A 5 billion star astronomy centre!

Astrofarm Visit to Limoges for the festival of stars event On the 22nd of April Astrofarm was invited by the Limoges Astronomy Club to take part in their annual one day event “Festival of the Stars” just south of Limoges. Having never been to this event before, now in its 11th year, I was unsure what to expect. However I have been on one previous event with the good folk from Limoges so I knew it would be enjoyable and … Read More

An Astrofarm visit to the Nançay Radio Telescope At the beginning of April we were fortunate enough to be able to visit the Nançay radio telescope which is located in the small French commune of Nançay, about two hours’ drive south of Paris and about 3 hours’ drive north from Astrofarm. The radio telescope is developing and operating among the biggest radio astronomy instruments in the world, observing the universe at wavelengths between 3 cm and 10 m. What is … Read More

Messier Marathon Sunday 26th- Monday 27th Astrofarm Confolens (To read to story behind the Messier Marathon Challenge check out our previous blog here) Setting the scene – Andrew Davies This month saw the return of Chris Greenfield and his Takahashi telescope to Astrofarm. Chris was with us last year for the Messier Marathon and managed to see 68 objects. This year we made a bit of an event of it and invited local astronomy groups, including ADAES (Association for the Discovery of … Read More

Charles Messier Charles Messier was a French Astronomer who worked at the Marine Observatory at the Hotel de Cluny in Paris. His main objective was the discovery of comets. His work led to him compiling a catalogue of deep sky objects known today as the ‘Messier Catalogue of nebulae and star clusters’. Messier married at the age of 40, his wife and son died during childbirth two years later. He never remarried and committed the rest of his life to astronomy, … Read More

Understanding Magnitude How bright is that star? is actually a very good question and one I am asked many times on our courses and when we have visitors outside here at Astrofarm gazing at our night sky. To answer, the first thing we need to establish is “compared to what?” This may be another star or a planet.  Then we need to look at the scale on which star brightness is measured. This scale is called the “Magnitude Scale” and is … Read More

What magnification is that? When showing people objects through a telescope for the first time, be it the Moon, a planet or another celestial body, one of the most asked questions is “What magnification is that”. It is important that we as astronomers know not only the answer, but also know how to describe the value of the answer. Like all of my blogs I am going to keep this simple and not try and baffle anyone with long explanations and … Read More

A new adventure My astro Journey 2016 should perhaps be called my astrophotography journey as I seem to have embraced this side of astronomy since moving to France. I am very fortunate, I know, to enjoy such wonderful dark skies and a micro-climate giving as many sunshine hours as the South of France. Having spent the previous 8 years in the North West of England, I was more used to grabbing a couple of hours on a rare clear night … Read More

Solstice What is a solstice? The word solstice comes from the Latin word for sun (sol) and the word meaning to ‘stand still’ because it appears that the Sun stops and changes direction. Since we can remember we have looked at the Sun, Moon and stars and watched these celestial bodies move across the sky. We have observed, documented and calculated these movements. Some have even built monuments to help predict positions and time, such as Stonehenge in England, the … Read More

So you decided you want to buy a telescope! Childhood is a period of life where we are curious about everything, where we marvel at everything and are easily convinced things are the way we are told they are by adults…. You could say this is the ideal moment to offer a child a telescope, perhaps you would like to share your interest in astronomy with them. This stage in life could also be seen as the same for people … Read More