Martin's Haven

Event on 19th October was cancelled by the PCNPA due to lack of support,

Solar Day at Newgale 3rd August

The weather made this a now it's on, now it's off occasion.

Chairman Jim loaded his car in Haverfordwest, then it clouded over and began to rain so he declined to go.

A comment from Richard sums it up:

""A few of us arrived at Newgale and gave it a go, but the weather wasn't very co operative, though we did manage a few glimpses of a featureless sun. 
We did see a bit of interest from the public, one couple we will likely see at meetings in the near future.""

Things can only improve for the October event at Martins Haven. 😊 😊

Letterston Carnival - 13th July

Intermittent views of sun through the afternoon and no solar activity apparent.

Of course when the 'scopes were put away the sky cleared for the rest of the evening.

Richard commented that quite a few showed interest and were surprised that a club was in the area.

It is hoped that this will translate into a few new attendees at meetings.



Next event is the Solar Day at Newgale

2019 Events

The event scheduled for 11th May at Gupton with the NT & PCNP was cancelled.

Next on the agenda is Letterston Carnival on 13th July at 1.30 p.m.

Then it is the annual Solar Day at Newgale on 3rd August. In the event of bad weather this will be moved to 10th August.
Note that this will not be held in the Lifesaving Club premises as work is being done there but it will be in the car park instead.

Later in the year - October - the venue is Martins Haven. More details will follow.

Broad Haven South 21st April 2018

With several clear nights before this event we were hopeful but as the night drew in the cloud around St. Ishmaels was enough to put us off but having made the commitment we set off around 7 p.m.

When we arrived there was enough cloud and sea mist to discourage all but the valiant.
The 5 day old Moon was on show most of the time which was good as one of the objects I was hoping to show was the Theophilus chain - a particularly handsome group of three craters best seen at that time of the lunar cycle.

This is it - a stock photo not one of ours!!

We showed it to several attendees who seemed suitably impressed.

1 gentleman commented that it was the best view of the Moon he had ever seen.

Such comments make it all worthwhile.

10 members of the group provided the "expert" back-up. Along with the NT and PCNP people there was "more of us than there were of them" to quote the biblical phrase.

Around 9.00 pm Venus appeared from behind the clouds and off and on was visible for many hours.

Most members seemed to be showing something for at least part of the time so it was a worthwhile effort spoiled somewhat by the weather and lack of attendees.
Kim was enthusiastically showing Mizar A and B along with Alcor (Ursa Major) to some and even managed to find the globular cluster M13 a little later.

I heard next day that a few Lyrid meteors had been seen - Vega itself was visible around 9.30 and with the Moon in the other half of the sky the potential was certainly there.

What next?
We have been invited to Dale airfield on 29th April - a radio program with a little astronomy content, UFO's and the like. Some of the group are likely to attend weather permitting.
July 14th heralds the Letterston Carnival - we are often asked to make an appearance and if the Sun shines we have the equipment to view it and show it to the public.
In August we will have our regular annual solar event at Newgale and at the end of the year we meet up again with the NT and PCNP people - much to look forward to so keep an eye on the website/forum to keep informed.

http://preseliastronomygroup.org.uk/
http://preseliastronomy.freeforums.net/

Fully Booked - April at St Brides with PCNP

The astronomy night arranged with Pembrokeshire National Park coincided with the peak of the Lyrid meteor shower on 22nd April - the event was timed (officially) for 9.00 pm - 11.00 p.m.

Preparation was the key and we printed off a number of freebies - information sheets, star charts and the like to make the evening more meaningful.
I did ask the question - fully booked meant 31 people made an advance booking - several more arrived hoping that there was enough space.

Pun intended!!!

We had around 10 from the local astronomy group and this is a selection of the "early birds" that arrived to set up the equipment while it was still light.

Richard, here, was one of the first. Here seen setting up his Newtonian. He also brought along the group's 6" Dobsonian which we "borrowed" later as we were having problems with the group's Tasco.


The 1st object on view was the planet Jupiter which wowed a number of the early attendees.
The four Galilean moons were easily seen in binoculars and by moving from 'scope to 'scope many also saw the equatorial belts and later the Great Red Spot was visible.

The site lived up to expectations and soon it was very dark and some serious skywatching could begin.

Our visitors delighted to see stars, constellations, double stars, galaxies and nebulae that were new to many of them and we were kept busy showing off these these marvels to an enthusiastic audience.

Here we have a couple of images of Jupiter - taken by Rob on the night. The Great Red Spot is clearly visible on these pictures. The GRS is allegedly a weather feature that has been visible on the planet possibly for 350 years.

