It’s CHAOS at the BAS Failand Observatory
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 session: Richard Mansfield, Allan McCarthy, Ben Commis, David Bennett, Fiona Lambert and Stephen Price.
Richard and Stephen arrived early in the evening to try and observe the ‘Parade of the Planets’ and managed to observe all of the expected planets except Mercury, which even in early evening was too low in the haze (see photo 1). The bright crescent of Venus was exceptionally beautiful to see.
We welcomed the students with a brief presentation on the history of the Society and our historic links to the university, with a slide show on the wall of the dome (see photo 2).
The students brought along their astro-imaging rig (see photo 3) and we also operated the Society’s SeeStar S50 smart telescope, which quickly showed a nice image of M31 (see photo 4).
Other telescopes and equipment were used for visual observing on the night: Celestron C11 (Ben), Meade LX600 (Stephen), Meade 105 mm go-to (Richard), binocular rig (Allan) and the Star-Chair 3000 (David).
The students were impressed with the performance and tracking of the Society’s LX600 system in the dome and took a photograph of the setup and dome (see photos 5 and 6), which has some similarities to a university observatory on the roof of the physics building in Bristol.
The Star-Chair 3000 was very popular with the visitors as they enjoyed amazing wide-field views of a very clear night sky, while sitting down on an electrically driven comfortable observing chair (see photos 7 and 8).
It was a great evening for both visitors and Society members and a group photo of the visitors plus their astro-imaging rig was taken during the session (see photo 9).
We received the following feedback from the university: “A massive thank you to you and your members for a fantastic night yesterday. Everyone greatly enjoyed themselves and valued the expertise of your members and the wide variety of telescope setups on offer!”