Observing

Please note that the observing evenings are only open to staff and students of the University. For up-to-date observing information please check the home page.

To see what's in the sky now, click here to visit Dr. Fiona Vincent's webpage.

Mailing list

To add your email address to the mailing list please enter your university username in the box below eg. if your email address is: 'abc123@st-andrews.ac.uk' then enter 'abc123'

About Observing Sessions

We meet in the Napier building (see map). Access is available via Buchanan Gardens (on the way to DRA and Fife Park), or around the outside of the playing fields - watch it though, this can get a bit muddy! The Napier building (shown above) is the furthest north and is distinctive in the fact that it is the only one with two domes.

This map is provided by The University of St. Andrews Interactive Map:

Observing evenings are basically the University letting us (Astrosoc - so staff and students of the Univeristy only - sorry!) loose on their stuff. We have a Meade LX-200 16" and another Meade LX-200 10" (both Schmidt-Cassegrains), although usually we just use the 16".

Both telescopes are equipped with CCD cameras, so you can take pictures of stuff. The 16" is linked up to the computer, so files can be saved and exported to other computers. The 10" has a CCD as well, which takes better pictures of bright objects, such as Jupiter and Saturn (plus it's got lots of cool switches to play around with!).

Occasionally we also go and bother the people working in the JGT (James Gregory Telescope). Basically because it's big (the largest optical telescope in the UK) and because they have a heated room (wow!).

Typical targets include whichever planets are up, bright deep sky objects (such as the Orion Nebula (M42)), any bright comets, special binary stars, clusters, and anything else up there that's interesting.

The two Meade telescopes (16" and 10") are University owned and managed. They very kindly let us borrow them for the evening. Both are computer controlled, so if you want, bring along an object list (preferably with RA and Dec co-ordinates) and we'll have a look at them. If you ask nicely, we might even let you play with them.