADAS went to UMIST, in Manchester, England to listen to the Astronomer Royal, Sir Martin Rees, give a talk about the Universe, at the Renold building, on the UMIST campus. This is the venue for the latest (24th) IAU (International Astronomical Union) meeting, and public lectures are being sponsored to take advantage of the massive density of professional astronomy experience in Manchester this month. Tickets for lectures are described by Colin Henshaw who co-discovered 1987A as like "hen's teeth!" The thumbnails below show Patrick Moore hosting the lecture, members of ADAS in the full house audience and then later with Ian Morrison of Jodrell Bank and Colin Henshaw. Ian and Colin appear in an ADAS archive photo somewhere from 1974 when Ian gave ADAS a lecture about "neutron stars"! How time flies! When ADAS returned from Martin Rees lecture there was an observing session at the obs where Graham Cliff recorded 17 Perseids and 2 sporadics (spods!). The mean magnitude was estimated to be +0, which was consistent with the light pollution from the Moon which was nearly full but at least low on the horizon. Colin Henshaw got 11 variable star observations and 13 PERSEIDS IN A ONE HOUR PERIOD! We adjourned at 4am BST as fatigue and twilight began to intrude! It was a clear night, NO cloud or mist and sadly none of the Aurora Fred Talbot had phoned to warn about! A GOOD night nevertheless! by Unknown ADAS member #AIU #UMIST #Pulsar #Supernova

At last the gang from ADAS went to the National Space and Science Centre in Leicester. Coach travel, with the aid of Richard B's Dad (of BULLOCK's COACHES), proved an event in itself with Blake's 7 on video going there and StarTrek on the way back home. After the Centre's first computer failure tickets had to be hand stamped for the ADAS group which, being big enough, had adults enter at £5.95 instead of £7.95. Everyone clearly enjoyed themselves. Graham C learnt that the name for Pluto was chosen by an 11 year old girl called Venetia Burney from Oxford. That must have been about 1930. (We wonder if she is still alive? Sadly Clyde Tombough who took the discovery plate died in the 90's!) Adults could NOT get at any of the hands-on because of so many little hands-on! Sam McC could not be drawn on what was best but Sean, Andrei, Peter and Louis said the water rocket in the rocket tower, the Mars buggy rover and the theatre presentation were good to simply great. Must go again to catch the things we missed! by Unknown ADAS member #NationalSpaceCentre #Trip