March Meeting - History of Astronomy

Display Board 1

 We arrived 30 minutes early (as is our custom) to set up the projector, telescope and tea room.       

Already Chairman Jim along with Andrew S., Edward and Jonathan  were in residence setting up a brilliant display on advertising boards..

Display Board 2

(What time did they arrive I wonder!)

Display Board 3

Plenty of enlightening information this time - don't forget to look at these at the next meeting. We often get sidetracked with other things but they contain plenty of ancillary material.

This was a quieter moment in the kitchen - Brian, Liz and Andrew S. getting refuelled.
Sue is doing the honours here though over time a number get involved in the tea and biscuit duties.
Volunteers are always needed to share the load so don't hold back - this is the job where you meet everyone ( and also, if you are like me, forget their names very quickly!!)

Here we have Gladys and Peter enjoying a cup of nectar before proceedings start.
Gladys is arguably our oldest member and came to the meeting equipped with a diagram showing the path of Comet C/2011 L4 Pannstarrs and a number of questions.



The meeting started, as is our custom, with a review of "What's Up" in the March night sky.
Jim, our Chairman, drew attention to a number of constellations that are prominent at this time of year but naturally special mention was made of the first comet of the year which should be in evidence in our skies very soon.
Here is a pointer:
 “After sunset, scan the horizon roughly in the western direction. On the 12 and 13 March, there is a nice association with the thin crescent Moon. You can use the Moon as a guide, and search just down or to the left of the Moon. Through binoculars you should be able to see the head of the comet and certainly the .... tail."

 Following further refreshments Mike provided the main lecture on - "Characters in The History of Astronomy - Tycho, Kepler and Galileo."
Characters was the right word. Tycho was the man with no nose (the result of losing a duel) who kept a dwarf named Jepp whom he believed had second sight and also a "tame" elk that had a fancy for strong beer. The list goes on.
Kepler was another "character" who calculated his mothers pregnancy to have lasted 224 days, 9 hours and 53 minutes. An indication of just how seriously he took astrology!
He also provided frank (and humorous) descriptions on how he viewed his grandmother, father and mother.
Also his selection of a wife gave insight into his unusual temperament.

  
Galileo the third "character" fell foul of the Catholic Church big time.
His findings agreed with Copernicus that the Earth was not the centre of the universe and he made it his mission to try to convince the hierarchy of the day the error of their way.
Putting his daughters in a convent for their protection gives an indication of the feeling he was battling and eventually he was made to recant though legend has it that on getting up from his knees he struck the earth and mumbled, “Eppur si muove! [And yet it does move!]”

We counted an attendance of 30 with a number attending for the first time - a regular feature of our meetings. Sadly a number of our "regulars" couldn't make it and we hope to see them in April.

Yet again cloud cover prevented our having an observing session - but keep watch on the forum as the thought was mooted that if the skies looked to be clear we would visit Newgale in the hopes of seeing the comet!
And - wouldn't it be grand if one of us could get a picture of it!! 

The PAG Skywatcher ED80 refractor, on the right, will be a useful tool one of these nights.

Just a reminder for the April meeting - Rob, our secretary, will be covering "Space Telecopes" - I'm sure he'll have some good pictures to show.

Talking pictures - mine seem to be getting worse on this blog so if anyone would like to be official photographer please give me a nudge!

February Meeting - Stellar Evolution

Stellar Evolution and the H.R. Diagram

A good turn out for the “Stellar Evolution” meeting around 30 turned up (27 by another count but 30 sounds better!) including for the 1^st time – Ian from Hazelbeach and from Tenby - Dawn and her husband (what was his name?) and Sean their son. Making their 2^nd meeting we had Kathy and her husband John (at least I’ve nailed him this time!) It was good to see a few others we missed in January also. Sadly Phil our deputy chairman and Rob our secretary couldn’t join us this time due to illness/other commitments.

                                                                 

Here is some of our number patiently waiting for events to unfold.

 Note: Mike from Goodwick at the front right – he is really just resting his eyes.

 The picture below shows the other side of the hall with Kim in the foreground (blue shirt) getting things ready for the serious part of the meeeting. 

