During the early 1940s, the Journal of the British Astronomical Association devoted a few columns to letters sent in by members under the title of ?Astronomical Queries?, while the Editor would endeavour to obtain authoritative answers. The following extract is submitted purely for passing historical interest only, as it was a query sent in by one of our own members (who apparently wished to remain anonymous) and published in the JBAA, March 1942 Vol.52 No.2. Which incidental in those days was priced at 3/-, 15p for younger members. The extract reads as follows along with the reply: "A member of the Astronomical Society of the Technical College, Coventry while observing Saturn on 1941 October 28^th. at 20h. 20m., discovered a luminous patch which extended in length and varied in brightness. The phenomenon lasted about 15 minutes. Did any others observe this? What is the explanation? Answer- Eliminating the possibility of the phenomenon being due to aircraft, the only other explanation is that it was the trail of a fireball. Such a trail could persist more than 15 minutes, and in many cases these trails have lasted for much longer than this.

Perhaps the fireball, if such it was, was observed by others. If so, details should be sent to the Editor - M. Davidson

The leaflet reproduced below is from the British Astronomical Association outlining their plan for cutting light pollution. This is now a serious problem for some of the worlds major observatories, especially in America. All of us who look at the sky will know how much the stars have seemed to dim in just a few short years, not just because we?re getting older, but being hidden behind a creeping orange glow from every road, town and city. This sky glow is light which is being wasted and this is energy we are paying for. Most of this is caused by bad design and poor fitting of lamps which direct the light in a haphazard way to where its needed. Most of it in some cases, lighting up the undersides of passing aircraft! Of cause some light will get up into the sky no matter how good the lamps are by reflection off the ground. But this would be a small amount compared to the amount now being wasted. If you would like to obtain further information, just write to the BAA.

EYE on the SKY

Summer, well the rains got warmer and the nights have got shorter, so it must be. This is the time of the year that most amateurs forget all about the night sky. Living as we do at this latitude gives us long sunny evenings without any really dark skys for well over a month each side of the 21^st of June. Astronomical dark is when the sun lies more than 18° below the horizon, and this does not happen at 52° North for about 70 days of the year. Even the moon is hard to find being low down in the sky as it follows the ecliptic. The sky is just a very dark blue, with maybe two or three of the brightest stars showing. So if you are out around midnight, you?ll find there is a soft glow of light from the north which hides all those deep sky objects you read about in the American astronomy mags. Their stars shine bright because most of the states lie at far lower latitudes than us. Hence dark skies. So nothing to observe? So we all pack our ?scopes away. All, that is, apart from the ones who are into solar observing. I must admit that I have never had a real go at this part of our hobby as I?m only too well aware of the dangers of pointing a pair of binoculars or a telescope towards the sun. Even the finder scope on the side of the main tube has burnt and singed a few folk who forgot to cover its front!

The best (and safest) way to look at the sun, is to project its image on to a sheet of white card a foot or two behind the eyepiece after fitting a sun-screen made from sheet of stiff card around the telescope or binoculars to create a shadow patch covering the area where the image will fall. The image of the sun is focused onto this surface and any spots will show up easily.

Adrawing can then be made of any spots visible. I am always surprised at how faint this projected image can be and it needs careful study to spot the smaller spots. A quick check by projecting the image with one half of a pair of binoculars will show whether the sun has any markings that day. The sun has now passed the peak of this sunspot cycle but so far has not had many days with a clear unblemished face. So do have a go at this branch of astronomy and send in your results for the other members to enjoy.