Jupiter, Nebulae and the Spring Galaxies - Blackheath Observing, 14 March 2026

I arrived on Blackheath at around 6.30pm to find Alec and Tony already setting up. The sky looked encouraging and, thankfully, the forecast held up. Seeing turned out to be excellent, with decent transparency for most of the evening.

Visitors began to arrive not long after sunset and by the end of the session we’d probably seen 50–60 people, with roughly a dozen telescopes spread across our usual patch of heath. It was particularly nice to see lots of families and children again, alongside some regular attendees and plenty of new faces.

One unexpected highlight came from a group of teenage lads passing by who, judging by their general condition, had probably been enjoying themselves elsewhere beforehand. They were persuaded to have a look through the telescopes and their bravado quickly gave way to genuine curiosity once they saw things like Jupiter and the Orion Nebula properly for the first time.

Jupiter takes centre stage

Most of the visual telescopes spent a good deal of the evening trained on Jupiter, which looked excellent as it climbed higher.

Paul May spent much of the evening observing the planet with his Mak. Those lucky enough to look through his telescope around 7.30pm were able to watch Europa disappearing behind Jupiter, something that is surprisingly obvious when you know what you’re looking for. It’s also a nice opportunity to talk about Galileo’s discovery of the Jovian moons, and the rather awkward theological implications that discovery caused at the time.

Later in the evening I had a superb view of Jupiter through Tony’s 8-inch Dobsonian, easily one of the best views of the night. Tony also demonstrated a lovely way of showing the motion of the sky to visitors by simply letting Jupiter and its moons drift across the field of view at high magnification – a very clear illustration of the Earth’s rotation.

Deep sky targets

Away from Jupiter, the Orion Nebula (M42) remained one of the most popular objects of the evening, as it so often is. It’s one of those objects that rarely fails to produce a strong reaction at the eyepiece.

Lots of great images of the Orion Nebula (M42), taken during our session - pictures by Mike Meynell, Richard Summerfield, Adrian Challinor, Paul Merriman, Yvonne Jacobs and (again) Richard Summerfield

Meanwhile several of the smart scopes were busy capturing deeper objects.

Alec managed a nice capture of M109, the barred spiral galaxy in Ursa Major, stacking ninety thirty-second exposures using his Dwarf 3. Richard shared several images from the evening – including the Orion Nebula, M95, M105 and Jupiter – noting that they were all taken on Pi Day (14 March), which seemed as good a reason as any to be out observing.

Alec's image of M109, along with Richard's images of M95, Jupiter and M105 - pictures by Alec Knox and Richard Summerfield

Adrian and Yvonne both spent time imaging the Orion region, including the Horsehead and Flame Nebulae. Yvonne experimented with reframing the Horsehead and Flame to include the Running Man Nebula, producing an interesting wide-field composition. She also spent some time experimenting with equatorial imaging – only her second attempt using that setup – capturing the Flaming Star Nebula (IC405), and later the Andromeda Galaxy, although its low altitude meant the result lacked some of the detail she had managed in previous attempts.

Adrian's Horsehead Nebula, plus Yvonne's images of the Horsehead/Flame region, Flaming Star Nebula and Andromeda Galaxy - pictures by Adrian Challinor and Yvonne Jacobs

During the evening we were also visited by two teachers from a local infant school who had previously been in touch with us about the possibility of working together. They were very impressed by the range of telescopes on display and by how welcoming everyone was, and it was good to have the opportunity to show them what our Blackheath sessions are like in practice.

Sara added the Crab Nebula (M1) to the evening’s collection of images, while Paul Merriman – volunteering on the heath for the first time – captured both the Orion Nebula and Bode’s Galaxies with his Dwarf telescope.

Sara's Crab Nebula and Paul's image of Bode's Galaxies - pictures by Sara Clark and Paul Merriman

Paul admitted he had hoped to explore more of the other telescopes, although he ended up staying mostly near his own equipment after discovering he had forgotten an important part of the setup process – attaching the counterweight bar before attempting to align his mount. Fortunately, manual pointing still worked perfectly well for Jupiter.

He also reported meeting someone who claimed to have photographed a UFO in the park. Sadly, we saw nothing of that sort during the evening.

Elsewhere, images were taken of objects such as the Beehive Cluster, the Leo Triplet, and parts of Markarian’s Chain, demonstrating just how much can still be achieved from a London observing site on a good night.

Technical frustrations

My own evening started less smoothly. I had decided to give the SmartEye electronic eyepiece another try, having been assured that the latest firmware update had solved several of the problems I’d previously encountered.

To be fair, those problems had indeed been solved.

Unfortunately they had been replaced by several entirely new ones.

A few of my images using the SmartEye eyepiece - Orion Nebula, Beehive Cluster, two of the Leo Triplet (M65 and M66) and part of Markarian's Chain - pictures by Mike Meynell

After a prolonged session of troubleshooting – accompanied by a fair amount of muttering – I eventually got the thing working properly. By that point, however, I had spent rather longer than intended dealing with technology rather than circulating among the volunteers.

My apologies to anyone I failed to catch up with during the evening.

A good night on the heath

Despite the occasional technical hiccup, it was another very enjoyable session. The atmosphere was relaxed throughout the evening, with visitors moving between telescopes, volunteers chatting and comparing views, and plenty of enthusiasm from people seeing these objects for the first time.

All in all, a thoroughly satisfying night under the stars.

Our next observing session on Blackheath will take place on Saturday 4 April, which will be the penultimate session of the season.