NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
The Waterfall and the World at Night

Random Blackett Image

A large spiral galaxy (M104) in Virgo. The thick dust lanes in the spiral disc are most obvious in this well known view. (NASA, Hubble)

News: 15th May

Public solar viewing: The unpredictable cloud and rain meant that this event was effectively cancelled. However a brief gap in clouds allowed a couple of Friends to come up to the Dome. The 10 inch tracked the Sun and through the white-light filter the Photosphere was seen to be peppred with a large number and variety of mature spots and active regions, the largest spanning well over 10 Earth diameters

1st May

Remove GCSE Astronomy Solar observing: CEB accompanied by RDM and DGR brought up the whole Remove year group in their lesson to view the Sun. The sky was cloudless and the Sun peppered with sunspots. The Sun was viewed in solar goggles, solarscopes, the ETX and the 10 inch which was set up with the H-alpha filter. One of the spot groups was large enough to be made out in the goggles. In H-alpha two huge loop prominences were clearly visible

22nd April

Brain Tumour Trust charity evening: 5 visitors came to the Dome having bid for an evening at the observatory in aid of the Brain Tumour Trust

25th March

Friends outing to JET and MAST: A successful morning visit took place with JAG leading a bus load of 17 Friends to the new Fusion facility near Culham

21st March

Sun-Earth Day lecture: The 11th annual Lecture was given by Ian Ridpath entitled 'The year of the Aurora' and attended by an apprecisative audience of Friends and visitors

13th March

Marlborough Malaysia visit: 27 pupils from Malaysia on exchage visit came up to the Dome in 2 groups, 12 girls then 15 boys, each group accompanied by an Old Marlburian. The temperature was falling and a 2 day old Moon showed its slender crescent in a fine sunset. Though we tried to locate the naked-eye comet PanSTARRSs it was too close to the horizon, though a couple of younger eyes thought they saw it. A couple of meteors were seen and the Moon viewed in binos and then the Pleiades. M31 the Andromeda galaxy was found by eye. The ETX was used for the Moon and then Jupiter and 3 of the 4 Galillean moons. The 10 inch tracked Jupiter and 4 or 5 storm bands could be made out on the disc

5th March

School Lecture: CEB delivered the lecture 'No telescope required to a mixed audience of year 11 to 13 pupils at Alleyn's School

4th March

Lecture: CEB delivered the 24th Green Templeton College Astronomy for All lecture 'Martian Origins' in the Oxford Astrophysics departemnt. A good audience of some 60 visitors attended

28th February

House visit: On the last visit this winter, 11 Shell pupils from C3 came up to the Dome. Though high cloud was drifting across the sky, Polaris was identified by eye and then the 10 inch used to view Jupiter looking 'criket ball-like' with its equatorial zones as the seams. The 4 Galilean moons were nicely grouped to one side of the planet

Next House visit in September

21st February

House visit: 11 Shell pupils from TU came up to the Dome. The sky was cloudy

Next House vist: 28th February (C3)

15th February

Asteroid spotting: A group of some 25 Friends and visitors gathered on an initisally clear evening to try to spot Asteroid 2012 DA14. The clouds however rapidly closed in but not before the earlier arrivials had a chance to see M42 the Orion Nebula in the ETX and M45 Pleiades in Binos. The 10 inch tracked Jupiter throughout the evening and the positions of the 3 inner Gallilean moons were seen to change perceptively as Europa prepared to transit

7th February

External visit: The second group of 13 year 4 pupils from Preshute Primary School came up to the Dome. Sadly the sky was cloudy, though Jupiter was just visible

6th February

GCSE Observing: A group of desperate GCSE Hundred astronomers joined RDM for an extraordinary Wednesday session at the Dome, as a last chance for clear data gathering presented itself before the analysis of Coursework begins after half-term. The ETX and Binos were used to get drawings of M42 and M45 and star counts were also completed as well as a circumpolar trail photograph

5th February

External visit: 12 pupils from year 4 at Preshute Primary School accompanied by their Head Mistress and 2 members of staff came up tot eh Dome. Sadly the sky was cloudy

House visit: 11 Shell pupils from C1 and the Director of Co-Curriculum came up to the Dome and were lucky enough to have a clear patch of sky between fast moving clouds. A tour of some bight stars was followed by glimpses of Jupiter and its 4 moons in the ETX and then M45, the Pleiades, in the Binos

Next House vist: 21st February (TU)

4th February

Friends evening: The high winds meant clear patches came and went quickly. The sky was 95% cloudy and the temperatures felt low due to wind chill. 2 current Friends and another visitor and daughter (in year 6) came up to chance their luck. The pole star was found from the Pointers, Cassiopeia identified and then M45 viewed in Binos. The ETX viewed Jupiter and its moons. It was too cloudy for the 10inch

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