Wiltshire Astronomical Society Posts

The society is beginning it’s new 2025/2026 season of meetings and observing evenings as of September.

Next Members Meeting

For our first meeting back, we will be holding an in-person meeting at our new venue (see address below), on Tuesday 2nd September 2025 at 19:15 for 19:30 start. This month we are delighted to invite Dr Jane Clark who will give the talk “Adventures in Infrared”.

New meeting venue address:

Pewsham Community Centre
Lodge Rd
Chippenham
SN15 3SY
google maps link

**NOTE – for 2nd September 2025 meeting only. We’ve been notified the usual car park may be undergoing resurfacing works. It is unclear if these works will be completed by the time of the meeting. Therefore, if the car park is unavailable, please park (respectfully) where you can on the surrounding side streets. Thanks for your patience with this. **

In addition to meeting in person, we will set up a zoom call for remote members to join and hear the speaker. Details of the zoom info will be sent our to members via the usual email channel.

If you’re not a member and are interested in joining, please come along. We kindly ask that after two “try out” member meetings, that you take out an annual membership, see membership page for details.

At meetings, we kindly ask Members for a £1 (cash) donation and non-members £3 (cash) on the door to cover refreshments and hall fees.

Newsletter

Once again thanks to Simon Barnes, our chair, for editing the newsletter and providing our monthly “Report from the Chair” amongst other details about the society and the “Beginners” section this month. Please check it out. If you have any feedback about the newsletter, then we would love to hear it, so get in touch via our contact page.

Observing

Thanks again to Chris Brooks, our diligent observing coordinator who has complied this seasons’ observing programme. We thank Chris for his efforts in putting this together. If you’re a keen observer, Chris would appreciate some support in organising and running the observing evenings, so please reach out to us via our contact page.

Download the observing programme below.

Membership

Thank you to all the members that have renewed and to those members that have joined the society recently. We really do appreciate your support.

Mailing List

Please make sure you are subscribed to our mailing list to get the society monthly updates by email and also the observing reminders.

Clear skies

Wiltshire-AS

Last Members Meeting for 2024/2025 Season

This month we are back to an in-person meeting in the Irene Usher Memorial Pavilion in Seend which is scheduled for Tuesday 3rd June 2025 19:15 for 19:30 meeting start. The full address is “Rusty Lane, Seend, SN12 6NS (click to Google Map)”.

Unfortunately, due to limited internet connectivity at the Seend Hall, we cannot hold a zoom call for this meeting, therefore no zoom passcode email will be issued this month. See our newsletter for updates on a change of venue next year with better internet facilities.

This month we are treated to a number of “mini” presentations by members including:

• Matthew Terrell – Astrophotography
• Tracey Kelly – Musica Universalis: A Brief Look at Music & Astronomy
• Jon Gale – The Astronomers Library
• John Dartnell – A bit of the Space Shuttle History

Please see the newsletter for further details and thanks to the members that have volunteered to talk.

Followed by that we’ll have a short AGM which is required for us to keep our society status. We look forward seeing you in person again

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Membership Renewal Reminder

As a reminder, after our June meeting the society is on it’s summer break in July and August, returning again in September. Our current membership period expires on 31st August 2025. The membermojo members system will send out an automated reminder to your membership email address ~10 days prior, which opens up the new season 2025/26 membership window. Please look out for your renewal email at the end of August. Thanks.

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Newsletter

Once again thanks to Simon Barnes, our chair, for editing the newsletter. Please check it out. If you have any feedback about the newsletter, then we would love to hear it, so get in touch via our contact page.

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Observing

Our observing season has concluded for the 2024-2025 season ahead of our summer break. We shall publish a new season ahead of restarting in September.

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Mailing List

Please make sure you are subscribed to our mailing list to get the society monthly updates by email and also the observing reminders.

Clear skies

Wiltshire-AS

Next Members Meeting

This month we will be holding an online/zoom only meeting which is scheduled for Tuesday 6th May 2025 19:15 for 19:30 meeting start.

This month we are delighted to have Barry Fitzgerald who will give a talk “Lunar Geology”. Please see our newsletter (download link below) for further details and a speaker bio.

If you’re not a member and you are looking to join, please drop an email to us (see contact page) and request the Zoom access code. We kindly ask that after two “try out” member meetings, that you take out an annual membership, see membership page for details.

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Newsletter

Once again thanks to Simon Barnes, our chair, for editing the newsletter and providing our monthly “Report from the Chair” amongst other details about the society and the “Beginners” section this month. Please check it out. If you have any feedback about the newsletter, then we would love to hear it, so get in touch via our contact page.

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Observing

Download our observing schedule for the next event.

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Mailing List

Please make sure you are subscribed to our mailing list to get the society monthly updates by email and also the observing reminders.

Clear skies

Wiltshire-AS

Next Members Meeting

This month we will be holding an online/zoom only meeting which is scheduled for Tuesday 4th March for 19:15 for 19:30 meeting start.

This month we are delighted to have Prof. Malcom MacCallum who will give a talk “Was Einstein 100% Right?”. Please see our newsletter (download link below) for further details and a speaker bio.

If you’re not a member and you are looking to join, please drop an email to us (see contact page) and request the Zoom access code. We kindly ask that after two “try out” member meetings, that you take out an annual membership, see membership page for details.

I will email the Zoom details to members separately look out for that email. Apologies for the confusion last month.

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Newsletter

Once again thanks to Simon Barnes, our chair, for editing the newsletter and providing our monthly “Report from the Chair” amongst other details about the society and “whats up” this month. Please check it out. If you have any feedback about the newsletter, then we would love to hear it, so get in touch via our contact page.

