Wiltshire Astronomical Society Posts

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

Next Members Meeting

This month we are back to an in-person monthly meeting this coming Tuesday 5th November at 19:15 for 19:30 meeting start (Note new earlier time). This will be held at the Irene Usher Memorial Pavilion, Rusty Lane, Seend, SN12 6NS (click to Google Map).

Simon Barnes, our new chair will be giving a talk titled So You Want To Buy A Telescope. The meeting will be in-person only as we cannot broadcast as a zoom/online due to WiFi issues at the hall. Apologies for this.

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Newsletter

Also this month we continue with our new look newsletter, thanks to Simon for putting this together. Be sure to check out the “Report from Chair”, member contributions and also we’ve included an “Ads” seciton, which lists various requests we’ve received about selling equipment.

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Observing

The observing session on 25th October, last month did go ahead, but unfortunately, the cloud Gods were not kind and conditions deteriorated quickly no observing could be done. Apologies if you did make the effort to come. These things do happen with observing.

Our next scheduled session is Friday 22nd November, weather dependant. Please keep an eye on the observing page and our mailing list for any updates.

Clear Skies

The Wiltshire AS Team

It is all change for the society this month following the election of our new Chair, Simon Barnes at the AGM at the September meeting last month. Simon has also taken on authoring a new format/style Newsletter, which can be downloaded on this link, please check this out and thanks for your efforts Simon.

We have an observing session on Friday 27th September, but please look out for the go/no-go email on the day.

Our upcoming October monthly meeting will be a ONLINE only (using zoom). Please do not attend the Hall in Seend. The speaker is long-time friend of the society Martin Griffiths, who will talk about “Exoplanets and habitable Zones”, an exciting topic.

Please note, as per September AGM, we agreed to start the meetings earlier than previously. You can join the zoom call from 19:15 for a 19:30 meeting start.

The zoom details are as follows:

Meeting Name: “Wiltshire AS October 2024 Meeting”
Date/Time: Tuesday 1st October 2024 19:15 for 19:30 start (NOTE NEW EARLIER MEETING TIME!)
Meeting ID: 779 588 4689
Passcode: 355218
Invite Link: https://zoom.us/j/7795884689?pwd=BWYfU4XcswvBJZLzNgP0y9c3XPqOCm.1&omn=99789748404

We look forward to seeing you.

Clear skies
Sam (Treasurer)

** Post updated on Tue 2024-09-03 15:32 BST **

This month we will return after our well earned summer breaks ready for a new season. Thank you to all the members that have joined or renewed their memberships for the 2024-2025 season. If you wish to join or renew and have not yet, please do so via the normal membermojo online system.

Chair

With this new season brings some changes to the society. After many many long years of service to the society Andy Burns is stepping down as chair. We owe Andy an enormous thank you for all his efforts over the years. He is a one of a kind (in all the good ways!) and his committment to the seeing the society continue and thrive has been amazing. He should be very proud. I am delighted to say that Simon Barnes, the previous chair prior to Andy who has recently returned from the UK has volunteered to take up chair again for the coming year. Therefore, at our first meeting back this coming Tuesday 3rd September 2024, we will hold a short AGM to confirm committee positions for the coming year.

Speaker Secretary and Monthly Meeting Format

The society is still in the position with no Speaker Secretary which is problematic for continuing our traditional format of monthly meetings with an external speaker. Last year, we managed to organise a few external speakers and relied largely on member contributions. However, for this year, once again, we please request one of our members to step forward and volunteer for this essential role if the members wish in-person speakers to continue, see our committee page for further info on what exactly is involved.

At the September meeting, we will therefore require input from members regarding which format that the society takes from now on.

The options are:
(a) continue with monthly meetings in person with a speaker (requires a volunteer)
(b) change to zoom/online only monthly meetings with speaker that is remote (requires a volunteer)
(c) discontinue speakers at monthly meetings and switch to a social meet up (maybe change venue to a pub)
(d) discontinue monthly meetups and change to an observing-only society format

With Simon in place, there will be a fresh set of exciting ideas that we can discuss on how to move the society forward, but this is also dependant on the members contributing ideas and energy too.

Mailing List

We’ll be making some changes on how to communicate with members, so look out for updates and I will provide more details on Tuesday.

Next Meeting

The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 3rd September 19:45 or 20:00 start at the normal Irene Usher Memorial Pavilion at Seend, see our meetings page for more details. Together with the AGM, and society direction, Andy has kindly offerred to lead a discussion on recently topics of interest from this summer, from Auroras, meteors and and the pending T Coronae Borealis Nova.

Newsletter

Please find the September 2024 newsletter available to download on this link. Once again, many thanks to Andy Burns for putting this together.

Clear Skies,
Sam (Treasurer)

This month we will be holding an in-person meeting, scheduled for Tuesday 4th June at 19:45 (20:00 start) at Irene Usher Memorial Pavilion, Seend, see our Meetings page for more details.

This month we welcome a member talk by Rob Lucas on “Building a Garden observatory”. Will will also hold a short AGM. This will be the last meeting before our break of the summer, when we will restart in September.

** UPDATE ** Many thanks to Andy Burns for diligently putting together the newsletter, please download on this link.

Clear skies