At around 9pm on Saturday, I was beginning to think the clouds might have brought our evening to an end. Two astronomy explainers from the Royal Observatory had just arrived, and I was concerned that they would leave without seeing anything. I just about managed to show them Almach through a gap, with its golden-yellow and blue components. Then, almost out of nowhere, the sky cleared overhead and we got a wonderful view of Saturn, now higher in the south-east. Their reaction

Members' Presentation: Under the Shadow Frederik opened the evening by welcoming members and guests, and thanked the refreshment team and the AV team for their work in making the meeting run so smoothly. Our members' presentation came from Yvonne Jacobs, who had the room in fits of laughter with her account of a lifetime spent chasing eclipses. Her first attempt was in 1999, when she travelled to Penzance for the eclipse, only to find the sky completely covered in cloud. Yvon

Smart Telescope Today… Smarter Telescope Tomorrow: How do you choose? Following on from last year’s well-attended Smart Telescopes Masterclass, this year’s event, partly an introduction to smart telescopes, was also an opportunity for owners to talk about their experiences with their “smart scopes”. The evening started with a film show of astro-images taken by the owners with their smart telescopes, demonstrating the ability of these scopes to capture amazing images of the ni

For the first couple of hours of Sunday evening, I barely moved away from my telescope. There was a queue, Saturn was in the eyepiece, and everyone wanted a look. By the end of the session, well over 200 people had joined us on Blackheath. A good number were students from the UCL Space Society, with many of the other visitors having found us through Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. We knew there was plenty of interest before the evening began, but that was still a remarkable t

On Saturday 26th September, 47 Flamsteed members, joined by a few family members, headed to Oxford for a day exploring the city’s rich astronomical history. The group included some new members on their first Flamsteed trip, as well as members visiting Oxford for the first time. And what a wonderful introduction the day was to both the city and its astronomical connections! Getting together at the start of the day We made our own way to Oxford and met up at the King’s Arms pub

Nearly 20 telescopes, around 70–80 visitors and a supernova. A superb start to the 2026/27 Blackheath observing season. There were also mosquitoes, some uncooperative software and two foxes, but we’ll come to those. Our first session of the season had originally been planned for Saturday evening. By Thursday, however, there was a fairly strong consensus that Sunday offered the better opportunity. We decided to make the switch early, which also allowed people to attend Saturda

The FAS AGM on Monday 14th September had been a full and memorable evening, marking an important milestone for me and for the Society, and we were also treated to a fantastic talk by Prof Ed Daw. For the AGM, we have had a full house of members, a smooth handover after five years as Chair, and the honour of being awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal Museums Greenwich. The committee and RMG presented me with a beautiful framed photograph of the Isaac Newton Telescope, and

27th Annual General Meeting of the Flamsteed Astronomy Society Our chair Bobby Manoo opened the 2026/27 Flamsteed season with our formal AGM reflecting on the last 12 months. Bobby drew members’ attention to the AGM video statement which was previously circulated and outlined some of the key accomplishments, with talks, workshops, trips and liaison and involving significant outreach and engagement with approximately 8,000 members of the public and contribution of 1,100 volunt

Since this is the last solar viewing event of the season, I thought I’d give you an idea of how these events are run, so here is my personal interpretation of that aim. The morning before the planned event, the FAS signal goes up, to either confirm the event is on or it is postponed, not how Gotham City summoned Batman back in the 1960s TV programme, but in a much less entertaining way of emails and WhatsApp messages. So on Thursday morning (27th), the FAS signal goes up, “Co

Saturday 22 August turned out to be one of our busier solar observing sessions of the summer, with a steady stream of visitors keeping the whole team on their toes. From 10:00am to 3:40pm, around 400 people came up to the Royal Observatory Greenwich to take a safe look at our nearest star. There were a few patches of cloud throughout the day, but the Sun cooperated often enough to give everyone a fine view, right up until the cloud turned persistent in the afternoon and broug

