Darren isn't happy with the final quality of his new images, as the weather prevented good alignment of his telescope. Intermittent mist and thick cloud kept obscuring portions of the sky, but in the breaks he managed to capture his best images yet. The pick of the images is here, but more can be seen on our Gallery page. 

Click on the gallery link at the top of this page, then look for the link to the date he took the images, 2011-08-09.

Using a webcam we took some movies of the Sun in white and Hydrogen alpha light which were then processed using Registax.  Here are the results showing sunspot groups 1260, 1261 and 1262 (left to right).  In the Ha image (right) you can also see some prominences around the limb and near the sunspots.

We had a great afternoon at Bole Hills Bowling Green, showing the Sun to many visitors and passers-by.  Using our specialist solar telescopes we saw sunspots and some prominences and they all left with a new appreciation for our nearest star. 

Here we see the "Supermoon" rising over Sheffield.  A Supermoon occurs when the Moon's perigee coincides with a full moon as happened on this evening.  Picture taken by member Paul Tracey.

  Jupiter and Mercury (top) in the evening sky 

as taken by Steve Adams. 

Over 140 adults and children came to this year's Astroday where great fun was had by all.  Above we see much activity at the rocket-making table where youngsters (and adults) built their own rockets which they then took outside to launch.

Despite getting the news earlier in the week that Mayfield may be closing at the end of July, our second Stargazing event of 2011 was another resounding success.  A clear sky helped over 90 visitors to enjoy the Moon, Jupiter and the Orion Nebula plus three excellent talks on astronomical topics.  From top left above - using the telescopes, ready for a talk, 3D fun ahead, the Orion Nebula taken by Darren Swindells during the evening.

Our BBC Stargazing Live event was an amazing success. Even though we had total cloud cover, over 150 people turned up to learn about what they can find in the night's sky.

 

This year's Astromind was hosted by Cleveland & Darlington AS at a hotel near Middlesbrough and here we see Darren with Quizmaster Neil Haggarth after Darren had put in a magnificent performance and managed a very creditable fourth place.  The eventual winner was Rob of the home society.

We all had a great time this year observing the Perseid Meteor Shower. A few were seen overhead through increasingly thickening clouds. This did not put off our 50 or so visitors who stayed until late.

With varying amounts of cloud, the Sun did peek through occasionally, giving our visitors a glimpse of a sunspot and several prominences.

Here we see member Simon Howard shaking the hand of Apollo 14 astronaut Ed Mitchell during his visit to Yorkshire.  A great evening was provided by Ed, talking about the Apollo 14 mission to the Moon.

The Sun shone on our solar telescopes at Walkley Festival and many people got to see a small sunspot and a few prominences.  Our talks in the bowling green clubhouse went down well and a great afternoon was had by all.

While attending the "Space and the City"  YESnet event in Centenary Square in Bradford, Galileo popped in to show us his 2 canonballs.  Here we see member Paul Tracey about to witness that 2 lumps of iron of different weights fall at the same speed.  Mind your toes !

The first Solday of the summer observing season brought many visitors to see .... a completely blank Sun !  Despite being one of only a few sunspot-less days this year, the day was not lost as there were some prominences to be seen through our Hydrogen Alpha Solarscope and many people discovered quite suddenly how large the Sun is.

With a clear and contrail-free sky this lovely picture of the crescent Moon was taken by Steve Adams using a Canon 450D and an adapter attached to a society owned Meade LX200 telescope.  Mare Crisium is seen on the right-hand side in this view.