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8 OBSERVING SESSIONS

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We meet in the field at the rear of the Red Lion Pub in the centre of the National Trust village of Lacock near Melksham

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The pub is in the centre of the Historic village of Lacock, location for many film and television productions including "Pride and Prejudice", "The Other Boleyn Girl", "Moll Flanders", "Cranford", The "Wolfman" with Sir Anthony Hopkins and two of the "Harry Potter" movies.

In being relatively unchanged since the 19th century, it is blessed with almost no street lighting, making it an exceptional dark site. The pub has plenty of parking and a good selection of food and beers including Wadworth's 6X.

Viewing evenings are normally on the 4th Friday of the month between September and May, unless a full Moon (click link or scroll to the bottom of the page) or poor seeing (see link at bottom of the page) gets in the way, in which case we will move the meeting to the 3rd Friday. As this is confirmed by members at the monthly meeting watch this web site for updates. These sessions are open for members and non members.

We also will hold special viewing evenings for meteor showers and rare events (such as the transit of Venus, comet appearances or eclipses), as well as solar viewing (see bottom of page for latest Solar views from SOHO).

During Christmas to New Year we like to hold an early evening session (starting at 6 to 6.30pm) for families and to help new instrument users to set up their equipment.

We normally start observing at around 8pm in the winter. The summer evenings can be pleasantly spent sitting in the pub gardens until dark. The society owns an 8 inch Newtonian Reflector and a 4.5 inch Celestron GoTo  (computer guided) telescope. These are available for free loan to members on a monthly basis. 

Members own a large variety of instruments, up to 1.5 Metre aperture and as many as possible are brought along to observing sessions. We welcome visitors and are always happy to help and encourage beginners. If you decide to become a member of the society you're not 'expected' to own a telescope.

Much can be learned from naked eye observing and a sound pair of binoculars can reveal a great deal. If you do choose to invest in a telescope, there's a bewildering range of equipment on offer. Digital technology has revolutionised amateur astronomy and allows just about anyone to achieve observing and imaging results undreamt of just a few years ago. Our members are more than happy to help and advise on any equipment purchases.  

If you'd like to know more about the equipment available to the amateur, check out some of the supplier websites listed on our Astro Links page, or visit the MC2 Astro Shop website. MC2 are based in Frome, and are our local supplier for all things Astro. Ask them about special discounts for WAS members

The Current Lunar Phase is shown below

(Flash should be installed to view this)

Current Solar Activity shown below (SOHO Image)

To get the current weather seeing and weather information for Wiltshire, click on this link to visit the met office latest satellite images

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