June CAS Meeting

The June Cockermouth Astronomy Society meeting will be held on Tuesday 29th June 2010 at the usual venue (St Joseph's Church Hall, Cockermouth) at 7.30pm.

We have a guest speaker this month, Ryan Hickox who will be talking about:

Supermassive Blackholes & The Growth of Galaxies

All are welcome, so pass the word to your friends and family.

Jeremy

Comet C/2009 R1 McNaught

If you can manage to stay awake until about 1am and have a clear North horizon, then you might just manage to glimpse the rapidly moving Comet McNaught c/2009 R1. It is brightening nicely, currently at Mag 6.3 but expected to brighten to Mag 3.0 by the end of the month.

There is a nicely developing tail visible in long exposure images.

http://www.spaceweather.com/submissions/pics/m/Michael-JAcger-2009R120100606UT0050web_1275850175.jpg

Check out this great time lapse video of the comet "passing by" a galaxy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DY3nfJgys4

Of course you'll be battling the twilight so I suspect it'll be quite a challenge.

Clear skies are predicted for most of next week, so have a go and report your observations at the next CAS meeting (June 29th) or bring along your photos.

Jerry

Telescope for sale

I have recently been contaced by someone locally who has a telescope for sale. The scope is a Celestron NexStar GT80 which I'm told is in good condition and still in its original box. If anyone is interested please contact me and I will pass on the seller's details.


Chris