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BASIL February 2026

The front cover shows the programme of talks for the 'Wales & West Spacefest', which will be held at Aerospace Bristol on 7 March 2026.  The event is being organised by the Bath Astronomers, Bristol Astronomical Society, Cardiff Astronomical Society and Aerospace Bristol, with our Special Events Coordinator, John Henn, leading the team. The morning session covers 'Astronomy and Space in Wales and the West' and the afternoon session has the theme of 'Exoplanets' with presentations from professional astrophysicists at the cutting edge of exoplanet research. It'll be a great day and please see the booking link at the bottom of the page for more information.

Key topics for the month include:

• Imaging opportunity: the Solar System puts on an evening spectacle on 18 February 2026, with Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Neptune and the Moon all visible.
• It's a good month for observing Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus.
• Observe the 'Snow Moon' and the Crater Grimaldi - best observed around the Full Moon.
• 29 DSO observing targets are listed for the month.
• Constellation of the month is Gemini, which is well placed to observe, including its many spectacular DSOs.

See pages 22-29 for members' images of:

• Jupiter & Moons by Mikail Fahad.
• Lunar Images by Andrew Grasemann.
• Sunset from my Observatory by Jane Clark.
• Aurora over Alveston by Chris Lee.

The BAS programme of meetings to August 2026 can be found on p32.

Finally, the Bristol Astronomical Society has obtained a NASA Artemis II boarding pass for all members (see Pages 30-31).  If you can't leave the planet for 10 days and can't meet the stringent fitness requirements for NASA astronauts, then you must inform the BAS Secretary immediately.