The Central Scotland Observers Group has been set up for a group of amateur astronomers, mostly from the Scottish central belt, in order to help organisation of observing nights and has been running since 2006.

We are not an astronomy club, we have no regular meetings, and there are there no fees for joining. We are just a group of folk interested in observing and standing about in the cold getting eaten by the midges or freezing our bits off. :)

Beginners are more than welcome!

Latest: Abernethy Star Party on 31st Oct 2009

Many thanks to everyone who came along to the Abernethy Star Party

The event was a complete success and we even had a decent long period of clear skies when we viewed various targets like; the Moon, Albireo, Andromeda galaxy (M31), Owl cluster (NGC 457), Pleiades (M45), Jupiter & 3 moons (Io, Callisto & Ganymede), Great hercules cluster (M13) and a few other objects.

We raised a total of £180 for Macmillan Cancer Support Well done everyone!

Special thanks go to:
All the helpers from Abernethy who took care of us all: Helen, Hilda, Linsey & Elaine, Gail and Graham.
The members from Dundee Astronomical Society (http://www.dundeeastro.com): Phil Rourke (DAS Chairman), Bill Samson (speaker), Ken Kennedy (speaker) and Robert Law who contributed their knowledge to the event.
The CSOG members who helped out on the evening: Heavy Al, Brian, Tom, Gary, Bill, Kathleen and especially David Miller who has dedicated so much time and effort to organising this event.

Many thanks,
Paul Stephen

P.S. Tom mentioned 2 freeware software packages in his talk. Here are the links:
Stellarium & Virtual moon Atlas

AbernethyStarParty

- Email: info AT scottishastronomers DOT com

- MSN: info AT scottishastronomers DOT com

- Forum: My ID on our forum, on StarGazers Lounge and on Astro-Chat is G1ZmO

Come and join our forum!

Come and join our forum! Regardless of where you live you are welcome to join our forum to discuss astronomy matters.

Featured You-Tube Astronomy Video

This is the official trailer for the IYA2009. Credit: International Year of Astronomy 2009, IAU and UNESCO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVJmZmo6kzI

CSOG Aims
The primary aim of our group is to provide a means of communication for people who wish to get together for group observing sessions.

Our group:
1 - Provides some security by observing in a group.
2 - Offers a chance to try out other members scopes, bins, filters, etc
3 - Enables members to discuss and suggest new observing targets and sites.

While taking part in group sessions and mailing list or forum discussions is not compulsory, it is the main purpose of the group and we would therefore like to encourage all members to take part.

Please note:
This is not the website for the Scottish Astronomers Group.
The website for the SAG is www.scottishastronomers.info

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE!:
We currently have 3 short quizzes:

The first is really for the general public (ie non-astronomers) and it's purpose is to guage the level of knowledge the public has on astronomical matters.

Our second short quiz is aimed at those who have some knowledge of astronomy.

Our third quiz is run by Thumbless, one of our members.