CADAS

Another great turn out! Keep this up and we’ll be looking for an even bigger venue. Just joking!!

Great talk by Len Telford on imaging the Moon. The striking thing was how well he put across just  how much of interest there is to capture on the moon’s surface. Time to have a go at doing some lunar imaging ourselves perhaps. Thanks Len. Thanks too to Bob Mizon for his ‘Object of the month’, Hind’s Crimson star R Leporis. That ‘drop of blood in the sky’ would be great to see.

Don’t know what to say about Bud doing the raffle using his fancy random number generator on his ipad, but at least it does save some time not having to fold loads of tickets.

Thanks to Arthur for his March sky notes and to Zena and those that helped with catering duties. The kitchen volunteers made a big difference.

We extend our sympathies to Bill Reed for going so stir crazy with the recent weather that he ended up having to create his own nebulae to image. The Monkey Face, Red Haired Man and Smokey nebulae were awesome.  Those’ joss stick’ nebulae were a total hoot. Clear skies Bill, and a swift recovery.

Next month Bud Budzynski will be giving his talk ‘Pixel perfect’. Don’t take the title too literally though, as I believe there may be a surprise in store. Can’t wait!

Ron

Check out page four of the Gallery to see Bill Reed’s images of the current Supernova in M82 and of the Rosette Nebula taken on 25th Jan.

Nice work, Bill.

Thanks to all the boys and girls at St Bartholomew’s Primary School in Crewkerne for their warm welcome today. I really enjoyed meeting you and answering your questions. What excellent questions you asked too! Remember to look for Jupiter and the constellation of Orion the hunter, and for the International Space Station.

Keep looking up!

Ron

February Sky Notes

February Sky Diagram

We had an excellent first meeting on Wednesday 15th at the Village Hall, New Road, Norton sub Hambdon after our move from Crewkerne. Reactions to the hall were all positive. It’s going to be a great place to meet.

We welcomed several visitors to the meeting and hope they enjoyed the evening. (What’s not to enjoy with Bob Mizon doing his presentation of  APOD images).  Of course it wouldn’t be Bob if he didn’t take every opportunity to raise the issue of light pollution. Quite right too!

Thanks to Bill Reed, Bud Budzynsky and Pete Ashtead for sharing their excellent images with us, and to Arthur Davis for his Monthly Sky Notes. Thanks too as usual, to Zena and her merry band of helpers for providing refreshments  and for washing up duties. Next time, some of you will be made to ‘volunteer’ so be prepared!!

We finished rather later than normal so we’ll be looking at ways to get everything done more quickly in future.

Annual subscriptions are due next month, so please remember to bring £18 to renew membership for another year. Also, a CADAS Council will be elected for the coming year.

The speaker for our next meeting on Feb 19 will be Len Telford. His topic is ‘Imaging the Moon and Mars’.

Hope to see you there.

Dark skies.

It was overcast and raining of course, but 50 people turned up to the Avalon Marshes center at Shapwick Heath on Friday 10th.  Bill showed some of his excellent deep sky images and used the audience as guinea pigs in a successful long exposure experiment. Good fun. I did a short talk on meteorites which appeared to go down well.

As the forecast for the following night looked promising, people were invited to turn up for an observing session if they wished. Twenty five did, and although the moon was pretty bright, they were able view it, and also got some good views of Jupiter and M42 and do some constellation spotting.

The next event at Avalon Marshes center will be at 7 pm on Friday 7 February. To book a place please contact Simon Clarke on 01458 860120 or email Simon.Clarke@naturalengland.org.uk

Don’t forget that we now meet in the Village Hall, New Road, Norton sub Hambdon, TA14 6SF

Ron

CADAS joined Wells and Mendip Astronomers and Sowy Stargazers  for a Stargazinglive event in Wells Museum and on the Cathedral Green on Tuesday 7th January. A good time was had by all despite rather a lot of cloud. We had a display of solar images which proved to be very popular and generated a lot of interest. Mike Egan will be running an event at Tesco’s in Chard if it’s clear on Friday 10. If not, the next slot will be Friday 17th. Our event at Avalon Marshes on 10th January is fully booked but there are still a few places for a second event to be held in early February on a date to be announced.

On Friday 10 January at 7 pm. CADAS will be holding a Stargazing Live event at the Avalon Marshes Centre, Shapwick Heath in association with the BBC and  English Nature,

Booking is required.  To book, and for further information, phone 01458 860120 or email Simon.Clarke@naturalengland.org.uk

A truly foul night of wind and rain didn’t dampen  spirits at our festive Christmas meeting. Hats off to Nick Colthorpe. His broken finger meant he couldn’t drive, so he came by bus. A break in the clouds allowed us a pleasing view of Jupiter close to the moon. Bill Reed’s walk- through of image processing went a long way to demystifying the processes for us and was a great supplement to our workshop in November. Thanks Bill!

Big News!

The big news of the night was the announcement that, from our January meeting on, we’ll be meeting at  the Village Hall, New Road, Norton sub Hambdon,TA14 6SF .The hall is next to the Primary School.  A map and directions will be found elsewhere. If anyone has a problem getting there, please let one of us know.

A Happy Christmas  and Clear Skies in 2014