Society news
At most Ordinary Meetings Alan Pickup gives a presentation about the sky in the forthcoming month, usually including snippets of recent news in the fields of observational astronomy and spaceflight.
On 2009-11-06, Catherine Smith demonstrated that a mathematician and banker with a working-class background might well write a biography of Robert Burns: Credit crunch, famine, climate change, they had it all in Burns' lifetime. Burns learnt astronomy as a young farmer's son and kept a life-long interest in science as well as arts. On 2009-12-04, Douglas Cooper presented some of his stunning astrophotographs and gave some pointers how to go about imaging the night sky. In January, Melvin Taylor was in town for the annual exhibition of Turner watercolours, and made some "confessions of an amateur observer" on 2010-01-08. For 2010-02-05, Ettore Pedretti had to step in at short notice to report on the technological challenges and recent successes of optical interferometry in seeing detail on stars. Des Loughney gave an interesting talk on 2010-03-05 about the currently eclipsed star ε Aurigae, emphasising the importance of amateur observations.
Imaging group
The imaging group has re-formed and held its first - well attended - meeting on 2010-02-24 in Juniper Green. This group is for members interested in using cameras and imaging devices in amateur astronomy, beginners and experienced imagers. Watch out for announcements of further meetings.
