CADAS

Many thanks for this information Adrian!

Adrian’s November notes and news.

November ’16 Skynotes

November ’16 Skychart

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.

October ’16Sky Notes

October’16 Sky Chart

This was a varied, full and lively meeting. It was a pleasure to welcome our young visitors Wallis, Mary, Rebecca and Megan (who is a junior member).

Our speaker Philip Perkins gave us excellent insights into the mysteries of capturing the deep sky. His superb images showed what an amateur can achieve with today’s equipment and software. His plea for awareness of and action to combat the scourge of light pollution fell on fertile soil! Thanks Philip.

Following our refreshment break, Bob Mizon presented his ‘Object(s)’ of the month’ and Pete Adshead presented us with the ‘Unidentified Cosmic Object’  he had captured during an imaging session. It wasn’t a bird, it wasn’t a plane, we didn’t think it was Superman and although resembling one in many ways, it didn’t appear to be a comet. Was it an internal reflection in the imaging system? Whatever it was, it had us intrigued. Further investigation continues and we look forward to the answer.

Paul won the raffle – again!!

It was a treat to see Ken Honour’s great deep sky images and we hope there will be many more to come. Thanks for sharing them Ken.

Ron shared his recent solar images and Bill showed his captures of deep sky objects. The bubble nebula was outstanding. Bill shared his first dip into spectroscopy with spectra of Vega.

The meeting was rounded off by Arthur Davis’ ‘Constellation of the month’, Cepheus. Many thanks Arthur and thanks for the sky notes and sky chart you let us have for free each month.

Thanks to Zena for her tea and cakes and to her helpers in the kitchen, to Lorna for doing the raffle and to all who helped with setting up and putting away.

Our next meeting on Wednesday 19 October will be ‘Starting out in astronomy’. So come along to either offer your experience or learn the basics.

September ’16 Sky notes

September ’16 Sky chart

A warm evening and an a warm welcome to our visitors and our main speaker Chris Starr, Chairman of Wells and Mendip Astronomers. In an excellent presentation Chris took us back to the origins of the solar system and explored some of the ideas of how we’ve ended up with the composition and arrangement of our planets as they are today. Chris also described the impressive Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres and what this is telling us about the early solar system.

Bob Mizon took us to France and described his find of a large lump of breccia (impact altered rock) a sample of which he brought to the meeting for us to examine.

The break that followed allowed us to again enjoy Iain Torrance’s amazing cakes whilst we chatted among ourselves about astronomy and just about everything else.

Following the break we had time to enjoy the many images of Perseid meteors taken by Bill Reed and Martyn Spice. Bill also shared his excellent recent images of the Cocoon and Veil nebulae and Adrian Owen described his observation of the ISS occulting a star.

Because of the full programme, Arthur Davis was unable to present Monthly Sky Notes but this will return next month.

Many thanks to Zena and Annabelle and those who ‘volunteered’ for washing up duty, setting up for the meeting  and clearing up at the end. We’d be stuck without you.

Philip Perkins will be our speaker on September 21. His provisional topic is Deep Sky imaging.

Could anyone interested in attending the film ‘Last man on the Moon’ at Wells Town Hall in October please let me know as soon as you can so I can pass this on to Chris.

See you in September,
Ron

We had a stand at the Norman Lockyer Observatory South West Astronomy Fair on Saturday 13th August. It was an enjoyable day with lots of interest shown in our images.

CADAS display at SW Astronomy Fair

Dear Ron,

Earlier this year I published my astronomical memoirs as a 600 page book entitled “An Amateur Astronomer’s Life: Seven Decades Of Enthusiasm For The Heavens”.

Although available as a paperback through Amazon I have decided to make it also available as a free download to reach a larger audience.

It can be downloaded from http://www.geoffkirby.co.uk/Books/Astronomy/astronomy.html

I hope you and your members will find my book instructive, amusing and enjoyable and I would be grateful if you can pass on this information to CADAS members.

Best wishes and clear dark skies!

Geoff Kirby

It was good to meet our visitors Gordon, Jan, Ryan and Mark. Hope they enjoyed the evening and that they visit again.

Many thanks to our main speaker and long- time friend, James Fradgley for so ably taking us through the mysteries of the formation of disc structures and their various effects. James guided us well from sticky dust grains to supernovae, black holes and other exotic objects.  It’s clear that angular momentum has a lot to answer for! James’ short quiz on the relative sizes of some solar system objects caused a lot of head scratching and was a nice way to round off the evening.

Arthur Davis concentrated on the constellation of Pegasus for his monthly sky notes  and alerted us to a bright Iridium flare which many were able spot during our break even in the relatively bright evening sky.

Ron and Bill then shared some or their recent solar images. The sun had been very quiet but has begun to show some activity of late.

Iain baked us 3 great cakes which were hugely enjoyed and went in a flash. Thanks Iain, your skill and generosity was much appreciated!

Thanks too to Zena and her kitchen helpers. Our break time is an important part of the evening.

Next month Chris Starr, Chairman of Wells and Mendip Astronomers will be speaking about the Dawn mission to Ceres. Hope you can make it.

Hope we see you at the Southwest AstroFair at the Norman Lockyer Observatory on13th August and here’s hoping for clear skies for the Perseids on 12/13. (There could be some bleary eyes at AstroFair).