This image contains the North America Nebula.

It is extremely difficult to see naked eye but the camera reveals much more.

It is an aptly named emission nebula - we can identify features that seem to resemble those on the North American continent.

A number of people saw Lyrids and Rob was very pleased with himself because he captured an image for the first time - we see it here in the middle, about a third of the way down.

Many Lyrids are as bright as the main stars of Ursa Major (the Plough) and often give rise to a persistent train as seen here.

The set finishing time was 11.00 pm but many of us stayed much longer. The Moon being out of the way was an added bonus for this night.

The cry "when are we doing it again?" was made and I'm confident that later in the year we will.

The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Ranger (Dan) who organised the event was pleased with the turn out - as were we all. A clear night for astronomy is unusual enough but one free from rain and wind made it an extra special occasion.

September Meeting

A late start due to calamities from many sides but 29 of us enjoyed our 1st meeting since July.

 Here we have Jim looking extremely casual, almost nonchalant even though half an hour late.

He had the laptop so we couldn't start proceedings though by an amazing coincidence we had just collected a reserve laptop from our Secretary's home when Jim arrived. 

Our membership secretary, Phil, was also late on this night - sadly missed as he is a great help in setting up the room early on.

 "What's Up" gave a helpful look at the current night sky. Not much in the planetary line though this is a good month for Neptune - the 15th is a particularly good date to remember as Neptune is occulted by the Moon on that day and around 9.00pm comes out from behind it.

Some good stuff around Cygnus and Lyra though they are a little too high for comfortable viewing. The Great Square of Pegasus was mentioned and it seems that 7 is the magic number.If that number of stars are visible in the square then the night is good for observing. Curiously a few days later around 4.00am Susan could make out 7/8 in the square - not often that happens!!

Kim then treated us to a demonstration of how to set up an equatorial telescope.

It was a warm night for gymnastics but Kim did a tidy job here.

What about those shorts!!
A "Beam me up Scottie" pose here.

It is the sort of demo that needs seeing many times but we got the idea.

The hire equipment was on display and 2 items were carried away by members - another member is on holiday later this month so opted for the October takeaway.

We have a 6" Dobsonian, 20x80 Celestron Binoculars  and a Tasco Reflector for hire at an extremely moderate rate so if you would like to hire one of these do make it known,

We also had a selection of FAS booklets which went better than anticipated - I should have brought more.

We also had a number of astrocalendars which were being sold off at just 50p each as they have limited content for the current year.

Next month the 2016/17 astrocalendars will be available at an excellent price!

Newgale Solar Event

Newgale is a stunning place as the following pictures show:

Saturday August 6th was the nominated day for this year's solar event and we were pleased that the forecast was good and on the day itself there was clear skies for the late morning and early afternoon at least.

The car park was pretty full and many holidaymakers were enjoying the day - this was promising!

The life saving club premises at the far end of the car park was where we set out our stall.
Aside from 2 Coronado Solarmax solar telescopes and Roy's PST we had a number of other 'scopes with Mylar filters available for viewing.

The Power Tank proved useful as it powered the drive of both solar telescopes.



Plenty of literature was on hand to promote the PAG in other ways.



Here we have some of the equipment on hand and also a glimpse of the mottley crew.

Roy looks as if he's posing and possibly was.


We met people from Monmouth who said that they wanted to visit the Dark Sky Site at the Brecon Beacons (I like to think we inspired this family!).


Others we spoke with were from  Cheltenham and yet more were from a Nottingham Astronomy Group.
It seems that their home group were having a barbeque that day that they were missing. (A thought that appealed greatly to Roy - so look out)

We had a number of family groups that looked through all of our equipment in turn and were greatly impressed with what could be seen.


The cloud was a bit of a problem and eventually it took over so that by 3 p.m. with wall to wall cloud and a brisk wind we had to pack up and go home.

Rob and Nathan arrived just a little later than the rest of us and so Rob was convenient to blame for the change in the weather - though he did have a number looking through his jumbo telescope before the end.

Before we finally packed up one lady holidaymaker who was staying at Porthgain asked for our recommendations for future astronomy viewing.


We were pleased to tell her about the Perseid meteor shower that peaks on 12th/13th of August. When we suggested using the sun lounger and just naked eye viewing she was greatly impressed. Where do I look? she asked and we were pleased to give suggestions.

A good opportunity for us all, this one - share your sightings on the forum and should you be fortunate enough to get a picture do share that too.

I left my camera behind so these pictures are from Sue and when I get more from Jim I'll put them here also.

