BAS features in National Astronomy Week
National Astronomy Week ran from the 1st to the 9th February with a large number of observing events and talks all over the UK. A small team consisting of Stephen Price, Malcolm Worster, Ben Commis and David Bennett helped in our participation of two live streaming events on YouTube from the Cyril Swindin Observatory.
On the 4th we were fortunate to have clear skies and broadcast a view of Venus shimmering low down in the West using our 12” Meade telescope and newly gifted imaging camera. It was cloudy on the 9th, so we gave two short presentations on the Mare Crisium and Planetary Transits.
The 9th was particularly exciting as Mars was occulted by the Moon which we were able to observe live from the North of Scotland. From Spain the moon passed clear of Mars giving a nice demonstration of parallax. We also saw a live view of the Moon from a Seestar and clearer images of Jupiter using live stacking. It is very interesting to see the variety of ways employed by amateurs to observe the planets.
Videos of the live streaming for the week can be found here: You Tube recordings and a very nice recording from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.