CAG AGM to be held on Saturday 23rd February - 1330hrs in Caithness Horizons

The AGM will take place in the education room at Caithness Horizons, Thurso on the 23rd February at 1330hrs. All members and anyone with an interest in the activities of the Group are invited to attend.

Castlehill - 7pm on 8th February

CAG are holding a members (& invited guests) workshop on Friday 8th Feb. The proposed content is as follows:

If we get clear skies we'll have a stargazing session covering:

- pointing the CAG 10" scope at various objects in the winter night sky (pre-prepared observing list) & assisting those with their own scopes to find the same objects if they wish

- night sky photography - quick demo on how to generate star trails image

- determining NELM using Ursa Minor

Indoors activities:

- polar alignment of an equatorial mount and what the setting circles are for

- equipment display - the chance mingle, ask advice and to see what equipment members have and how they've found using it

- generating a star trails image from a sequence of photos and using simple free software such as StarStax

Observing Session - 15th Feb (7pm at Castlehill Heritage Centre)

If the weather is suitable CAG will be holding an observing session on Friday 15th Feb.

On the night we hope to observe asteroid 2012 DA14 which will whizz by the Earth passing at a distance less than some weather satellites we have orbiting our planet! See news story here http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news177.html.

Location chart for the asteroid and ephemeris for those with goto telescopes, can be found in the CAG Library.

Also on show if the weather allows will be Jupiter (with a shadow transit of Ganymede), the Moon, as well as the usual winter sights.

The general public are welcome to come along and join CAG members observe the night sky at this Dark Sky Discovery Site.