I have been neglecting this blog but 2 items are soon to be covered.


Letterston Memorial Hall are holding a:

1) Flower Festival and Picture Exhibition

Friday 8th through to Tuesday 12th July 2016

 Preseli Astro will be there with the "astrodome" - more later.

2) Saturday August 6th we have our annual Solar Day at Newgale - weather permitting, Join us early afternoon for a look at our nearest star.

Solar Day - Newgale

The P.A.G. annual "solar day" was held at the lifesaving club premises at Newgale on Saturday 8th August from midday.
Our thanks to Roy for allowing us access to this venue yet again.

Below are a selection of pictures received - once again it appears to have been a successful event!

Thanks to Phil T for these pictures!

September Meeting - Solar Superstorms

24 of us attended the September meeting and at least another 8  would normally be there (by my reckoning!!) We average around 30 at the meetings so this was a good turn out for the 1st meeting since the August break.

Our container (rescued by Richard from an un-named venue in Haverfordwest) caused some interest early on. When the interior painting is complete it will be fully useable though we have already placed a few lumpy articles inside to save carting back and forth.
Phil has fixed up some interior lighting and arranged for a sturdy padlock - all useful additions.


We started a little late with Kim's look at "What's Up" in September.
Planets are in short supply this month - Saturn is  low down in the evening sky and for the early risers Venus is there.
Copernicus was the Moon crater considered and some deep sky areas were hilighted for globular clusters and the like. An unusually short one for Kim but he will make up for it!!
We really must mention the total lunar eclipse later this month. Sadly it's early morning but check out our Twitter site for more details or "google" it.
twitter.com/preseliastro
www.jb.man.ac.uk/astronomy/nightsky/

The main lecture covered by Mike was on the subject of "Solar Superstorms".
A scary insight into how dangerous our nearest star can be. The met office now has a dedicated site for this that is well worth keeping an eye on.
www.spaceweather.com

Around 8.45, miraculously, the sky had cleared somewhat and we set up binoculars and telecopes for a brief time.
Saturn was the easy target and low down so better for binocular viewing. The 25x 100's showed the ring system clearly to the delight of many.
We also managed to see M31, the Andromeda galaxy and the double cluster in Perseus.
Plenty of constellations were visible, Ursa Major, Hercules, Sagittarius, Ophiuchus (another of Kim's subjects, so good to have sight of), Bootes etc. etc.
Those that stayed had this extra treat - let's hope we have more clear skies on our meeting nights - it adds that extra ingredient that makes the evening worthwhile.

Next month the subject under consideration will be "Variable Stars" - join us if you can at our usual venue the Letterston Memorial Hall on Tuesday October 6th at 7.00 p.m.

July Meeting - Women in Astronomy

The July meeting was on our usual 1st Tuesday on the month - 7th July at 7.00pm at Letterston Memorial Hall.

We had 30 attending including at least 1 newcomer - Jasmine from Whitland. 
She has attended Swansea meetings but this time came straight to us from work - there's dedication for you!!

Here we have some of the early arrivers

Gladys is at the front along with her husband/taxi driver! - (that's what he calls himself).

We resurrected the notice boards for this meeting (though it had proved very useful during the Letterston Carnival a few weeks earlier also)

We really should take it to all meetings as it always has something of interest on it.

Now that we have a container (see forum) on site that should be more of a possibility!!

Jim, fresh from his holiday in Oz, commenced with the "What's Up" in July.

With little dark sky at this time of year actual astronomy is limited but for those that want to stay up late (or get up early) there are a few things visible.
One event Jim hilighted was the "New Horizons" probe to Pluto. When it left in 1996 Pluto was a fully fledged planet but then it was demoted and is now classified as a dwarf planet along with Ceres and a few others..
As I write this New Horizons is at its closest point (well, Tuesday actually)  to Pluto, taking pictures of the dwarf planet and its 5 moons, which will surely delight us in the months to come.

It is worth keeping an eye on our "Twitter" page as snippets get put on there also. Here's the link:

https://twitter.com/PreseliAstro

Kim followed this with the main item on "Women in Astronomy"
I'll arrange to have this put on the forum so that we can all benefit from it once more.

Some of the women Kim mentioned are the "unsung heroes of astronomy".
In the era of Caroline Herschel, for example, the woman could do little practical work but was allowed to document the work of her brother William.
She did, however, discover several comets and received a gold medal from the R.A.S. and another on her 96th birthday from the King of Prussia.
The account of Jocelyn Bell Burnell and the discovery of pulsars was another episode that showed that astronomy was very much a man's world until fairly recent times.

