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. The meeting took place as a hybrid meeting at the [...]
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.
21 January 2022 Meeting Report
What an excellent and clearly explained talk we had from Dr Elizabeth Stanway on "Building galaxies one star at a time".
Back to physical/hybrid meetings
Due to the lifting of restrictions, from our next talk on 4 February we will be back at the Augustine United Church (AUC), George IV Bridge Edinburgh, as well as streamed online. We hope to see as many of you there as possible.
7 January 2022 Meeting Report
We had a good audience on Zoom as well as through our YouTube channel, with members and visitors enjoying a fascinating talk by Rebeka Higgitt of National Museums Scotland, on “Nevil Maskelyne and the global projects of 18th-century astronomy”.
17 December 2021 Meeting Report
We had a highly entertaining and informative talk on the history of Thomas Cooke telescopes and other business enterprises, from Martin Lunn. Andrew Farrow also gave us an update on our work on the Cooke telescope on Calton Hill.
3 December 2021 Meeting report
It was great to hear from Will Joy about his passion for meteorites and his intrepid Indiana Jones adventures, hunting them in the deserts of the world. Nigel Goodman also gave us a really good presentation about the night sky in December.
Observe the ever-changing Moon
Surely the Moon is boring because nothing ever changes on it? Not at all - it changes its appearance daily. The angle of Sun hitting the surface varies and casts strange and beautiful shadows across its landscape.
What does ASE membership mean?
We always welcome visitors to our meetings at the Astronomical Society of Edinburgh (ASE) - and that will never change. But what does it actually mean if you choose to join us?
What’s in a name? The Tribbles are loose!
How do astronomical objects get their common names? Some are very obvious, others less so. But who says that's what they'll be named? I say these are the Tribble Nebulae - who's going to say they aren't?