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October ’16 meeting
How many CADAS members does it take to dry a cup?
Our topic ‘Starting out in astronomy’ gave an opportunity for Bob Mizon, Bill Reed, Arthur Davis, Ron Westmaas and Bud Martin Budzynski to share their experiences of how they first got hooked. And a varied lot of experiences they were, from wartime blackouts, lonely bedrooms, rooftop hideaways. to destroyer decks and jungle clearings. Seems you can get hooked on astronomy in all sorts of places.
The common theme was of being inspired by seeing a really dark sky without equipment before moving to binoculars of a simple scope. Bob stressed the advantages of a Dobsonian. It was also important to seek the advice of more experienced astronomers before plunging ahead with more complicated and expensive kit.
It was heartening to see the kitchen so full of helpers in Zena’s absence. Whether or not this had anything to do with the threat of ’no more cake’ or else, I’ll leave you to judge. Suffice to say that the record for helpers was broken by a long way. Thanks to all for a great job but it better not be the last time. 
After the break and raffle, Arthur Davis presented Pegasus as his constellation of the month. This was followed by Bob Mizon’s object of the month slot and Bob also shared some information on the recent Dark Sky (ALAN 2016) Conference held in Romania which he attended. (Beware Blue-white LED lighting).
Bill Reed and Martyn Spice shared their images and it was particularly good to see Jan Wrightson’s shots taken at COAA as it was the first time she’s been able to show us what she can do. Due to a ‘technical glitch’ Ron was unable to show his shots.
As ever, thanks to all for setting up and clearing away so quickly. It’s starting to be an impressively slick operation.
It was a well attended meeting with 39 signing in. Perhaps we can get to the 40s for the November 16th one when an old friend of CADAS, Sheri-Lynn Karl, will be sharing with us how she images the sun.
Hope to see you there – and packing out the kitchen again.
This entry was posted on Thursday, October 20th, 2016 at 3:25 pm.
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