Strictly speaking this was true in many fields. If you have the opportunity find and read the books by PBM Allan on Moths. A really humorous chapter is the one which outlines just what the entomologists wife is permitted to do. I like to think it is somewhat tongue in cheek but it gives an  another insight into that bygone era.


.

Letterston Carnival

The Letterston Hall Committee politely requested our presence at the Carnival this year and Saturday the 13th June was the day.


The weather was forecast as rainy with 100% cloud so we opted for the indoor display.


I collected the display boards from Jim's place on the way and Sue and I arrived around 1.00 to find Phil already there.

The Coronado caught the eye of many and along with Phil's 70mm refractor, complete with solar  filter, we had plenty to talk about.

Likely we spoke to more people inside than we would have done outside and advanced our cause by the distribution of plenty of literature on the sky and the P.A.G.. The sheet at the bottom left of the table was the biggest mover (I know you can't see it!!) - it gave details of the group and the meeting place/time. (particularly handy for this venue.).

One of the outside attractions that attracted Phil was the steam engine below.

Being a "nuts and bolts" man this was right up his street and he went back many times.

Several we spoke with were seriously considering coming to meetings.

One man I spoke with had recently attended a lecture, in Welsh, given by Rhodri Evans.

Being from London and recently moved to Brimaston he didn't understand too much but he sounded keen to meet up with us. (Rob - I told you it began with a C - and I still don't know where it is!!).

Things started getting noisy what with dancing and drums so by 4.30 we were ready to pack up - and it was still raining.

June Meeting - History of Telescopes

I counted just 25 of us that met on our usual 1st Tuesday of the month.
Several "regulars" were not with us - Chairman Jim was visiting family in Australia, Rob & Nathan apologized for their absence, Goodwick Mike and Kim & Jenny were unusually not with us but hopefully will be back in July.

Always good to have new faces and this time it was Keith who has recently moved into Letterston so managed to find us quite easily.

He has a Skywatcher 127 that he brought along seeking some advice. After the meeting several of us made some (hopefully) encouraging observations.

Here we have Andrew Sprott from Swansea - the first man to arrive. He gave the warmly received talk on the "History of Telescopes" - material that his old friend Fred Whittle (now sadly deceased) had compiled with him some years ago. 

First we had our usual "What's Up" material for the month of June.
Though daylight hours are greatly reduced currently -  the good news is that we are downhill to winter after 21st June, the date for the Summer Solstice in 2015.
The material has been placed on "dropbox" for easy download - you don't need an account just click on "open" when prompted.
(It does work - my guinea pig has tested it!!)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nyuc2eagkm6s8oe/presentation.odp?dl=0

The lady beaming at the front is Gladys who came with her husband (or chauffeur as he called himself).

The two ladies that generally bring her were not free so Tony(?) stepped in.

Next month (July 7th) is our last meeting until September.

Jim will handle the "What's Up" and the main talk on "Women in Astronomy" is being covered by Kim Gowney.

Before that we have been invited to support the Letterston Carnival on Saturday June 13th.

Several of us will be there to view our closest star with dedicated Solar telescopes and others will be on hand with telescopes having  the requisite filters attached for safe viewing.

Join us if you can - weather permitting it is a good opportunity to share our hobby with those in the territory!

Check the forum for latest timing/news but I anticipate we will arrive around noon.

April Meeting - Spectroscopy

Our April meeting was held on the usual 1st Tuesday of the month - 7th.

29 met on this occasion, several new ones were on holiday and managed to find us - 1 from London and 2 from the home counties - and another 2 from closer at home made up for some of our regulars that couldn't join us for one reason or another.

Our knowledgeable committee member Kim Gowney handled the "What's Up" item and he was followed by our Secretary and local physics teacher Rob Woodman handling the lecture on spectroscopy.

 Here we have a few attendees with Mike from Goodwick (with the tea!!) entertaining the couple from the home counties.

The content from the meeting can be found on the website-   http://www.pasgroup.org.uk/
Look under Lectures - April and the links are there.

Rob brought along a few props and so at the end of the meeting we could all look at the spectra from various sources.
Peter here is getting involved in the practical side of things.

Later we ventured outside to check the night sky.
Unusually it was fairly clear and Kim had anticipated this and brought along his 8" reflector which several of us looked through after Kim had found some suitably worthy targets.
2 Iridium flares occurred within minutes of each other in the same portion of sky so we also had that as an interesting sideline. Flares are a regular occurrence but 2 close together at almost the same time is not so usual so we were happy to notch that one up.
Next meeting is on 5th May - we look forward to seeing as many of our regulars as can make it and any newcomers - there are a number that make contact via the website that have not attended meetings so if you are one we will be pleased to see you at Letterston memorial Hall at 7.00p.m. .

