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BASIL April 2025

The front cover of BASIL shows a photo of the aurora, taken by BAS member Fiona Lambert in Venabu, Norway.

It's been a very busy month for members' astrophotography and this month's BASIL includes:

• The Sun, by Roger Steer.
• NGC 1514 and a group of Deep Sky Objects by Chris Lee.
• The Orion Nebula (M42) by Mikail Fahad.
• Venus, Mercury, the Moon and the Orion Nebula (M42) by Andrew Grasemann.
• The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), M81, M82 and the Moon by Darren Brown.
• The aurora by Fiona Lambert.
• NGC 1512 and M83 by Jane Clark.
• Sequence of the partial solar eclipse by Douglas Russell.

It's also been a very busy month for Society outreach activities.  In addition to our scheduled public observing events at Failand we've held some special events and reports / photos are included in BASIL for the following:

• Troopers Hill stargazing event (2 March).
• Astronomy cinema at the Failand observatory (14 March).
• Partial solar eclipse viewing on the Clifton Downs (29 March).

Key topics for April include:

• Lyrid meteor shower on Tuesday 22 April.
• 5 solar system events in April.
• Solar activity remains at moderate levels with many sunspots for solar observing.
• Mars and Jupiter may be observed during the month.
• Observe the Crater Plato on the Moon with a small telescope.
• 35 DSO observing targets are listed for the month.
• April is a good month to observe the Virgo Galaxy Cluster - 14 additional DSO targets are listed, together with observing tips for finding and observing the galaxy cluster.
• Constellation of the month is Virgo with links to star charts and DSO targets.
• Latest astronomy news – including news that the JWST has discovered a distant galaxy, observed to be at just 330 million years after the Big Bang. It has a redshift of 13.0 and is emitting a bright wavelength of light which is far stronger than astronomers thought possible at this early stage of the Universe's development - see the ESA link for more details.

Finally, Society News includes the following:

• BAS members' badges.
• Telescopes donation to the BAS.
• Programme of meeting and events up to June 2025.
• Details of the new BAS Committee for 2025/26.