Exmoor Stargazing

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Exmoor Stargazing

This page is run by Exmoor volunteers in association with the Exmoor National Park Authority.

Exmoor StarGazers is a group for everyone interested in the amazing dark skies of Exmoor National Park. Anyone is welcome to join our page and those who live in the area are also warmly invited to become members of the Exmoor StarGazers Club. No special knowledge or experience is required, our members range from experts in specific fields to complete novices. Exmoor StarGazers holds frien

dly meetings at local pubs and viewing nights when the weather permits. Feel free to share your astronomy tips, photos and experiences here. It's also a good place to start up astronomy discussions and ask questions.

25/04/2026

The Moon's close proximity makes it one of the most interesting objects to observe through a telescope. Currently for observers on Exmoor, it's very high in the sky so the effects of Earth's atmosphere are minimised. This photo is last night's half moon with some dramatic shadows crossing the floor of the crater Walther (named after the German astronomer Bernhard Walther). Clear night forecast for tonight, so maybe grab your scope and enjoy the views! :)

Photo: Tim Wetherell

06/04/2026

Thanks to peter Fletcher for this beautiful photo of Bode's Galaxy.

Bode’s galaxy. Discovered by the German astronomer Johann Elert Bode in 1774, M81 is one of the brightest galaxies in the night sky. It is located 11.6 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major.

The galaxy’s spiral arms, which wind all the way down into its nucleus, are made up of young, bluish, hot stars formed in the past few million years. They also host a population of stars formed in an episode of star formation that started about 600 million years ago. Ultraviolet light from hot, young stars is fluorescing the surrounding clouds of hydrogen gas. A number of sinuous dust lanes also wind all the way into the nucleus of M81.

The galaxy’s central bulge contains much older, redder stars. It is significantly larger than the Milky Way’s bulge. A black hole of 70 million solar masses resides at the center of M81 and is about 15 times the mass of the Milky Way’s central black hole. Previous Hubble research showed that the size of the black hole in a galaxy’s nucleus is proportional to the mass of the galaxy’s bulge.

20/03/2026

Sketching one of Jupiter's Galilean moons casting its shadow on the planet last night, seen through a 180mm aperture telescope. The next of these shadow transits will occur around 9pm on March 23. So if you have a telescope it will be something interesting to point it at :)

16/01/2026

Excellent photo of the Crab Nebula by Peter Fletcher. This is a massive supernova remnant located approximately 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Ta**us. At its core lies the Crab Pulsar, a rapidly spinning neutron star that rotates 30 times per second. The nebula is the leftover debris from a cataclysmic stellar explosion (the SN 1054 supernova) which was recorded by Chinese and Japanese astronomers in 1054 AD.

10/01/2026

Excellent capture of the Horsehead Nebula in Orion by Peter Fletcher. Nebulae can glow by emission, where the gas atoms become excited by nearby starlight and re-emit light of a specific colour - the red you see here being characteristic of hydrogen. But sometimes they can also absorb light creating dark nebulae such as the Horsehead. You can certainly see where it gets its name!

05/01/2026

Revisiting the open cluster Caroline's Rose (NGC 7789) this evening with a larger telescope. The dark lanes in the cluster do kind of make it look like a rose with a bit of imagination. Second image is a wide view of the familiar constellation of Cassiopeia with NGC 7789 ringed. Pics Tim Wetherell

04/01/2026

Photo by Peter Fletcher of the full moon shining bright and clear over Exmoor last night. This was a supermoon, meaning it was full at the same time as its orbit brings it closest to the Earth. As a result, supermoons are a little bigger and brighter than a normal full moon and are often given names, the Wolf Moon in this case.

15/12/2025

This excellent image of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) was recently captured by Peter Fletcher. It's around 2.5 million light years away, 152.000 light years in diameter, contains an estimate of 1 trillion stars. This galaxy is very well placed for viewing from Exmoor at the moment!

11/12/2025

This is Caroline's Rose, or NGC 7789. A little known open cluster in the constellation of Cassiopeia. It was discovered by the Georgian astronomer Caroline Herschel in 1783. It's almost overhead from Exmoor during December evenings so very well placed for visual observation or imaging. This is a 30s exposure in a 90mm f5.6 refractor. It's a little challenging to see visually but can definitely be done from a dark site with a typical amateur telescope.

Tim Wetherell

19/06/2025

The moon rising over Hinkley C last night

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