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BASIL November 2026

The front cover of November's BASIL shows the poster for our Telescope Surgery, to be held on Friday 6th November at Unit 13. It'll be a great evening and all members and visitors are very welcome to attend - as the poster says, bring your telescope or just your curiosity!

Monthly observing opportunities:

• 2 November: See an impressive line-up in the morning sky, with Regulus, Jupiter, Mars, the waning crescent Moon and the Beehive Cluster.
• 7 November: Venus and Spica lie near the Moon in day light.
• 24 November: Tonight's full Moon is a supermoon.
• 25 November: Uranus reaches opposition.
• Observe the 'Beaver Moon' and the spectacular craters Posidonius & Chacornac.
• Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are all observable this month.
• 21 DSO observing targets are listed for the month.
• Constellation of the month is Andromeda.

A new feature: Star Charts for Beginners - showing how to recognise the prominent circumpolar and autumn constellations (p20-21)

Last month's observing challenge:

During October we had the observing challenge to observe or image galaxies in Pegasus and there are great images of NGC 7331 (the Deer Lick Galaxy), NGC 7479 (the Superman Galaxy) and NGC 7814 (the Little Sombrero Galaxy) from Andrew Grasemann and Chris Lee.

Members' images this month also include:

• Andrew Grasemann: 8-day old Moon, the Heart Nebula, the Bubble Nebula, the North American Nebula, the Pelican Nebula, the Milky Way and 'Eddie's Coaster', and the Veil Nebula.
• Chris Lee: M15 (Globular Cluster) in Pegasus, Andromeda's Parachute, the Elephant's Trunk Nebula, the Cocoon Nebula, the Helix Nebula and Saturn.
• Robin Arnold: the Fish Head Nebula and the Little Rosette Nebula.

Observing and imaging challenges for members in November:

• Lunar craters Posidonius & Chacornac.
• DSOs in Andromeda (well placed), including the following DSO targets:
  - M31 (the Andromeda Galaxy)
  - NGC 891 (the Silver Sliver Galaxy).
  - NGC 752 (Open Cluster).
  - NGC 7662 (the Blue Snowball Nebula).

Society News:

• Celebration of the Beagle 2 mission and Professor Colin Pillinger, by Chris Lee.
• Chris Lee interviewed by the Bristol Magazine ('It's Rocket Science!) - see the link for the full article.
• Programme of BAS meetings from November 2026 to January 2027.
• Report of the October BAS committee meeting.
• Solar outreach at the Aerospace Bristol museum, led by Outreach Coordinator Allan McCarthy.