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

After the rainy start to June, and a rescheduled solar observing session, the Sun came out and didn't disappoint any of us. But there was so much more to be seen and experienced by our visitors, but more of that later. Unusually, we had no new volunteers joining us today, but twelve experienced volunteers turned up, encouraged by the weather forecast, which turned out to be very accurate! As is normally the case, everyone pitched in, bringing the equipment up from the stores