March 2022 – News

26th March

Friends Observing: Finally, a clear sky allowed a Friends observing event to go ahead! A group of 9 Friends joined GKWJ and JAG at the Dome for the Spring Sky Tour. Observing started outside to discover the main asterisms and constellations. An overhead ISS pass was seen. M42 – The Orion Nebula, was then explored by naked-eye, binoculars, ETX and the 10-inch. Next up was M45 – The Pleiades in binoculars and ETX. We then moved to the 10-inch, with targets: M1 – The Crab Nebula, the double star, Iota Cancri, the Leo Triplet, with M65 and M66 observed, but only a tentative sighting of NGC 3628. We then attempted to identify quasar 3C-273, but failed. The session ended with the globular cluster M3 – a wonderful object in the 10-inch

24th March

Sun-Earth Day Lecture: An audience of some 30 plus Friends and pupils gathered in the Garnett Room to hear the 2022 NASA/ESA Sun-Earth Day Lecture. It was given by CEB with the title: ‘Illuminating the Dark Ages – the Era of James Webb’, an in-depth look at the latest space telescope and the science that it is expected to investigate

22nd March

GCSE Observing: Half the Remove Astronomy set joined GKWJ at the Dome for the final evening observing session of the academic year. They completed a worksheet that took them on a celestial treasure hunt to solve an astronomical anagram – the answer being Vernal Equinox. The majority was naked eye, but Messier 44 – the Beehive Cluster, was observed in binoculars and the 10-inch

2nd March

Outreach talk: GKWJ gave a talk on ‘Observing through 2022’ to pupils and parents at Hardenhuish School, Chippenham