April 2021 News

23rd April

GCSE Solar observing: As part of Topic 10, the Remove Astronomy set of 15 pupils came up to the Dome and were supervised by CEB and GKWJ. The sky was clear and the Sun was observed first in Solar Goggles and then using Solar Scopes. The rotation rate of the Earth was estimated from the projected image. The 2 ETXs were then used with white-light filters to view the photosphere and the 2 sunspot groups were clearly vsisble. The image was as expected clearer at 35x magnification than 70x. The 10 inch was then used with the hydrogen-alpha filter to view the chromosphere and a large, bonfire shaped, prominence seen on the south westerm limb. This was drawn by the students