Fri 22 Aug
21:10
21:10
Saturn at opposition
Rings open to twenty-six degrees, the best they will be this decade. The 8-inch refractor will be on it all night.
An amateur observatory with two working refractors, one of them older than the building. Public nights every clear Friday, no charge, no booking, no telescope required.
The dome opens at dusk and closes when the last person leaves, which in December is about nine and in June is about two in the morning. There is a kettle and there are no chairs.
Rings open to twenty-six degrees, the best they will be this decade. The 8-inch refractor will be on it all night.
Albireo, Mizar, and the one everybody argues about. Bring nothing; we will show you how to find them again from your garden.
Past the peak and therefore worth watching, because there is nobody else on the hill.
How the first person to measure the distance to a star did it with a brass instrument and eleven months of patience.
An 8-inch Cooke refractor of 1888, on its original clock drive. It is the reason the society exists and it is still the best instrument on the hill.
A 5-inch Grubb from 1902, mounted on the south pier. Easier to point, easier to share, and the one every visitor actually looks through.
A meridian transit instrument that has not been used in earnest since 1961 and is kept working out of stubbornness.
Members get the gate code, the observing log, and the right to be on the hill at three in the morning without explaining themselves to anybody.