June 2026 – News
22nd June
Radcliffe Society: Traditionally, the summer meeting of the Radcliffe Society is our opportunity to launch rockets on the sports fields by the Observatory. However, ‘adverse atmospheric conditions and excess precipitation’ meant that Mission Control was forced to cancel all launches. Instead, 6 pupils came to the Dome and discussed all things Space and Astronomy with GKWJ, touching on the eclipse on August 12th, the trouble with near light speed space travel, and the dark universe. The group also enjoyed their final KitKats and hot chocolate of this academic year.
21st June
Friends Observing: 13 Friends joined GKWJ at the Dome for the Summer Solstice Celebration observing session. Hazy twilight meant that we started the session with a view of the First Quarter Moon in the 10-inch and the 127mm Maksutov that a Friend set up outside. We moved on to Venus, showing a clear gibbous phase. As the twilight slowly edged towards almost darkness and stars started to appear, we moved to the Double Double in Lyra, at 95x magnification, an obvious double, then at 140x and 220x, becoming an easy split Double Double. The theme of double stars continued with Albireo, then followed by a quick stop at M57, there, but very faint in the not dark sky, on to M13, a better sight, but lacking good contrast. Back to doubles, with Alpha Herculis, Rasalgethi, an easy split, and Zeta Herculis, a much tougher challenge. By this time some had departed, leaving the hardy few to keep going towards midnight, rewarded with a clearing and darker sky, we went to ‘the other globular’ in Hercules, M92, which was stunning, so much so, that we returned to M13, which now showed as the punchy ‘sprinkling of salt’ in the eyepiece. Then the challenge really started, with a Friend suggesting that we try for the Veil Nebula in Cygnus; in a first for the 10-inch, at least in recent times, we found the clear hazy veil structure of ‘The Witches Broom’, the western Veil Nebula, which really ‘popped’ with the OIII filter. Our final target was NGC 6826, the Blinking Planetary Nebula, a clear planet like ‘blob’ through the OIII, then with no filter, its name became apparent – stare straight at the object and you see the small, bright, central white dwarf star piercing through, but when you look to the side, the white dwarf vanishes and averted vision reveals the fainter, larger nebula, flick between the two views and the white dwarf blinks on and off. A fabulous, fun evening on the ‘worst night for astronomy’!!
19th June
Solar Observing: Two teachers visited GKWJ to discover the secrets of teaching Astronomy GCSE as they prepare to offer the course at their schools next year. The visit included a Remove Astronomy lesson held at the Observatory for some solar observing. The photosphere was seen in the Celestron 8-inch with a white light filter, the Lunt 50mm showed the full disk in hydrogen alpha, while the 10-inch, also with the hydrogen alpha filter, was zoomed in to reveal detailed structure in a number of prominences. The spectroscope was also used to see the solar spectrum with clear Fraunhofer lines.
10th June
Promo Filming: GKWJ assembled a group of 6 Remove pupils at the Observatory for a film shoot to be part of the latest promotional video for Science at the College and the refurbished Science buildings. The group delighted at views of the Sun with the hydrogen alpha filter in the 10-inch, with a range of crisp prominences and active regions on display. The film crew delighted at their first view of the Sun in such detail! The final film should be out in the autumn.
6th June
Open Day Outreach: The torrential rain did not deter GKWJ from providing an astronomical point of interest in the Learning Zone at the future pupils Open Day in the marquee in Court. He showed many interested families the Campo del Cielo iron meteorite, the NWA chondrite, the lunar meteorite and the Martian meteorite. The chondrite slice was under the USB microscope, with its structure of chondrules displayed on the laptop screen.