Journal contents items – Page 4 – British Astronomical Association

Noctilucent cloud over Loch Lomond. The clouds appear electric blue, bright against a dark sky which graduates to an orange glow above the mountainous horizon. Waves on the Loch's surface are in the foreground.

Noctilucent cloud over Britain & Western Europe, 2023

Noctilucent cloud forms in the mesosphere at an altitude of about 83 km and appears annually in northern latitudes between

A plot of (B-V) (x-axis) against (U-B) (y-axis), with fitted curves corresponding to the locations on the plot of cluster members (represented with scatter points). The fits decrease at low (B-V), level off in the middle, then decrease more steeply again.

A free, Excel-based application for UBVIc photometric studies of galactic open clusters

Due to their discrete brightness and uncrowded appearance, open clusters are accessible to many amateur instruments. Moreover, their photometric study

Sky notes for 2024 June & July

(Written for 23:00 BST in the UK on July 1) With the summer solstice on Jun 20, we reach midsummer

Lunar domes near the crater Cleomedes

The Nectarian-aged Crisium basin is characterised by prolonged lunar volcanism ranging from the Imbrian age to the Eratosthenian period. In

A rare outburst of the WZ Sge-type dwarf nova PQ Andromedae

A report of the Variable Star Section (Director: J. Shears) We present a light curve of the 2020 outburst of

The opposition of Jupiter, 1954 – 1955

A report of the Jupiter Section (Director: J. H. Rogers) After having been invisible during the previous opposition, late in

Harry Thornton, Leslie Rae, & the rise & fall of The Moon

Harry Thornton and Leslie Rae were the Editors of the BAA Lunar Section publication The Moon from 1953 to 1967,

Sky notes for 2024 April & May

As the days become longer and warmer, we approach the ‘silly season’ for UK amateur astronomers, with observing opportunities limited

The nightside of Venus visible next to the crescent of its illuminated hemisphere; this photo was taken in infrared

The 2022 western elongation of Venus

A report of the Mercury & Venus Section (Director: P. G. Abel) Analysis of the observations made by Section

A photograph of the bearded Brorsen, sitting in a chair with arms folded

The tortuous discovery of the Gegenschein, false zodiacal light & zodiacal band – Brorsen vs Jones

It is routinely thought that Brorsen discovered the Gegenschein and zodiacal band in 1854. Here, it is argued that priority