Ayrshire Astronomical Society

Mark Thompson

As a Federation Of Astronomical Societies member, we receive offers from time to time .
The latest is an online astronomy course by Mark Thompson (BBC The Sky At Night)
AAS Members would be entitled to a 25% discount.
Anyone wishing to enquire, more info can be found here 👇🏻

Mark Thompson £49.99 Stargazing for Beginners Join Mark Thompson from BBC Stargazing Live as he guides you around the Universe in his 'Stargazing for Beginners' course. You will learn about the objects in the Universe and how to observe them. Pre-Order now and content available Feb 2023. 1 Lessons View more cour...

We will have updates just as soon as we have a short range weather forecast for these dates.
If you gave your details at the last meeting, you'll be contacted this week and next about arrangements. 👍🏼

Stunning, rare nacreous clouds have been spotted this week in Scotland. These are high in our atmosphere, with sunlight being scattered by ice particles. 😍
Pic : Scotland By Night

Top tips for helping your family and kids use a telescope

Some really good tips and advice for beginners and kids 🔭 👍🏼

Top tips for helping your family and kids use a telescope Advice for helping family members - young and old - use a telescope and get the most out of the night sky.

Light pollution has caused the sky to be twice as bright as it was only 8 years ago.
We're lucky to be so near to a Dark Sky Park in Ayrshire. If you haven't done so already, take a trip down to Galloway. You'll be in awe at a proper dark sky and the amount of stars visible ✨

Good afternoon folks, here is what we have planned for the rest of this season 22/23. 🔭

10th/11th February 2023
AAS Star Camp at Loch Doon -
Even if you have no equipment, there will be plenty to see!
* Subject to date change (weather)

27 February 2023
"Beginners Night - Bring Your Equipment, Questions and Tips"

27 March 2023
Robert Stewart (Master Mariner) "Celestial Navigation"

24 April 2023
Prof Alex Murphy "Dark Matter"

29 May 2023 AGM
TBA

Great talk about stars by Alex tonight and really good to see so many new members too.
The Society is recovering well after lockdown.

Star Camp is on 10th or/and 11th February at The Roundhouse Cafe at Loch Doon. Very much weather dependent.
We'll be in touch if you have your name down. Updates on here too.

Next month's meeting is Members Night (27th Feb) so bring in your telescopes if you have any questions about them. We will offer tips and advice.
Clear skies 🔭

Looking forward to our 1st meeting of 2023 tonight. 🔭
We've been allocated a different room due to exams but we'll have our location well signposted 👍🏼

Beginners Guide to Astrophotography

A good article if you're interested in astrophotography but don't know where to start 👍🏼

Beginners Guide to Astrophotography Shoot for the stars with our beginners guide to astrophotography.

Hi folks, just to let you know that "due to unexpected exams" the auditorium at Kyle Academy is not available on Monday 23rd January for us.
We will be offered a classroom instead. Someone will be at reception to show you the way to the meeting.
Have a good week and see you all on Monday 🔭

Moon on Friday the 13th.

Taken with TS-86/460mm refractor and Altair Astro 178C camera, stacked in Lynkeos for Mac and processed in Affinity Photo 2.

Hopefully we'll be viewing this ourselves during the upcoming Star Party in February 🤞🏼

Hi folks, a very happy new year to you!
Our meeting this month is on the 23rd January at Kyle Academy Ayr

We are pleased to welcome back Dr Alex McKinnon who will be our main speaker telling us about "New eyes on star lives"

There will also be an update on our planned Star Party in February 🔭

Wishing all of our members and Facebook followers a very merry Christmas.
Hope Santa is good to you 👍🏼

Brilliant talk tonight from Professor Patrick Harkness about Space Structures. 🚀
As also discussed, if you'd like to be a part of our Star Camp in February please let Stephen know at our January meeting or here on the page. All visitors are welcome so whether you own a telescope or not, we would love to see you, there will be plenty to see..
We'll keep you updated here on Facebook and the newsletter.
Clear skies 🔭

Massive thanks to Lyn Smith from the BAA for such an excellent talk on Solar Observing tonight. 👍🏼
Next up is our annual Christmas meal at the Chestnuts, Racecourse Rd Ayr on Wednesday 7th December at 7pm. 🎄
Our next meeting is on the 12th December at 7pm in Kyle Academy where Prof Patrick Harkness will be joining us to discuss..
"Deployable space structures"
See you all very soon, clear skies 🔭

Good morning folks,
Next up for the Society is our meeting on Monday 28th November at Kyle Academy in Ayr at 7pm.
Lyn Smith (Director, BAA Solar Section) will be our main speaker telling us all about..
"Solar Observing with the BAA Solar Section"
☀

Godspeed Artemis 1 🚀

NGC 7448 (centre) with supernova SN2022wsp

Shot with TMB 130/1200 with 0.6x reducer, Nikon D5600 camera, 62 frames, 13 sec, ISO 25,600. The galaxy is about 84M light years away and about 60K lightyears across. The supernova SN2022wsp near the core of the galaxy is about Mag 15 and was discovered on the 3rd of October by the DLT40 One Day Cadence Supernova Survey run by UC David and the University of Arizona.

The Triangulum Galaxy, M33

It is a smaller galaxy in our local group, a smidge further away than the Andromeda galaxy (2.7 vs 2.5Mly), but a fraction the size, at about 40B stars versus close to a trillion in the latter.

Shot with TMB 13/1200 with 0.6x reducer, Nikon D5600, 138frames, at 13 sec, ISO 6,400.