The meeting commenced with a review of “What’s Up in February” a look at what we hope to see this month weather permitting.

Mike highlighted Mercury on the planetary front – February is the best month of the year to nail down this elusive planet that only 1 in 100 of the population has seen!

He also considered the Moon crater Petavius, doomday asteroids, the bright comets promised for March and November and the subject of Zodiacal light – interestingly the subject of Brian May’s (of rock group Queen fame) thesis for his PhD. 

Tea -time - we generally have a few of these!!

Always a good time to share thoughts & ideas.

Very soon it was time for the main lecture delivered by Kim – Part 1 of Stellar Evolution and the HR diagram. (Part 2 on the “Death of Stars” will be in November).

Kim was a little concerned that this might be somewhat cerebral (my words) but needn’t have worried.

I particularly enjoyed diagrams such as the HR diagram for the Pleiades cluster. The main sequence for the Pleiades cluster is very narrow, unlike the main sequence for the nearby stars.  This narrowness results from the fact that all the stars in the Pleiades cluster are the same age.  As they age, they move as a group to higher luminosities and redder colors, but they preserve their narrow distribution on the HR Diagram. 

The comments I heard after the talk and particularly the questions posed by the audience proved it to be well received.

Note display material on the right

New man Ian raises some questions

All too soon it was time to pack up and much as we have willing helpers to man the tea/coffee so we did in packing up.

Not many left – Graham, Peter Richard and Ian  and who is that admiring Jim’s Tal telescope?

More interest in the Tal.

Final note:

We did glimpse Orion and Taurus as we arrived but just briefly – the wind and cloud cover was once again not in our favour for viewing.

Thanks to all who attended and made it such a memorable occasion.

Final, final note:

Next month the main lecture – in a somewhat lighter vein – will be “Characters in the History of Astronomy- Tycho, Kepler and Galileo”

 

STARGAZING LIVE EVENT

STARGAZING  LIVE EVENT 11th JANUARY 2013

Hot on the heels of the BBC2 "Stargazing Live" programmes we held our own event on Friday 11th January.

 We advertised the event on the “Things to Do” section of BBC2 Stargazing Live website as well as putting posters in Tesco, Morrisons, County Library etc.

 Here are Andrew and Dave sitting among a few of the ‘scopes on display. I believe this is Andrew’s  Williams Optic's 120mm refractor the instrument behind many of his deep sky images.  

Plenty of other scopes were on display including the PAG’s behemoth – the black beast in the picture above – a Skywatcher Explorer 300 PDS  with a EQ6 Pro telescope mount.

Phil, our Vice Chairman, has responsibility for this currently – I’m sure he’ll be “over the moon” when we have our own storage facility at Letterston so that he no longer has to ferry it back and forth!!

Displays of books, magazines and pictures were of interest to many as was Andrew's record of photographic images on the laptop (right). We also had a looped powerpoint presentation of our monthly "What's Up" feature - a look at the hilights of the current months night sky.

 Key players on the night included Brian and Liz (left) who kindly gave of their time to provide refreshments for us all.

Apologies for small pictures (& quality - it will improve!!).

 

Some of our visitors/members milling around and to the upper left we have Graham admiring our display boards.

Though the numbers were not as high as 2012 (I guesstimate around 30 attended) we had at least 8 attending for the first time.
Mike our man from Goodwick, said that 2 turned up on Tuesday (our normal meeting night) but did not return for Friday.!!
Several of our regulars whom we expected to be present - would have made our numbers closer to 40 but some absentees have always to be expected!!
Some of the first timers - Kathy and her husband (what is his name?) were particularly enthusiastic and Ian who mixed well with the group is the latest addition to the forum I note. (Looks like he went home and signed up straight away!)

Sadly no viewing was possible – the cloud cover was total for most of the evening – but when we left at 9.30 ish Jupiter was riding high as was Orion, Gemini and much more – now what do we call that?

Look forward to seeing as many of you as is possible in February when we are back to our normal routine.

'Stellar Evolution and the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram - part 1' is the main lecture to be covered by Kim Gowney but before that we have the “What’s Up in February” feature.

