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
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 !
Scotland’s Sky in June 2022
The three stellar lighthouses in our twilit midsummer nights
More news
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. [...]
18 March Meeting Report
We had a very interesting talk from Whitham D Reeve about observing HF Meteor Trail Reflections from Anchorage in Alaska.
4 March 2022 Meeting Report
Dr Max Ruffert gave a dynamic talk on gamma-ray bursts, black holes, neutron stars and gravitational waves, and provided excellent practical explanations for his theoretical work. Alan Pickup also presented the Sky in March.
Book review: The Stargazer’s Sister by Carrie Brown
Hilary Phillips reviews The Stargazer’s Sister, a fictionalised account of the life of Caroline Herschel, sister of the much more famous William. A great read that manages to combine a personal and somewhat romanticised life story with some real astronomy.
18 February 2022 Meeting Report
We had an excellent talk from Lyn Smith of the BAA. With the help of some stunning images and video clips and her normal infectious enthusiasm, Lyn explained the many features of the Sun's atmosphere to a large online audience.
The ASE Charles Tulley Telescope
This is the document produced by Andrew Farrow following on from his presentation at the 4 February 2022 meeting. The ASE Charles Tulley Telescope
4 February 2022 Meeting Report
We were pleased to return to the physical/hybrid meetings at the Augustin United Church on Friday. The invited speaker this week was Professor Giles Hammond from the University of Glasgow who gave an interesting and personal account of his work renovating the 20” Grubb-Parsons telescope.
How to record an eclipsing binary transit light curve
As well as taking impressive pictures, why not use your imaging skills to record some real science data and work out what's going on in an eclipsing binary star system.
The Banks Transit Table and Telescope
Andrew Farrow recently took this instrument out of storage to check on its condition and do a bit of research.
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!