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Observing

After some disapointmenting cancellations due to weather, we were treated to a crystal clear evening last Friday at Lacock, and we had what we think was a record turnout, with at least 40 people on site at the Observing area. Many thanks to everyone for braving the cold and getting out. It was lovely to see families there too. Thanks to Chris Brooks, our observing coordinator for making these events happen. Chris is very keen to get some help if he is unavailable, so please step forward if value these events. Thanks.

If you have any feedback or comments on how to improve any aspect of the observing events, please let us know via our contact page.

Download our observing schedule for the next event.

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Mailing List

Please make sure you are subscribed to our mailing list to get the society monthly updates by email and also the observing reminders.

Clear skies

Wiltshire-AS

Next Members Meeting

This month we will be holding an online/zoom only meeting which is scheduled for Tuesday 4th February for 19:15 for 19:30 meeting start.

This month we welcome an external speaker, Matthew Terrell, who will be giving a talk on “Astrophotography”. Please see our newsletter (download link below) for further details and a speaker bio.

The Zoom Meeting details are as follows:

Meeting ID: 940 2154 4701
Passcode: **Sent separately to Members email**
Join Link: https://zoom.us/j/94021544701

If you’re not a member and you are looking to join, please drop an email to us (see contact page) and request the Zoom access code. We kindly ask that after two “try out” member meetings, that you take out an annual membership, see membership page for details.

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Newsletter

Once again thanks to Simon Barnes, our chair, for editing the newsletter and providing our monthly “Report from the Chair”. Please check out contributions Chris Brooks, many thanks Chris as well updated news from a recent committee meeting, plus regular astronomy news and information.

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Observing

Unfortunately, last Friday’s attempt was again cancelled due to the weather. Our next scheduled session is Friday 21st February 2025 and is weather dependant. Please keep an eye on the observing page and our mailing list (sign up here) for updates. Also, please download the full observing schedule to see all future dates.

Clear skies

The Wiltshire AS Team

Next Members Meeting

Happy 2025 to our members! The January meeting we be an online only meeting using Zoom. The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 7th January 19:15 for 19:30 meeting start.

We’re delighted to welcome Hugh Allen who will be giving a talk on “Spectroscopy”. Please see our newsletter (download link below) for further details.

Regarding access to the Zoom Meeting, please see important annoucement in this month’s newsletter regarding a change that we’re making to the society, the below text is taken from the newsletter “Report from the Chair” section:

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The Wiltshire AS committee is keen to highlight and improve the benefits of joining the society in order to keep membership levels at sustainable numbers to allow the society to continue and grow. Therefore, we will be making the following changes in the next few weeks in order to make things fairer to existing paying members:

Zoom Meeting Access: We will no longer issue the zoom passcode publicly for our monthly members meetings (when held online). Instead, we will send out the specific zoom meeting passcode in an email to current society members for season 2024/2025 and “Life” (Honorary) members. Non-members may still join monthly meetings in order to “try out” the society (see contact page) but we will limit this to a maximum of two meetings before we ask you to kindly take out membership. Please feel free to email see if you are a nonmember and would like access to the passcode to try out our members’ meetings.

Members-only Facebook Group: Likewise, an additional benefit of becoming a member is access to our member community. Currently we use a Private Facebook Group. From the 31st January 2025, only Wiltshire AS members for the current season 2024/2025 will have access to this Facebook group and any non-members of the society will be removed. To continue access to these, please consider joining the society by signing up online. The current season is £16 single adult, £25 family membership and expires 31st August 2025. These changes will not affect the public Facebook page that anyone can follow.

If you have any questions about these changes, please reach out to us, see contact details. I hope you all understand and appreciate the introduction of this change of policy. We want our members to feel they get value from their annual subscription.

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The Zoom meeting ID is provided below:

Join URL: https://zoom.us/j/97874843327
Meeting ID: 978 7484 3327
Passcode: **Emailed seperately to current society members ahead of the meeting**
Non-member access requests: please email the society, see contact page

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Newsletter

Once again thanks to Simon Barnes, our chair, for editing the newsletter. Please check out excellent contributions from Peter Chappell, Chris Brooks and Jon Gale. Many thanks for these contributions.

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Observing

The latest two observing sessions that were planned in December were both cancelled due to poor weather conditions. Our next scheduled session is Friday 24th January 2025 and is weather dependant. Please keep an eye on the observing page and our mailing list for updates. Also, please download the full observing schedule to see all future dates.

Clear Skies

The Wiltshire AS Team

Next Members Meeting

For our December meeting we return on an online only meeting using Zoom. The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 3rd December 19:15 for 19:30 meeting start.

We’re delighted to welcome Owen Brazell who is currently the presidient of the Webb Society, who will be giving a talk on “Globular Clusters”. Please see our newsletter (download link below) for further details.

The Zoom meeting details are below. We hope you can join us.

Join URL: https://zoom.us/j/7795884689?pwd=BWYfU4XcswvBJZLzNgP0y9c3XPqOCm.1&omn=97731702172
Meeting ID: 779 588 4689
Passcode: 355218

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Newsletter

Once again thanks to Simon Barnes, our chair, for editing the newsletter. Please check out member contributions from Tony Vale on eclipsing binaries and stunning images of Jupiter by talented amateur imager Christopher Go (based in the Philippines). Thank for their contributions.

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Observing

The two observing sessions that we had planned were both cancelled due to poor weather conditions.

Our next scheduled session is Friday 20th December, weather dependant. Please keep an eye on the observing page and our mailing list for updates.

Clear Skies

The Wiltshire AS Team