We were saddened to hear of the passing of Dr Allan Chapman, who has died aged 79. Dr Chapman was very well known within the UK astronomical community and some years ago he gave a talk to the BAS. Please see the following link from the RAS for more information about Allan Chapman’s life: Dr […]
A team of BAS members had a very enjoyable Saturday afternoon on 9th August conducting a public solar observing session at Troopers Hill in Bristol. Many people had come to Troopers Hill to watch the planned balloon ascent and so it was a busy time for the team helping the public safely observe the Sun. […]
21 Society members enjoyed a private viewing of the Herschel Museum in Bath on a sunny Saturday in April. We were joined by Simon Holbeche, Chair of the Bath Astronomers and our guide, Charlotte from the Bath Preservation Trust. We had lots of great discussions including on how the planetary names Georgium Sidus and Uranus […]
A group from the Society ran a very successful outreach event on Saturday 29th March 2025 on the Clifton Downs (opposite the Water Tower), to observe the partial solar eclipse (maximum of 33%). We set up a variety of telescopes, including: Lunt solar telescope, Tele Vue telescope with a Herschel wedge, Coronado solar scope, SeeStar […]
After a gap of 6 years due to the Covid years and bad weather, we finally managed to join forces with the “Friends of Troopers Hill” to hold an excellent evening of stargazing on Troopers Hill in St Georges, Bristol. A write up of the event can be found on their events page here – […]
CHAOS is the University of Bristol Physics Society (Chaos – University of Bristol Physics Society) and the Bristol Astronomical Society welcomed 22 students for an observing and astro-imaging session at the Failand Observatory on Wednesday 26th February 2025. It was a very enjoyable evening and many thanks to the Society members who volunteered to run […]
The Society had a very successful and enjoyable outreach session with the Summerhill Academy, St George, Bristol on Wednesday 5th February. The session was led by our Outreach Coordinator, Allan McCarthy, supported by David Bennett and Stephen Price. We visited the school last year and so this was the second outreach session for the Society […]
A group from the Society attended Astrofest 2025 held in the Kensington Conference Centre, London on 7-8 February 2025. Astrofest is an annual international astronomy conference where both professional and amateur astronomers give talks (see photo). There’s also an exhibition of the latest telescopes and imaging instruments from astronomy equipment suppliers. More information on the […]
On Friday 12th January 2024, the Bristol Astronomical Society hosted the official opening of the “StarChair” and “StarShed”. The powerful wide field 6” binoculars and StarChair setup were donated by former Chairman Andy Stephens. Andy travelled down from Cheltenham to do the honours of officially declaring the new observing platform. The whole system; the shed, base, StarChair […]
It is with great sadness that I inform the society of the passing of Maurice Brain. Maurice passed away on 18th August after a short illness, at the age of 94. Maurice was a member of the society in the early days of its formation. He and his friends soon joined the committee and helped […]
