SOCIETY IN FOCUS

At the Astronomical Society of Edinburgh

(ASE) we ran our second Telescope Help Shop in February. A wide range of budding astronomers came along, from children to retired people, and they brought along their telescopes so they could learn how to use them. We’re often contacted by people with a telescope sitting in a cupboard or garage who would love to use them but don’t know how to begin. The Help Shop gets them started, with more experienced members of the society showing them how to set up the mount, align the finder, get an image into

focus and point it at an object in the sky.

We planned the event so that the Moon would be visible in the daytime sky and we had enough gaps in the clouds that we did manage to see it. There were talks on subjects such as mounts, eyepieces and observing checklists and we introduced the ASE-24: Observing List for Beginners,

a useful guide for new observers.

The Help Shop is part of our ‘Four Steps to the Stars’ programme for beginners, with Choosing a Telescope, Navigating the Night Sky and Intro to Astro imaging.

Normally we meet on the first Friday of

every month and visitors are welcome, but because of COVID-19 we are continuously updating our website, Twitter feed and Facebook page.

Mark Phillips, ASE web and media officer ▶ www.astronomyedinburgh.org