The Croydon Astronomical Society	Updated
	Astronomical Event Diary	9th March 2009

This page shows events related to astronomy in the area around Croydon and the more important national events, it does not include details of our lectures that can be found here.

Our observatory at Kenley is open to members on Fridays when there are no lectures at the Royal Russell School.

If we are opening our observatory at Kenley specially for an Astronomical event details will be listed on this page. Details of the regular opening of our observatory for both members and the public are on The Kenley Observatory page.

General Sky Diaries of Astronomical Events are published in the monthly Astronomical Magazines as well as the publications of The Society for Popular Astronomy (SPA) and the BAA. A detailed list of Astronomical Events visible from the UK – Weather permitting is here – courtesy of the SPA. Get out and observe – take some pictures, images or movies and send them to us for the web page!

Updated information on any closures of Kenley due to circumstances beyond the Committee's control will be put on the news page.. It is advisable to phone the Observatory on 020 8668 9642 from about 20:00 to check if we are open.

The observatory is normally open on clear Saturday evenings from September to May for public viewing; check the news page for any changes to this. You can always phone the Observatory on 020 8668 9642 the recorded message should tell you when we next expect to be open.

Astronomical Events for your Diary - see you there !

Date	Event
Thursday 26^th March 2009 to Monday 30^th March 2009	The 2009 Isle of Wight  Spring Star Party come and see the stars under some of the darkest skies in the south of England see the SAGASonLine web site for more details.
Sunday 19th April 2009 to Friday 24th April 2009	The Joint European National Astronomy Meeting will be hosted by The University of Hertfordshire from 19th to 24th April 2009. While it is aimed at professional astronomers a lot of the lectures should be able to be understood by a competent amateur.
Saturday 27th June 2009	CAS Barbaque at Kenley - more details to follow
Saturday 4th July 2009	Planned Date for the Nightlife 2009 IYA Event at Portsmouth Naval Base
Saturday 8th August 2009	SW Astronomy Fair 2009 at Norman Lockyer Observatory, Sidmouth Devon. See the NLO web site for details.
17th November 2009 21:34 and 21:44 UTC	Possible Leonid Meteor 'Storm' with rates to 500 meteors per hour. See the Science@NASA information page here.
9th May 2016	Transit of Mercury - This one should be visible from Kenley but rather low at 3rd / 4th Contact (7 degrees)
Friday 13th April 2029	Asteroid 2004 MN4 will come close to Earth - it should be visible around magnitude 3.3 from Europe. This is the closest approach for an asteroid for about 1000 years. It is predicted to pass at about 18,600 miles (30,000 km) above the ground. For comparison, geosynchronous satellites orbit at 22,300 miles (36,000 km). It is 320m in diameter - enough to cause the world a major headache. The current view (2006) is that it is 'unlikely (probability of 1.6%) to hit the Earth