Astronomical Society of Glasgow

30/08/2026

ASG Observatory Open Day

Join the Astronomical Society of Glasgow at the Eric Tomney Memorial Observatory at Mugdock Country Park on Saturday 12 September, from 12 noon to 5pm.

Come and explore the observatory, see our astronomical equipment up close and, weather permitting, observe the Sun safely through specialised solar equipment.

The Open Day also coincides with the newly opened Stars Over Mugdock astrophotography exhibition in the Campsie Gallery, celebrating the wonders of the night sky and the work of local astrophotographers.

📷 And there is more to come. Throughout the exhibition, we are planning special Meet the Astronomer sessions, giving visitors the opportunity to meet some of the photographers behind the images, hear about how they captured them and find out how you can get started photographing the night sky yourself.

More dates and details will be announced soon.

📍 Eric Tomney Memorial Observatory and Mugdock Country Park
📅 Saturday 12 September
🕛 12 noon–5pm
☀️ Solar observing, weather permitting
🎟️ Free and open to all

Location: The Eric Tomney Memorial Observatory is based within Mugdock Country Park, Milngavie. Directions and travel information can be found on the Mugdock Country Park website:
https://www.eastdunbarton.gov.uk/services/a-z-of-services/parks-open-spaces/mugdock-park/about-the-park/

The observatory is near the Mugdock Park Visitor Centre which has a cafe, shop and toilets.

This is on Eventbrite if you'd like to add the event to your calendar:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/astronomical-society-of-glasgow-open-day-tickets-1999211734114

We hope to see you there!

23/08/2026

Council member of the ASG Andrew Conway captured a beautiful timelapse of the eclipse.

12/08/2026

So it begins!!! Pictures from ASG's Andrew Conway, from Lagos, Portugal. ☀️

11/08/2026

🌑 A Solar Eclipse is Happening Tomorrow

On Wednesday 12 August, the Moon will pass between the Earth and Sun, creating a total solar eclipse along a narrow path across the Arctic, Greenland, Iceland and northern Spain.

Here in Glasgow, we will see a spectacular partial eclipse, with around 92% of the Sun obscured at maximum.

From Glasgow:

🌑 Eclipse begins: 6:08 pm
🌑 Maximum eclipse: 7:06 pm
🌑 Eclipse ends: 8:00 pm

At maximum, only a thin crescent of the Sun will remain visible. If the skies are clear, this should be a striking sight, with the daylight noticeably dimming as the Moon passes across the Sun.

This will be the deepest solar eclipse visible from the UK since 1999, when parts of Cornwall experienced totality.

How can you watch it?

If you have proper solar viewing glasses, make sure they are specifically designed for solar observation and are undamaged.

No solar glasses? You can still watch safely using indirect projection. A simple pinhole projector, cereal-box projector or even a kitchen colander can project an image of the eclipsed Sun without looking directly at it.

⚠️ Never look directly at the Sun during a partial eclipse. Ordinary sunglasses, CDs, film or homemade filters are not safe. Do not look through binoculars or a telescope unless they have a proper solar filter fitted to the front.

UK safety guidance: https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2026/07/23/how-to-watch-the-solar-eclipse-safely-this-summer/

If anyone has legitimate and safe guidance on where to find solar glasses in time for the eclipse, please share.

Keep an eye on the western sky tomorrow evening, and let us know if you manage to see it!

Painting used in poster: The Eclipse of the Sun in Venice, 1842. Painted in the 19th century by Italian Romantic painter Ippolito Caffi.

08/04/2026

A comprehensive tracker of what the Artemis II crew is currently doing, as well a space bird's eye view of the vessel heading back to Earth 🧑‍🚀🚀

Track NASA's Artemis II in real-time. Speed, distance, trajectory map, crew telemetry. First crewed lunar mission since 1972.

08/04/2026

08/04/2026

"We saw sights that no human has ever seen, not even Apollo, and that was amazing for us." - commander Reid Wiseman 🤩

The Artemis II crew go further than any humans before in Nasa's first crewed mission to the Moon in over 50 years.

17/03/2026

Lecture Update | Astronomical Society of Glasgow

Due to ongoing travel disruption affecting services through Glasgow Central, this week’s planned lecture by Dr Heloise Stevance, How Can AI Help Us Find Exploding Stars and Hungry Black Holes?, has unfortunately had to be postponed. We hope to welcome her at a future meeting.

We are very pleased that Hong-Gang Yang, a postgraduate researcher in cosmology at the School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, will now be speaking at this Thursday’s meeting.

A History of our Understandings of the Universe
The ΛCDM model has been the standard model of cosmology for nearly two decades. It describes a Universe that began with the Big Bang and continues to expand today, yet also suggests that around 95% of the cosmos is made up of dark matter and dark energy, whose physical nature remains unknown.
In this talk, Hong-Gang will give a brief overview of how our understanding of the Universe has evolved, from the ideas of ancient Greek philosophers to modern cosmology. He will explore how astronomers arrived at a model in which most of the Universe is still mysterious, and what the future may hold for attempts to understand it.

Hong-Gang is a PhD student based at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, where his research focuses on the large-scale structure of the Universe.

All are welcome.
Full details via the link in our bio.