March Meeting - Satellite Altimetry

Thanks to Kim for his work on this months meeting.

The meeting began as usual with a "What's Up " item given this month by Jim, the Lunar phases and planetary prospects were covered as was the seasonal sky with the advent of the summer constellations now swinging into the sky during the early hours.

Of the Planets, though several are on display, it is really only Jupiter and Venus that show well, the rest are either setting early, or too low to show much detail.

After Jim's presentation and the obligatory tea and biscuits, the group settled down in some anticipation of the main event, a talk on Satellite Altimetry by Prof Phillipa Berry. 

I doubt if many had much idea what to expect, even less could figure the application of the discipline, but after a rather complex start, Philippa started to make clear the purpose of this rather extensive space program, and it's applications were surprising and varied, being able to detect ocean plate ridges due to the variance of the earth's gravity, which in turn causes a noticeable variation in the mean sea level. Also topography, and rising water levels, measuring various lakes and even river systems, the variety and detail possible with this technology was remarkable.

I

In the solar system itself microwave altimetry has been used to study Titan, and due to the nature of the Methane/Ethane sea, the returns were able to see the depth of the shallower parts of the hydrocarbon lake (we learned that this was not possible with water due to the ionic bond nature of water molecules, but the co-valent bonding in Methane allowed some penetration and return, thus the depth reading was possible) this was quite a discovery.

Much finer details were covered during the discourse, but I have neither the ability nor the memory to include them in this report, suffice to say, the talk was a fascinating insight into the whole arena of this particular area of research.

The evening did not, as is more usual, end there, we were also treated to a minor fashion event as our Secretary, Rob Woodman, provocatively modelled the new polo shirts that are now available to order, along with some fleece and hoody style over garments.

All in all, a fine meeting in which we all learned something.

December 2014 - Quiz Night

Just 25 of the faithful tonight - does the thought of quiz night frighten a few away?
Here is a view of Jim getting ready for the regular "What's Up in the Sky" feature.

Of course - like the proverbial "changing of  the light bulb" jokes - it takes 1 to do it and 4 to supervise!!

The laptop was in update mode again which caused some confusion/merriment during the evening.

Jim enlightened us as to the current planet/moon situation and gave an insight into some forthcoming comets that may well be a treat in January.

Before that of course we have the regular Geminid meteor shower - sadly this year our viewing will be hampered by the full moon.

The Geminids are an exception to the "normal" showers which result from the Earth passing through cometary debris. The Geminids result from the asteroid Phaethon which was only discovered in 1983. It's most remarkable distinction is that it approaches the Sun closer than any other asteroid. At perihelion it is only 13 million miles from the Sun - less than half on Mercury's perihelion distance - which means temperatures rise to > 1000 degrees F.

Following tea and the proverbial mince pies we moved into "the quiz".

We had 25 multi-choice questions this year so that, instead of a team effort we covered this individually.

Some questions were strictly astronomical - dealing with Copernicus and Kepler's Laws - so required some knowledge or a good memory from earlier lectures!

Others were the "read the question carefully" type.
"How many stars are there in the Solar System?"
"Did the Sun exist 5000 light years ago?"
"What constellation is the closest of all to Earth?"

Surprisingly - it appears that no-one fell into the trap though ripples of laughter were heard when the questions were read.

Rob, our resident physicist, achieved a score of 24 and a few others reached the 20's so perhaps it was not as straightforward as I originally thought.

Still it was meant as a "bit of fun" and was received as such.

This month we had a visit from Mark Griffiths, a free-lance journalist, who once worked for the Pembrokeshire Herald.

Mark has been "threatening" to visit us for photographs for some weeks and this meeting he finally made it.
He has been commissioned to do a piece on South Wales life and has visited a number of local groups in his research.

This is the man - he took many pictures of us so I couldn't resist capturing him before we left.
Looks as if he had no objection to that.

We tried for a little viewing through the cloud cover.
In fact while the meeting was going on Mark was photographing Rob in the car park.

Rob had brought one of his  big 'scopes along for the photo-shoot and Mark did say that he would send us some of his pictures so we hope to show some of them at a later date.

A good meeting to finish the year - it was good to read expressions of appreciation on the forum also.

In 2015 we hope to have some of our "regulars" back - Gladys and friends, Brian and Liz etc.

The January theme is "Astrophotography, mainly without a Telescope" - to be covered by Dave Lewis.
We look forward to that.