Refreshments will be available and if conditions are suitable we'll have an observation session too.

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                  

Quiz night - 11th December.

Our usual 1st Tuesday in the month meeting was scuppered by a double booking hence it was on the 2nd Tuesday that we met for the Quiz Night.
What with the freezing weather and the date change our numbers were greatly diminished - just 14 faithful souls met up - many of our " regulars" were greatly missed - we look forward to seeing you in the new year.

Our new chairman - Jim - introduced the meeting with a few announcements and followed this with the "What's up in December" presentation - a brief look at what's on view this month.
One highlight mentioned was the Geminid Meteor Shower - one of the better meteor showers of the year, this one, and a number of our members had already seen some meteors even though the peak wasn't expected until the 13th/14th.

We then adjourned for refreshments while the room was set up for the quiz.

The quiz was a first for us but it was so well received that it is something we will be repeating in the future.
We had 3 teams of 4 people and the quiz had 16 questions for individual answering and another 4 "team" questions each divided into 4 parts.

 A maximum of (4x16) + (4x4) = 80 points were attainable though a few (!) questions proved somewhat challenging. :)

The winning team - Jim's - had 60 points though Phil's team and Andrew's team were not far behind.

It was a bit of fun and the winning team members each received a fridge magnet, a PAG car window sticker (a new item - get yours for 50p at the next meeting) and a "Certificate of Excellence".

These pictures show a few of our members getting acquainted before the meeting started.

We generally have one or more attending for the first time and this month was no exception.
We have also had a number of inquiries through the website from people keen to join us - again we look forward to seeing them in January.

A few of our quiz questions to conclude with -
can you name these Messier objects either by name or by M number?. 

Following the quiz it was again time for tea/coffee along with mince pies or biscuits depending on preference.

Next month - January - Stargazing Live returns to BBC2 on the 8th - 10th so we will be having our meeting the day following - Friday 11th January.

We will follow much the same format as last year with telescope displays, Andrew's image presentation and a rotating powerpoint presentation to show what is in the sky in January.
If the weather is kind we should get some viewing in also.
Please come and join us - invite family and friends and we can make this a night to remember.

Jupiter Event - 6th November

Our Jupiter event was announced through local "Radio Pembrokeshire", advertising in the "Western Telegraph" as well as astronomy magazines and posters placed in many places including "Morrisons" at Haverfordwest..

We were  pleased to have in excess of 30 attending, including several for the first time.

Here we have some of that number waiting patiently for the lectures to commence. 

Refreshments were made available during the evening - plenty of sandwiches, cakes, tea and coffee to give a homely feel to the proceedings.

The other side of the room was filled with more smiling faces while around the perimeter there were displays of various 'scopes and binoculars together with images taken by members and a number of leaflets giving helpful advice to visitors.

The pictures below illustrate a number of the displays that were enthusiastically enjoyed by one and all.

Our display boards generally carry photographic images by our members and other helpful advice.

More images here along with the equipment
used to capture them.

A  selection of the telescopes on display.
The one in the foreground is the Solarmax - used to great effect in the summer when the sun shone occasionally.!!
At our Newgale event the public had great views of prominences through this 'scope.

The evening lectures began, as is our custom, with a review of what can be seen in the November sky.

Jim, our "Newsletter" editor covered this enthusiastically in his Glaswegian accent and as a result we all have things to look out for, if and when the clouds part!!
After further refreshments Rob, our secretary, covered the main lecture.

This covered some enlightening material including visits to Jupiter from the Pioneer days in 1973 down to the future missions that are planned.

Information on the make-up of Jupiter and its moons were well received and we certainly were looking forward to getting out there to view these things firsthand.

Following further refreshments we did indeed manage to get some viewing in - the main tool being Rob's 12" Lightbridge which revealed the  main features of the planet - a great climax to the evening particularly for those for whom this was a new experience.
  

Many grateful comments were received but perhaps particularly heartwarming were such comments as  - "We look forward to meeting you again next time."

Next time is December 4th when we will be having a "Quiz Evening".
This will, of course, be preceded by our "What's Up in December" feature.

We look forward to seeing you all there.