Astronomy in Edinburgh
Sharing our love of astronomy with Edinburgh, the Lothians, UK and around the world, since 1924.
Come along to one of our meetings. Visitors are welcome to join us on our YouTube channel or in person at our physical meetings.
Stay involved and keep watching here, on Facebook and Twitter.
We aim to have something happening at least three times a month. The first Friday of each month will be a hybrid meeting at 7:30pm at the Augustine United Church, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh. This will also be broadcast on Zoom for ASE members and YouTube for visitors. Our second talk, sometime around the middle of the month, will just be on Zoom and YouTube.
We also have the monthly Imaging & Observing Group (IOG) meetings for ASE members on the Wednesday after the first monthly meeting.
If you want to get more involved in astronomy and learn together in our IOG, consider joining us. More information on our Membership page.
Observing forecast for Edinburgh
A green block indicates a clear sky, orange partially clear, red cloudy. Blue blocks show cloud level – darker blue is clearer. Click on the chart for hourly detail and ISS passes. Forecast provided by clearoutside.com
Featured news
Scotland’s Sky in October 2022
Sun eclipsed on 25th as Mars and Jupiter dominate nights
Review of the book – “Fire and Ice Volcanoes of the Solar system” by Natalie Starkey
Radim Stano reviews the book by Natalie Starkey after hearing her speak at an ASE meeting.
Meeting Report 16 September 2022
What a really excellent talk from Dr Denis Vida of the Global Meteor Network. With all the interest in the recent fireball seen across Scotland a couple of days ago this was a very timely meeting.
More news
Meeting Report 9 September 2022
Peter Goodhew showed how amateurs can help discover and image new planetary nebulae in today's world where there are huge ground based telescopes as well as the likes of Hubble and Webb.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
With the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on 8 September 2022, a page of history has turned right before our eyes. This Society was founded in October 1924, just 18 months before Queen Elizabeth was born in April 1926. This fact alone helps us to appreciate how long the Queen has been part of our national life.
Would you like to help keep the JWST safe?
Pat Devine tells us about the UK- and Global- Meteor Networks, and how the cameras, built and operated by amateurs, can help to keep spacecraft safer.
15 July meeting report
We had a very thought-provoking talk from Grant from First Light Optics on Friday, telling us all about the Ikarus observatory hosted in Spain.
John Murrell FRAS
Sadly I have to report the passing of one of our members, John Murrell, on 25 June 2022, after a short illness.
1 July Members Night meeting report
We had our second member night on 1 July and had some great presentations from ASE members: UK Astro Shows Ian Smith put together some info about these: There are [...]
17 June 2022 Meeting Report
Geologist and cosmochemist Dr Natalie Starkey gave a fantastic talk about the science of fire and ice vulcanism found in our solar system.
3 June 2022 Meeting Report
Jim Paterson spoke to us about “The mustard seed which grew into an observatory”, the story of his involvement in International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) accreditation for Moffat and how that led to a brand new community observatory !
20 May 2022 Earth Explores Mars: 25 years of Discoveries
Emily Ladkawalla joined us from the West Coast of America to talk about the development of our exploration of Mars.
6 May 2022 Meeting Report
To open the meeting our President Mark Phillips gave us the usual highlights of the upcoming Society programme. Adding to the good news, the Society grew by no less than [...]
Making a Breeze Block Telescope Pier
Andrew Farrow describes how he built a simple breeze-block garden pier to stop having to carry his tripod and mount into the garden and going through the alignment process every time.
1 April 2022 Members Night meeting report
We had our first Members Night on Friday 1st April. This was an opportunity for members of the ASE to get together and present a variety of topics of interest. [...]
Ask an Astronomer
Is there something you always wanted to know about our universe?
How to observe a planet? Take a photo of the stars? Which telescope to buy? Why is space black? …
Well here’s your chance: just ask your question in the form and we’ll try and get back to you with an answer. The answer may just be: “we have no idea” – but that’s the beauty of astronomy!