Central London SUNday - 2014 June 22

In late June last year I arranged an informal, fun-filled day for a group of fellow London amateur astronomers to observe the Sun with white light filters and hydrogen alpha solar telescopes in a London park and have a picnic. The day of the week I chose was, of course, a SUNday! It was a great success so I decided to repeat a similar solar observing day this Summer on Sunday June 22 as this date coincided with the first International SUNday.

Living in Central London I wanted the event to be held nearby so I named it the Central London SUN-day and decided again to hold it in Regent's Park, one of my favourite London green open space.

I invited my fellow Baker Street Irregular Astronomers to the day, as well as others through my FaceBook group 

I had mentioned my planned event to Tori Weaver, a BBCTV Sky At Night researcher, I met at the Brecon Beacon AstroCamp and later I was delighted to hear she had organised a TV crew and Pete Lawrence to attend my SUNday to film part of their July programme devoted to daytime astronomy and the brightest star. The four minute clip from the Sky At Night July programme is on their website.

The weather in London just prior to the SUNday was fine and warm and I had managed several enjoyable morning solar observing sessions with my Lunt LS60THa so I was delighted the Sun shone early on the SUnday morning. 

Approximately fifty turned up for the day with about a score of solar scopes and adapted binoculars.

Photo  by Eric Emms

Photo  by Eric Emms

Photo  by Eric Emms

The curious public were shown the Sun through white light and hydrogen alpha filters, picnics were consumed, astronomy (solar and other) was discussed and explained, many photos were taken and fun with a little solar education was had by all.

I shall be holding the next Central London SUN-day, again in Regent's Park, on 2015 June 21. I hope to see you there!

Canaries - first trip in 2014

Leaving the William Optics GT81 refractor and Lunt60THa solarscope back home in Central London (soon after their successful appearances at my Central London SUN-day solar observing and picnic in Regent’s Park) I took to the air and was soon reunited with my APM 100/800 LZOS refractor I keep caged in the Canaries. 

Photo by Raquel Chavez Garcia

The main idea for this trip was to observe a few more DSOs around the MW, particularly in the Scorpius and Sagittarius constellations. Of course, the Milky Way refuses to show itself in Central London, and at both 2014 astro-camps I’ve attended in Cwmdu, Brecon Beacons and Brighstone, Isle of Wight, the MW is not as glorious to view as in the southern latitudes of the Spanish islands off Morocco.

My APM was soon thrown on to my HEQ5Pro mount, also kept in the Canaries, and observing was had most nights of my ten day trip. I’m not much of an astro-photographer, granted I’ve uploaded a few lunar and solar snaps to my Flickr site in the past, but I much prefer photons from extraterrestrial objects on my retina not a CCD chip. The dark (very dark) skies experienced at my observing site above the clouds, dust and light at 2,300m thus were exploited as much as possible.

I had a list of DSO targets I wished to observe during my sessions; some of these were ones I had yet to view while the remainder were old favourites such as the Lagoon and Trifid nebulae.  I do enjoy seeing clusters, both globular and open, and it is a Canaries tradition for me to become reacquainted on my first night with that monster globular low in the south, invisible from the UK, Omega Centauri. I ogled it every night with both the APM and with binoculars and never tire of its beauty and size.  I was delighted that I did observe all I had wanted to see and was able to show some celestial favourites to a small group of friends and family on the volcano. 

Photo by Frank Kaemmerer

Saturn (admittedly past its best) seen by friends for the first time and the waxing Moon prior to setting early in later sessions were much admired by all.

Photo by Eric Emms

For the first time during my Canaries trip I was asked by a nearby hotel to bring my telescope to their attractive grounds to show a few celestial gems to a small number of their guests. 

Photo by Frank Kaemmerer

Feedback from all was positive so I shall be repeating an hotel ‘star-party’ when I return to the islands later in the year.