This was the big one. We had known for a long time that the partial solar eclipse on Wednesday 12 August was going to be the major event of our solar observing season. What we perhaps hadn't anticipated was quite how big it would become. There had been plenty to worry about beforehand. Would the weather cooperate? Would strike action affect the opening of the Royal Observatory? Would we have enough volunteers? Would the queues become completely unmanageable? We even had a con

Saturday turned into one of the busiest days we've had. Hugely rewarding, but absolutely relentless from the moment the gates opened. We were on site early, which turned out to be a very good idea. There was a queue almost the instant the Observatory opened at 10am, and from that point it barely let up. Comparing notes at the end of the day, we reckon somewhere in the region of 700 people came to see the Sun with us. That feels about right, given we had a queue for most of th

Flamsteed and RMG held a members’ solar-viewing session on Thursday evening, splitting the evening into two group sessions. I hadn’t realised that I was supposed to be in the second group and ended up gatecrashing the first... shhh, don’t tell anyone! Mike Meynell, organiser and host of this evening’s session, gave us a quick introduction to the several scopes that were set up in the garden beside Flamsteed House and the Meridian Building, each observing the Sun in different

As we enter the busiest period of our solar viewing season, the Flamsteed Astronomy Society team returned to the Royal Observatory Greenwich on Friday 31 July for another solar observing session, this time with an added variety of instruments showing the Sun at several different wavelengths. I arrived on site just after 10am to find Mike Meynell, Simon Hurst, Tim Rickard and Ed Fosbrook already busy, having brought the equipment up from Flamsteed House. The weather was a litt

Tim and I were the first to arrive at the Royal Observatory, shortly before the gates opened at 10am. With the rest of our volunteers following soon afterwards, we quickly collected the equipment from the stores and began setting up around the Dolphin Sundial. We had the smaller gazebo this week, but that did not prove to be a major problem. Temperatures were expected to reach around 28°C, although a steady breeze throughout the day made conditions rather more comfortable tha

Following the recent spell of very hot weather, our latest public solar viewing session at the Royal Observatory Greenwich took place in rather more manageable conditions. Temperatures still climbed into the high 20s during the afternoon, but a welcome breeze made the heat much more bearable than many of us had feared. One addition that made a real difference throughout the day was the large gazebo erected by the Royal Observatory staff. Providing a much larger shaded area th

Thanks so much to the 40 members who turned out for our Flamsteed Summer Social at The Old Brewery in Greenwich on 8 July. As with last year, it was a glorious evening in the courtyard, with plenty of warm sunshine. The chat covered a lot of topics - some astronomy-related, some not - with reflections on the range of Flamsteed activities that had been delivered during the year. It was great to see some new faces and catch up with long-standing members. The food seemed to go d

By Amy Scammell, with contributions from Ed Fosbrook, Tej Dyal, Miyuki Shigeno and Bobby Manoo. As we made our way to the Norman Lockyer Observatory for our visit to its annual AstroFair, I think a number of us wondered whether we had made a good decision. It was one of the hottest days of the year and, between us, we faced sweltering cars, motorway delays and cancelled trains. Was it worth it? It most certainly was! The Norman Lockyer Observatory is located just outside Sidm

There are few better ways to celebrate the longest day of the year than by pointing our telescopes at the very star responsible for it. On Sunday 21 June 2026, the summer solstice, volunteers from the Flamsteed Astronomy Society gathered at the Royal Observatory Greenwich for a morning of solar observing, and the Sun rewarded us with a real treat. We had glorious weather from the outset. It was a hot day with clear blue skies for most of the session, the sort of weather that

And so, just like that, we arrived at our final lecture of the 2025/26 season. Firstly, Mike Meynell treated us to a short talk on the Caldwell Catalogue, compiled by the late Sir Patrick Moore in 1995. Mike outlined that, as well as being a broadcasting legend, Patrick Moore had a background as an expert cartographer whose lunar maps were used by both NASA and the Soviets. Astronomical catalogues are inventories of the sky and date back over 2,000 years. They provide a unive