We had a very interesting and future-looking talk by John I. Davies, Senior Researcher & Principium Editor, The Initiative for Interstellar Studies at our October meeting.

Download the ASE presentation as a PDF

You can find out more about the Initiative for Interstellar Studies (i4is) on their website, including their Principium publication, of which John is the editor.

Also at our meeting:

  • President Andrew Farrow was travelling beyond the horizon to the ends of the Earth, so Secretary Sean Wixted chaired the meeting with input from a number of other Council members.
  • We welcomed 5 new members to the Society, bringing our total to 107.
  • Alan Ellis announced that renewals are now due (1st October) and members are encouraged to renew ASAP as the subscription will change from 1 Jan 2020 (having been the same since 2004!). These will increase to £30 / £15.
  • Alan  Pickup presented the Sky in October
  • Society Updates:
    • Mark Phillips updated us on planned dates for our 4-Steps programme courses.
    • There is a transit of Mercury on 11 Nov and we hope to be able to do some public observing for it, hopefully on Calton Hill.
    • There was a plan to do a Live Stream of the Moon on 5th October, the International Observe the Moon Night. But bad weather and low lunar altitude prevented this from happening.
    • Geraldine Dennis reported on our successful involvement at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh Doors Open Days. Our relationship with the ROE is one that value highly!
    • We hope to arrange another visit for members to the University of St Andrews observatory, courtesy of Aleks Scholz, the Observatory Director. Please let us know if you are interested.
    • Sean gave an overview of an amendment to the Constitution that we are proposing. Information will be emailed round to members this week.
    • Hugh Somerville informed us about a “Working with Kids” policy that we are developing for our public outreach events.
    • We are planning to hold an ASE Strategy Development workshop shortly to help us plan our future. This will cover ideas such as our own observatory, admin, operational base, location, finance etc. Members will be engaged after the initial stage to help with ideas and taking it forward.
    • Andrew Mackie told us about our plans for a Light Pollution meeting at our January 2020 meeting with Bob Mizon from the BAA/Campaign for Dark Skies.
    • We now have a Facebook page called Dark Sky Edinburgh. Please have a look and follow it.
    • Sean also reported that the Society has awarded a Lorimer Medal to Ron Livesey.
  • Mark covered news in astronomy and space that had caught his attention
  • Hugh Somerville gave a brief presentation on the ISS