Comet C/2022 E3 on 30 October

To the lower left of δ Corona Borealis, showing a bit of a tail. Taken with a TMB 130/1200 with 0.6x reducer in a fairly light polluted part of the sky and not too far from the horizon. Nikon D5600, 40 frames, 13 sec each at ISO 6,400.

New Pillars Of Creation pic today from JWST 🔭 😍
Credit : Nasa

Today's partial solar eclipse from first to last contact.

Unless otherwise stated images were taken with 70mm f6 refractor at prime focus, with AA Herschell wedge and AA178C camera, all mounted on a Skywatcher StarAdventurer.

The telescope images were staced from three to four second videos.

It was good to welcome back Prof. Colin McIness from Glasgow University to the Society tonight. What a brilliant talk on space engineering 👏🏼 👏🏼
See you all in November for our next meeting 👍🏼🔭

M16, The Eagle Nebula as seen recently by The James Webb Space Telescope.
What an outstanding image of "The Pillars Of Creation" 😍

Credit: Nasa

Hello folks,
We have Professor Colin McInness as our main speaker this Monday giving us a talk on
"Micro To Macro, Space Technologies At Extreme Length/Scale"
If you missed the last meeting, we are now in the auditorium at Kyle Academy. Which is the round building on the right from the main car park.
See you at 7pm 👍🏼 🔭

Hi folks,
Just a quick reminder of our upcoming meeting on 24th October.

We are delighted to welcome Professor Colin McInness who will give us a talk on
"Micro To Macro :
Space Technologies At Extreme Length/Scale."

Also, we will be showing how to set up a polar aligned mount (Skywatcher EQ6) and if the weather allows it we'll have Stephen's 150mm Maksutov there also for views of Jupiter.

We will need the numbers for our Christmas Dinner at this meeting, which Derrick is organising. If you'd like to join us just let us know. It's always a good night at The Chestnuts in Ayr. 👍🏼

Marc will have this month's newsletter sent out to your email or post, so remember to check the Junk Folder on your emails.

See you all soon 🔭

Maybe we could arrange our Star Party for this event in February 🤔🔭
A newly discovered comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) will make a close approach this Winter!!
The comet will reach its perihelion on January 12, 2023, at a distance of 1.11 AU (166 million km) and the closest approach to Earth will be on February 2, 2023, at a distance of 0.29 AU (43 million km). The comet is expected to get brighter than magnitude 6 and thus become visible with naked eye. During its closest approach to Earth it will appear near the north celestial pole. ☄

For the first time in history, a spacecraft from Earth has crashed into an asteroid to test a way to save our planet from extinction. 👍🏼
An amazing achievement, we will need this at some point in the future, IF we see it coming of course.
Bruce Willis' phone can now go on silent 😉

Just a bit of fun...
Try Googling "Dart Asteroid Mission" 😂

Brilliant talk tonight by David Woods on How Apollo Flew To The Moon
Many thanks and we hope to see you back again soon 👏🏼 👏🏼 👍🏼

Good morning,
Just a wee reminder that the Society returns tonight after the Summer break.

See you at Kyle Academy in Ayr at 7pm 🔭

They're coming....
Sunspots AR3105-3107 have rounded the sun's southeastern limb and now they are turning toward Earth.
These large sunspots are seething with activity, although they haven't produced any strong flares yet. Emphasis on yet. There is an increasing chance of geoeffective eruptions as they turn toward Earth this weekend 👍🏼

We almost had an X-Flare earlier!!
Departing sunspot AR3098 erupted today, Sept. 16th at 0949 UT, producing an M8-class solar flare. It was nearly the most powerful kind. A pulse of X-rays and extreme UV radiation caused a strong shortwave radio blackout over Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

Hi folks, hope you're well. Just a wee update on our Guest Speakers for this season.
Here is what we can look forward to between September and January 👍🏼🔭

26 September. David Woods (Technical Author)
"How Apollo Flew to the Moon"

24 October. Prof Colin McInness
"Micro-to-macro: space technologies at extremes of length-scale"

28 November. Lyn Smith (Director BAA Solar Section)
"Solar Observing with the BAA Solar Section"

12 December. Prof Patrick Harkness
"Deployable space structures"

23 January Dr Alex McKinnon
" New Eyes on Stars Lives "

Nasa's stunning new infrared image of Jupiter taken by the JWST. Including its stormy atmosphere, aurorae and rings 😍
The planet will be well placed for viewing this coming Autumn/Winter 👍🏼🔭

It's that time of year again when we are preparing to welcome old members and new.
If you or anyone you know that would be interested in joining us for season 2022/23, please pass this on and hit the share button 👇🏼
Thanks 🔭

We were at Dundonald Castle Visitor Centre this morning. Weather was fantastic for some solar viewing as part of our outreach 👍🏼🔭☀️

Hi all...
Just a wee heads up about our first meeting of the 2022/2023 season.
The Society returns on Monday 26th September at Kyle Academy, Ayr at 7pm.
We are delighted to have David Woods (Technical Space Author) as our main speaker with "How Apollo Flew to the Moon"
It would be nice to welcome new members, no matter your level of expertise or experience. Any queries you may have can be answered by admin.
Many thanks and clear skies 🔭

A big thanks to Marc, Ian, Jemus, Alex, John and Stephen who attended STEM Open Day at Dumfries House last Friday for the Society.
The event was very busy, and the weather was favourable too. It was lovely to see so many families who came to visit us for some astro chat and a view through our telescopes 🔭