Flamsteed Astronomy Society

Observing Group at Cudham

From Mike Iveson —

 

Quite a good turnout with a showing of eight. David Woodford bought along his eight inch scope and showed us around the skies, thanks David, much appreciated. Several of the group managed to see some Perseids though it didn't seem to be at any significant rate but hey, we got to see them! David picked out some Nebula and messier objects for us to view with a rather excellent view of a planetary nebula, blue in colour I remember.  David also spent some time setting up Julia's ETX as we had a little difficulty with aligning the stars and interchanged some of his own eye-pieces so we could see the differences in quality. So all in all a good evening with clear(ish) skies for a change with both viewing and telescope education. Thanks to all those who turned up to make it a good outing.

From Dave Woodford —

 

Despite the pessimistic weather forecast, a hardy clutch of 8 met at the Blacksmith's Arms Cudham under the pretence of Astronomy. After risking the wrath of the locals by interfering with their darts game, we quickly retreated to the local playing field. Despite the high cloud, there were enough gaps to give us some good views of some bright Perseid meteors, some with colour. In addition, an ETX70 and 8" Newtonian were sneaking through the gaps in the high cloud to expose some lovely dark-sky views of M13, M57 and the Blue Snowball Nebula. The cloud finally closed in just before midnight and we retired tired but generally satisfied.

The Group met on August 12, 2004 at Cudham for the Perseids meteor shower: