Stanion & Northants Astronomy Club

Welcome to Stanion & Northants Astronomy.
We are located at Stanion Village Hall, old Brigstock Road, Stanion, Northamptonshire, NN141BX

Telescope workshop lecture from 10/06/23 Stanion Village Hall…

Here we have our club member Damien Weatherley presenting his lecture on how to set up a Newtonian reflector telescope,Damien’s workshop was about how he sets up his own telescope and how to polar align which we all find very hard to do…Damien also presented a slide show on how he got interested in astronomy, and on how to use software programs to find your way around the night sky.

There was a great interest from our members with lots of questions and I know we all learned a lot from this lecture.Thank you Damien and well done !

Exoplanet Talk

Here is our guest speaker, Christina Hedges, from tonight delivering her Exoplanet talk to us at Stanion. We heard lots of interesting insights into how they are detected and how we might find out what there atmospheres are made of. Great Q&A afterwards. Thank you to everyone who came along to help make this an informative and fun evening once again.
Clear skies!

9th of May. The transit of Mercury

On the 9th of May Mercury will transit the Sun and Members of Stanion Astro Club will be observing from Stanion village hall. Using properly filtered telescopes, we will watch safely as the solar systems innermost planet makes its way across the Suns disc from 12:12BST.
All are welcome to come down and take a look through our scopes at this rare event.

Mercury Transit

Here is some great photos of the Mercury transit from two off our members,Graham Algeo and Damien Weatherley well done !!

Mercury transit at stanion village hall ,here we are setting up and getting ready for the transit of Mercury,we had a great day with lots of great photos and lots of interest from people from across the county that came along.More photos will be added later…

Here we have three pictures taken on the night of the 28/05/23 by our club members Damien Weatherley and Graham Algeo at stanion village hall.

These where taken while we where out viewing Mars,Damien’s picture captured the passing of the ISS flyover on the night,and Graham has photos of Saturn and Jupiter.it was a great night for viewing planets, stars ,and satellite flares,and thank you for all of the people that came along on the night…

Telescope beginners workshop

Stanion astronomy presents a telescope pour debutant workshop on Friday the 10th of June at 8pm by our club member Damien Weatherley.

Damien will present a great indepth talk on how to set up and use a newtonian telescope .This talk will include on how Damien sets up his own Skywatcher Newtonian scope,and there will also be advice on how to polar align a telescope.

Damien will also show how to use the free software programmes that’s available for astronomy .

Damien will be open for as many questions you can ask for telescope help.so please come along and enjoy this lecture.

Entry will be £2.00 on the night please…

Tim Peakes mission aboard the ISS

Our talk for the 5th August meeting by Dave Eagle will be all about TIm Peakes mission aboard the ISS

“Celebrate Tim Peake’s Principia Mission.
A fun and informative evening looking at Tim’s mission to the ISS, using a multi-media and audience interactive presentation.”

The meeting will start at 8PM, all are welcome, £4 entry and the bar will be open as usual for refreshments.
The evening will also include a skyguide for the month ahead and observing if weather permits.

Talk on astrophotography

Stanion Astronomy presents …Damien Wheatherley our club member’s talk on astrophotography. Friday the 1st July at 8pm at Stanion village hall…

Damien’s talk will be on how he does his Astrophotography,and on how to use Dslr cameras at prime focus,webcam imaging of planets,wide field Dslr photos,star trails,and much much more on tips and tricks to take great photos of the night sky.

Please come along and enjoy .Entry on the night will be £2.00.

Christina Hedges

Stanion Astronomy are pleased to announce we have Christina Hedges as our next guest speaker on Friday 6th of May at 8pm.

Christina Hedges is from the Institute of Astronomy,Cambridge UK and will be doing a lecture on exoplanet atmospheres on the night…

Please come along and enjoy our guest speaker…There will be a £4.00 entry on the night please.

Damien Weatherley

Our meeting this Friday the 7th of July we will have Damien Weatherley presenting a talk about how to take Startrail photographs followed by a demo on processing a startrail image from Graham Algeo. All are welcome and entry will be £2 (kids free). The talk starts at 8pm and refreshments will be available at the bar. We will also have a skyguide for the month ahead and observing afterwards if the weather permits.

Due to unforseen circumstances, our guest speaker, Gary Poyner, for May 5th meeting has had to reschedule until October.
So, this month we will have Damien Weatherley presenting his talk about back yard Astrophotography - highlighting some different ways in which you can photograph the night sky for yourself. This will be followed by a sky guide for the month ahead.
The talk will start at 8PM, entry will be £2 (children free) and all are welcome. Refreshments will be available at the bar.
Hopefully we will have clear skies afterwards for observing from the field next to the hall.

We are very pleased to be having Professor Michael Merrifield from the University of Nottingham come to our meeting on Friday 2nd June and he will be presenting his talk about Profesional telescopes. The talk will start at 8pm and will be £4 on the door (kids free). There will also be a skyguide for the month ahead and observing if the weather permits. Refreshments will be available at the bar.
Clear skies! :)

Our next meeting will be held on the 5th of May at 8pm. We are very pleased to be having Gary Poyner of the BAA Variable star section as our guest speaker for the evening and he will be presenting his talk entitled An Introduction to variable star observing - “a brief account of the science behind a selection of Variable Stars, explain how to observe them and discuss the reasons why we observe them”
Afterwards there will be a skyguide for the month ahead and if the weather permits, telescopes setup on the field next to the village hall.
All welcome, entry is £3 (children free) and the bar is open for refreshments.

Our next meeting will be on the 7th of April at 8pm and we are very pleased to announce that our club member Graham Algeo will be presenting his talk entitled “Dark adaptation, The dark side of night vision”.
There will also be a sky guide for April after a short break and observing if the weather permits.
Entry will be £2 and refreshments available at the bar.

Here are two photos from our Feb 3rd meeting,Here we have Martin Braddock with his talk on Bio signature detection on exoplanets,Martins talk was excellent and very informative and we learnt a great deal.Thanks to Martin ! Hope to see him back again for another excellent talk soon.

Hillside farm nursery are having their annual open weekend.

All proceeds to the crazy hats charity,come along to see Astronomy telescopes on the day with viewings of the sun,and any help you need with astronomy in general…A great day out !

On Friday 3rd of February, we are very pleased to be having Martin Braddock as our guest speaker to deliver his presentation entitled “Biosignature detection on exoplanets”.
There will also be the monthly skyguide presentation and many fingers crossed for a clear sky on the night!
Entry will be £3 and the bar will be open for refreshments as usual.
Hope to see you there! Clear skies!

On Friday 3rd March we are very pleased to have Professor Nial Tanvir coming from the University of Leicester to talk to us about the Big Bang.
The meeting will start at 8pm and will also include a guide to Marchs night sky.
Refreshments will be available at the bar and entry will be £3 on the door.

Our next meeting will be held on the 5th of May at 8pm. We are very pleased to be having Gary Poyner of the BAA Variable star section as our guest speaker for the evening and he will be presenting his talk entitled An Introduction to variable star observing - “a brief account of the science behind a selection of Variable Stars, explain how to observe them and discuss the reasons why we observe them”
Afterwards there will be a skyguide for the month ahead and if the weather permits, telescopes setup on the field next to the village hall.
All welcome, entry is £3 (children free) and the bar is open for refreshments.