What a very entertaining and involving talk we had from Dr Alastair Bruce of the ROE! He brought along his Lego Apollo 11 model and took us through the whole journey with a little orbital mechanics thrown in too.

Also at our meeting:

Download the ASE presentation as a PDF

Download the ASE presentation as a PDF

  • President Andrew Farrow welcomed 3 new members, including our 100th member, Tom Donohue, who was presented with a branded ASE mug
  • Horst presented the Sky in September
  • Andrew updated us on our ambitious plans for the new session:
    • Bringing the Cooke telescope on Calton Hill back to life
    • Group observing at Newbattle Abbey College
    • Finishing our 4-Steps to the Stars programme
    • ROE Doors Open days (28/29 Sept)
    • International Observe the Moon Night (5 Oct)
    • Transit of Mercury public observing (11 Nov)
    • Ongoing discussions about our own observatory
    • Regular meetings with a variety of speakers and topics (courtesy of Carl Dennis)
  • There is now a Code of Conduct on the Members site about using Newbattle Abbey for observing
  • There is also a WhatsApp group for observing notifications – details on the Members site
  • Mark Phillips gave a report on the very successful Charles Piazzi Smyth Symposium
  • Andrew covered news in astronomy and space that had caught his attention
  • Hugh Sommerville gave a brief presentation on some of his space topics of interest
  • Sean Wixted mentioned that he had received brochures from Eclipse World Tours for the Chile 2020 solar eclipse, if members are interested