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Absolute Beginners No. 7: Observing Meteors

Paul Abel explains the basics of meteor spotting

Enhanced Perseid meteor activity observed

The annual Perseid meteor shower is one of the most reliable of the year, with an average peak ZHR (Zenithal

From the President

‘Whatever happened to summer?’ was the common refrain issuing from many people’s lips over the last few months, at least

The Antarctic ozone hole is healing

It is August and high summer for readers in the northern hemisphere, but in Antarctica it is deepest winter and

Prizes awarded in Plymouth’s Sir Patrick Moore astronomy competition

Young people from across Plymouth have been awarded prizes in the city’s annual Sir Patrick Moore astronomy competition. Deputy Lord

Mars in 2016: Second interim report

This report covers the period up to 2016 June 30, over one month past opposition. On that date the areocentric

Jupiter and the Juno mission: the amateur’s contribution

NASA’s Juno spacecraft went into orbit around Jupiter on 2016 July 5: the first spacecraft to orbit the giant planet

Patrick Henry Hepburn (1873−1929) – Part I: Solicitor, Eclipse-chaser and Major

The life and times of one of the BAA’s most extraordinary Presidents and eclipse chasers is described, including his fascination with the rings of Saturn, his remarkable physical and mental stamina, his complex home life and (in Part II) his tragic demise.

SN2008S – A new class of optical transient in NGC 6946: an amateur discovery

The purpose of this paper is to bring to the attention of the amateur astronomical community the writer’s discovery of a previously unknown class of object, the significance of which does not appear to have been reported in amateur publications.

Rømer revisited: A modern estimation of the speed of light from observations of Jupiter’s Galilean satellites

Ole Rømer (1644−1710) is remembered today for establishing, from observations of eclipses of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter, that the velocity of light is finite. This paper describes the use of amateur timings of Galilean eclipses observed during 2012−’14 to recreate Rømer’s work, together with a theoretical investigation of the accuracy of such approaches for estimating the speed of light.