February 2026 – News
25th February
Outreach Visit: The Aldbourne Cubs enjoyed the continuing clear skies for their visit to the Dome. The pack was split into two groups, the first of 12 Cubs and 4 adults, and the second group of 11 Cubs and 4 adults. GKWJ gave each group a Sky Tour, with many satellites seen across the sky, followed by views of the Waxing Gibbous Moon and Jupiter with the GRS and 4 Galilean moons in the 10-inch.
24th February
GCSE Observing: Continuing good weather allowed GCSE observing to resume. 2 Remove pupils came to the observatory at dusk and observing started with a view of Mercury both by naked eye and through the 10-inch. We then had a refresher Sky Tour, with more satellites spotted than ever, before settling down to sketching a stunning First Quarter Moon as seen at 93x in the 10-inch.
Outreach Visit: Next to visit on this busy evening were 20 members of the Newbury Astronomical Society. GKWJ started the session with a detailed Sky Tour before moving inside to the 10-inch to observe the Moon, followed by M42, then to Jupiter and its 4 Galilean moons. Next up was the core of M44, the Beehive Cluster, then a double of doubles, starting with Tagmine, Zeta Cancri, and finishing the session on Castor, Alpha Geminorum, all beautifully resolved at 140x magnification. The group enjoyed a cup of tea and a cake in the warm room before departing.
GCSE Observing: To finish a great evening of activities at the Dome, the 4 Hundred GCSE pupils arrived to make some progress on their aided observing tasks, finally. Unfortunately, broken clouds were starting to rush overhead, but sufficient gaps allowed observing. M42 was sketched through the 8-inch, which was rapidly dewing up; it was also observed and sketched through the 10-inch. Attention then turned to the Bode’s Galaxy (M81), Cigar Galaxy (M82) pair, high up above the vertical Plough. The pupils selected M82 as the target for their Galaxy sketch. The session continued to 10.30pm, by special permission from their HMs. One more session and they will be able to finish their projects, will the Sky Gods acquiesce?!
22nd February
Friends Observing: 20 Friends attended this year’s Lunar Observing session. Following an eternity of cloudy, wet nights, the session started with broken cloud and stars visible, so the group were able to observe the Waxing Crescent Moon through the 10-inch. We started at 94x magnification, showing the full visible Moon in the eyepiece, with great detail along the Terminator and crater Theophilus being the most prominent. Magnification was increased to 220x for a closer view. The cloud was coming and going, so the 10-inch was slewed to Jupiter, high in the South, at 140x the planet’s bands were visible along with 3 Galilean moons; Io not visible as in transit. Improving conditions allowed observing to continue, with the next target the Orion Nebula (M42) at 93x. The view was enhanced with an OIII filter. One Friend took an image of M42 with a SeeStar, allowing the view to be compared between eyepiece and image. Next up was Castor, an easy double at 5″ separation. We returned to nearby Jupiter under now completely clear skies. The view was stunning, with the GRS visible and the sharp black dot of the Io shadow transit now well underway. We finished the session with an attempt to split Alnitak at 140x magnification – most, but not all, observers agreed that there was definitely more than one star visible. An excellent observing session following so many cloudy nights!
12th February
Outreach Visit: 5 Urchfont Scouts accompanied by 4 leaders came to the Dome on a not entirely cloudy evening, finally! There were some breaks in the cloud, so GKWJ started the session outside, pointing out Jupiter and Orion. The group moved to the 10-inch to catch glimpses of Jupiter between clouds, with all 4 Galilean moons visible and the dark spot of a shadow transit. Cloud and rain cut the observing short, so the group moved to the warm room where they followed the radio meteor detector live stream, looked at the Wetton Meteorite Collection and considered a whole range of astronomical questions.
11th February
Outreach Visit: 10 members of the Inkpen Stargazers visited the Dome on a cloudy and wet evening. GKWJ recounted the story of the Cooke 10-inch and the Blackett Observatory, followed by discussion around a selection of images taken through the 10-inch and around the observatory. The radio meteor live feed was followed for a short while, but very few meteor events were seen.
9th February
Radcliffe Society: The abysmal weather continues… so, this term’s Radcliffe Society meeting was held at the Observatory, but no observing was possible. 9 pupils attended. GKWJ showed a selection of his most recent images from the River Park Observatory, ranging from distant galaxies, to a globular cluster and a planetary nebula. The final images were of the Crab Nebula taken 10 years apart. Measurements of the two images were taken to estimate the expansion rate and therefore age of the supernova remnant. Readings from the whiteboard were very inaccurate, but one pupil did the measurements with Photoshop and calculated a supernova date of 1062, an impressive 8 years off the accepted date of 1054!
5th February
Shell Visit: The final Shell visit of this academic year saw the 13 boys from Turner, accompanied by their HM and his daughter, join GKWJ at the Dome on a filthy wet evening! No visual observing was possible, but the group watched the meteor detector live stream and inspected the Wetton Meteorite collection.
3rd February
Shell Visit: 7 boys from the Summerfield Shell visited the Dome with GKWJ on a wet and windy evening. No observing was possible, but the boys had plenty of questions about Astronomy GCSE and the Universe.