Category: monthly-meeting

Please check out the website page https://wasnet.org.uk/meetings/ for the latest (provisional) list of speakers at our monthly meetings for the 2020/2021 run.

Clear skies …

Apologies for the delay in publishing the newsletter in June. The society is now on it’s summer recess. We will be back up and running on Tuesday 1st September, further details will be annouced as to whether this will be a virtual or in-person meeting in Seend.

Following last week’s decision to postpone the May talk, Martin Griffiths has kindly offered to rescheule his talk “The Habitable Zone – What is it and How is it determined” for Tuesday 12th May 19:45. The meeting will be an online Zoom meeting, joining detail below, again with Andy Burns ably acting as the meeting “host”.

• Zoom Meeting​ URL: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88300167611?pwd=MjhockxaQjZPY2RkUHNoSFJTVVl0QT09​
• Meeting ID: 883 0016 7611​
• Password: 953129​
• Note: you may have to manually type in the password, rather than copy/paste it

If you’re new to Zoom, here’s an easy to follow tutorial on how to join a Zoom meeting: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362193-Joining-a-Meeting

Due to the continuing COVID19 lockdown, our May meeting tonight, Tuesday 5th May 2020, will be held “online” only, using the software Zoom. Our speaker, long-time friend of the society Martin Griffiths, is kindly accomodating us and will give his talk “The Habitable Zone – What is it and How is it determined” over zoom remotely.

Andy Burns has successfully wrestled the technology to the ground and will “host” the Zoom meeting which he aims to start at 19:45. The online meeting details are as follows:

• Meeting URL: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82646358305?pwd=aWJUcTBkdmZsMGx2QUVwc2pxaUpCZz09
• Meeting ID: 826 4635 8305​
• Password: 666948​

The society will post further information here (as well as the usual email and facebook channels) about the June meeting when the situation becomes clearer.

Tonight, Tuesday 3rd March 2020, we will be welcoming astrophotograher Dr Lilian Hobbs who will be talking to us about the Armchair Messier Marathon, as is the season.

This month’s newsletter, penned by Andy Burns (thanks Andy!), highlights the issue of the new low earth orbit mega-constellations that are causing concern for ground based astronomers, amongst other local updates and information.

Andy also led the society’s outreach efforts with visits to local schools and Scout groups, thanks again.

Also, check out the Group photo taken by Peter at the last meeting.

Tonight, Tuesday 4th February 2020, we’ll be entertained by Jon Gale, as he walks us through observing the mighty Herschel 400.

This month’s newsletter, as always, has been ably complied by Andy Burns (many thanks Andy!) and can be downloaded the link below. Special thanks to Andy Burns and fellow volunteers for the schools outreach events that happened this month.

Greetings and happy new year!

Tonight, Tuesday 7th January 2020, we’ll be hosting the annual beginners forum. This meeting will have no speaker and gives a chance for members to ask questions and learn from other members in the society. If you are attending, feel free to come armed with queries and you’re welcome to bring your equipment too if you can technical questions.

This month’s newsletter, as always has been ably complied by Andy Burns (many thanks Andy!) and can be downloaded the link below.

Tonight, Tuesday 3rd December 2019, we’re looking forward to welcoming Dr Dirk Froebrich, from the University of Kent, to our December festival monthly meeting.

Dr Froebrich will be talking about his involvement in the citizen science HOYS-CAPS Project. The project aims to allow amateur astronomers to assist with long term photometric monitoring of young stellar clusters and identical outburst candidate targets for follow up study.

As is customary, after the speaker and notices, there will be festival nibbles, thanks Andy for organising.

Tonight, Tuesday 5th November 2019, we’re looking forward to welcoming Andrew Lound to our November monthly meeting.

Andrew will be looking at Uranus and the history of William Herschel’s discovery of that fabulous planet. Andrew’s full bio is in this month’s newsletter.

Andy Burns has put together a bumper newsletter, with lots of contributions from members, thanks Andy!

Tonight, Tuesday 1st October 2019, we’re excited to welcome Dr Chris Pearson from RAL Space in Harwell, Oxfordshire to our October monthly meeting.

Chris will present the state of the art on what is surely one of the most exciting topics in all of science today, Exoplanets. Chris will also cover his involvement in Esa’s ARIEL mission that is currently in development.