Basingstoke Astronomical Society

For the 2026/27 season our practical meetings will be held on the 2nd Thursday of each month and our main meetings will be held on the 4th Thursday of each month.

Talks planned for this season:

Thursday, September 24, 2026 Hunting Outbursting Young Stars, a citizen science project by Dr Dirk Froebrich (University of Kent)
Thursday, October 22, 2026 The UK Meteor Network: a Decade of Video Detections Mark McIntyre
Thursday, November 26, 2026 Archaeoastronomy of Stonehenge Simon Banton
Thursday, December 10, 2026 TBC - Dr Mark Kidger ??
Thursday, January 28, 2027 Club Astro Quiz Night
Thursday, February 25, 2027 The World of Landscape Astrophotography Abby Moule
Thursday, March 25, 2027 Measuring the variability of quasars Dr Peter Allen, RAL
Thursday, April 22, 2027 Planetary Imaging at the edge Martin Lewis
Thursday, May 27, 2027 Chair's Address TBD Mike Harrison
Thursday, June 24, 2027 AGM

Society Events

November 13th - Winter Observing Marathon
Join us for an observing marathon on the night of the Leonids meteor shower peak and during new Moon; aiming to balance the Spring Messier Marathon with another seasonal viewing event. 4 Planets are high and the winter stars of Orion , Auriga and Taurus are rising
Observing from Cliddesden school field - setup at 18:30 away from the building due to lighting issues.
Go/no-go due to weather shared by Whatapp 1730 on the day.
20th December - Christmas Dinner at the Queens Head, Dummer.

Solar Eclipse viewing at Cliddesden School

On the afternon and early evening of the 12th August there was a partial solar eclipse visible in the UK and the society was organised for it.

Our members setup the telescopes around the field at Cliddesden and from 4.30 onwards there was a much bigger stream of people than anticipated - We thogh just members woere coming but it trns out the word had got out on social media and even tpo the local radio and newspapers that we had a stock of eclipse sunglasses and so the queues began.

Here's a set of picture of the evening and some of the telescopes and some of the local roads..

Supporting VanLife Eats

Every August Bank Holiday weekend at Dummer Farm, the Van Life Eats festival arrives to promote van living with music, food and entertainment.

BAS supports the festival by bringing telescopes to this fairly dark site whenever the weather is good and we always get a good reception - some of the people who live in vans to live off the beaten tracks and have great experiences of really dark skies.

This year the evening weather never really cleared, in spite of the long extensive clear weather before hand. Bob, Dave and Mike setup the gazebo and scopes during the day on Sunday to look at the sun.

Calendar & Events