In the early hours of this morning I hoped to obtain some video astrometry of 2020 SW. Mars was a bright red beacon in the SW but lots of menacing dark clouds were moving across the sky and the intermittent gaps weren't very transparent. My C11 was on the right fields but sky conditions in the west were too poor to record the mag. 15 to 14 NEO.

In contrast, the sky to the east had some clearer spells as I watched Venus climb the sky.

Had a busy and enjoyable weekend attending ESOP XXXIX (39th European Symposium on Occultation Projects) which had to take place online via Zoom. Attendance was consistently over 100 with a maximum number of about 114.

PDFs of the talks will be available soon, followed by videos (pending speakers' permission).

CalSky informed me that the ISS would cross the Sun today at 13:29:30 (BST) from my location. I've recorded a few of its solar and lunar transits on previous occasions, so this time I decided to observe it first hand.

The oppressive cloud cover started to break and I set up the 5-inch f/12 Taylor-Mak with mylar filter, 90-degree star diagonal and 25mm eyepiece. This gave me a full disc view. Varying depths of cloud were racing in front of the Sun, which appeared to be spotless. Thankfully, at the appointed time I saw the familiar 'H' silhouette of the ISS take about 0.5s to shoot across the field.

It's nice to do some observing without being detached from the event by technology.

Lovely views of crescent Venus in the 5-inch Taylor-Mak at x60 and x167.

Many thanks to the organisers and the speakers for a most enjoyable BAA Back to Basics Workshop at Cottingham last Saturday. These meetings are always good events, whether you're new to astronomy or have observed for decades, and this was no exception. It was also an opportunity to catch up with old friends without having to travel too far.