Newbury Astronomical Society
Pegasus
The April edition of Pegasus, NAS's monthly newsletter, can be found at the link below:
What's Up and the Beginners Magazine
Steve Harris's last What's Up magazine was the December 2024 edition, but all the indispensable information he published every month is contained within the Beginners Magazine that we're thrilled to say is continuing on. The latest edition of the Magazine can be found at the link below:
Forthcoming Meetings
The April beginners meeting will start, as normal, with a highly informative "What's Up" covering all manner of phenomena in the skies in the coming weeks, before moving onto an insight into Our Local Group of Galaxies. Just as our star is part of a huge formation of 100 billion stars known as The Milky Way, our own galaxy, you may not have realised that galaxies themselves cluster together in the wider universe. This talk gives an insight into our "local" group that includes nearby galaxies such as the Andromeda Galaxy, and that is part of a wider supercluster of galaxies including the "nearby" Virgo Cluster - this supercluster spans in excess of 110 million light years. If you recall that one light year is around 5.9 trillion miles in distance, well, 110 million light years is big! After the break, we'll have a talk on the origin of the constellations, and how ultimately our star (The Sun) will die. All in all, it promises to be a fascinating evening!
Beginners Meetings start at 7pm and are held at Stockcross Village Hall (Sutton Hall), RG20 8LN. (click here for a map and further details of the session's meetings).
For the next speaker meeting, we will be welcoming the one and only Pete Lawrence, a regular contributor to BBC's Sky at Night, who will be speaking on Observing Highlights and Challenges in 2025. As we contemplate the warmer nights of summer, with such delights as the summer Milky Way and Saturn and Jupiter reappearing as the year goes on, it will be interesting to know what his suggestions will be. After the required doughnut-fuelled break, we'll then have our usual second half talks on a variety of topics.
Speaker meetings start at 7.30pm and are held at The Fair Close Centre, Newtown Road, Newbury: RG14 7BH. (click here for a map and further details of the session's meetings).
If you wish to be a member of the society for this season and haven't completed your membership form yet, please complete a copy and bring it with you to the meeting.
We also offer an ICS Calendar file of all the meetings (main & beginners) of the session to add to your phone or email client:
Recent meetings:
For slides and other details from recent meetings, head to the Meeting Presentations page. The latest addition is Steve Harris' excellent presentation on Observing the Planets from the December beginners meeting - quite timely given the number of planets now visible!
Headlines.....
Images: Gareth Jarrett, Alan Dowdell
Society visit to the Cody Observatory
On Tuesday 18th March more than a dozen of Newbury Astro's finest headed off to Cody Observatory in Farnborough, as guests of Cody Astronomical Society. The observatory was built by the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough in 1966 as part of rocketry projects involving stellar navigation, and houses an unusual 6" (15cm) Carl Zeiss Coudé refractor telescope. It was a great evening, with clear skies allowing the use of the refractor that afforded fine views of Jupiter, but also of other scopes set up outside by members of the Cody society.
There is a full report in the latest (April) edition of Pegasus, and our thanks go both to Cody Astronomical Society for such a warm and friendly welcome but particularly to Val and Simon for organising such a great trip.
Dark Skies Event - 10th May
On Saturday 10th May, Newbury Astro’s Light Pollution lead Val Russell is planning a day long event at Hamstead Marshall Village Hall to publicise and promote the virtues of dark skies – not just from an astronomical point of view, but also due to the importance of darkness for natural ecosystems, because of how reducing wasted light can help with carbon reduction and fighting global heating, and even in terms of its impact on human health. The event is planned to start at 10.30am and over the course of the day in addition to various exhibits there are expected to be short talks and demonstrations from charities and organisations as well as members of the public. If the skies stay clear, come the evening there is hoped to be observing (Hamstead Marshall is a fairly dark site).
Val is on the lookout for helpers, whether to look after exhibits, answer questions from the public or even do a short talk, so if you are interested, please do get in touch with her on valrussell@newburyastro.org.uk and she’ll be thrilled to hear from you. Otherwise, for now, pop the date in your diaries as this is a great cause to support and if you have more, general, questions on light pollution and why it is such an issue, do check out https://www.darkskiesmatter.org.uk/ and https://www.cpre.org.uk/what-we-care-about/nature-and-landscapes/dark-skies/
2025 EU Conference on Amateur Radio Astronomy (EUCARA)
This is advance notice that the BAA Radio Astronomy Section and RAL Space are hosting EUCARA on 5th – 7th September 2025 at RAL's Harwell campus in South Oxfordshire. This biannual conference has been running since 2014 but it's the first time it will have happened in the UK, and this is a great opportunity for the UK Amateur Radio Astronomy community to meet each other and our EU friends. The conference will include presentations from academic researchers, local amateurs, and students, and the key note speaker will be Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell of the University of Oxford.
If you are interested in registering (some society members have already signed up), please head to https://eucara.org/
Observatory Science Centre Campaign Update
As members may be aware, the Observatory Science Centre (once the home of the Royal Greenwich Observatory, when it fled the lights and smoke of London for the relative darkness of Sussex) is under threat of closure. The Canadian landlords, Queen’s University, who also own Herstmonceux Castle, are not renewing the Science Centre’s lease, so come the end of the 2026 season the Science Centre will be homeless.
Over the years the science centre have worked tirelessly to fund and restore the site and the telescopes back to their former glory. The centre is a major venue for exhibitions, lectures and educational programmes. The renovated telescopes provide a unique setting for the general public, schools, colleges, and brownie and scout groups to learn about science, space and the world around them.
A number of society members have already signed the petition to try and save the place - if you would like to lend your signature to the campaign, which has already passed 12,000 signatures, you can do so here: https://www.change.org/p/save-the-observatory-science-centre-herstmonceux
Some of the society members who helped out at the RAL Open Week
Outreach - call for volunteers
NAS has a thriving outreach programme as anyone who looks at the Outreach page on the website will know. Over the past year we've attended events as diverse as the Tadley Treacle Fair, RAL Open Week, Thatcham Family Fun Day, Observing evenings at the Earth Trust, and the YFC Country Fayre. Additionally, there have been many presentations to Scout, Cub, Brownie and Guide groups, Y3A, Air Cadets and The Parkinson's Society. It's an amazing amount of work with great impact, spreading the joy of the night sky to thousands of people, anchored by the sterling work of George Sallit and Steve Harris in particular, but to keep up the momentum we're always on the lookout for more volunteers to help. Many hands make light work, and you don't need loads of astronomical knowledge to make a real difference. If you can spare any time for any events on the schedule, please do let George know at Outreach@newburyastro.org.uk
Society telescopes for loan
The society has a number of telescopes now available for loan to members. An 8" Dobsonian reflector, similar to the one shown on the illustration here, a smaller 6" model, and a 5" refractor, plus the associated eyepieces, star maps etc needed to get it up and running. Our chairman Paul will be talking more about this at the February Speaker meeting, after which members can formally request loan of a telescope. Key points to note:
All users must be paid-up society members
All equipment loaned out must be signed for
Loans will be for a period of 3 or 6 months, with a pre-agreed return date
Loans will take place after a short instruction session at a beginners or observing evening
Hopefully this will prove a great opportunity for members to try their hand with a telescope, helping them better learn the sky and make a more informed decision about their own telescope purchases.
If you can't make the next meeting and would like more information, please contact Paul at chairman@newburyastro.org.uk
Observing Evenings
Often the nicest way to enjoy astronomy under a dark sky is with the company of like-minded friends. They can provide reassurance in an unfamiliar dark environment, give you the encouragement to keep going if you are tiring, help you if your kit misbehaves or you are struggling to find an object, or rib you mercilessly if you turn up and forgot your eyepieces (before potentially lending you one of theirs for the evening).
One key finding of the survey NAS conducted in 2023 was that members wanted more opportunities to observe like this as a group, so as a result, NAS are now holding observing nights either coinciding with meteor showers, or on the first clear night roughly around the time of First Quarter moon. Obviously this is the UK, and so we have to contend with the ever-present risk of clouds. As a result, we are using both email and the society WhatsApp group to co-ordinate these events. If you're a NAS member and are interested, but not yet on the WhatsApp group, please reach out to Victoria at secretary@newburyastro.org.uk and we'll get you enrolled.
We have also now added a dedicated page on the website so for more information on when and where these sessions may be held, and what to do, head over to click here