CADAS

The BBC have confirmed a 6th series of Stargazing Live to be aired in January 2016.

On Friday 15th January, the Regal Theatre, Minehead will be featuring the much-acclaimed solo show The Trials of Galileo featuring the  actor Tim Hardy. (RSC/RADA)

The Trials of Galileo details

Not sure how to describe this meeting except to say that we were toyed with by a gang of gremlins bent on mischief and mayhem.  The sheer variety of the glitches were a wonder to behold and must have broken some sort of record.

Thankfully, members  were all able to present their short talks which were much appreciated by the audience.

Nigel’s space news was a great hit and the video he took of a rocket launch and its atmospheric after effects was spectacular. Bob shared a trip to the amazing observatory at the Pic du Midi. Ron’s contribution was images of the Saturnian system taken by the Galileo spacecraft on its Solstice Mission (and a couple of fakes). Bud’s short talk was his excellent ‘live’ video tour of the moon in remarkable detail.

Bill shared his superb image of M42 recently taken with H alpha filtering and Ron showed some  solar images partly as a reminder that the sun sill exists.

To round off the evening, Bob presented his ‘Object of the month’ Andromeda, followed by Arthur with Taurus, his chosen ‘Constellation of the month’.

It was an informative, varied, full (and eventful) evening. Frustrating at times maybe, but with many humourous moments and it certainly will go down in the folklore of CADAS.

Many thanks to our speakers and to Zena and her ‘catering department.’ Thanks also to all who helped during the evening with setting up, clearing away and so on. Special thanks to Bill our IT technician for the evening who was kept busy – and awake.

Next month, Steve Tonkin will be discussing the mystery of the ‘Star of Bethlehem’ and we will be having our Christmas Social. This is always an enjoyable evening, so come along and bring a bite and or a drink to share.

Well worth a visit! The show is on at Wells Museum 10 till 4 until Saturday 21 November (closed Sundays).

This Saturday 14th will be special as not only will Jackie Burns be painting a new canvas live at the show (she is also there this Friday), but another of the participating artists, Mark A. Garlick, will be there on Saturday morning. Mark is a regular illustrator for Sky at Night magazine (especially for John Culshaw’s monthly page), and has also featured in Scientific American and on the cover of National Geographic.

Great meeting on Wednesday as always. Thank you to Arthur for standing in for Ron. Thanks also to Bob for showing us some great images courtesy of http://apod.nasa.gov/ Lots of images including cloud formations, volcanoes and water flows on Mars with Bob leaving his favourite image until last – A Plutonian mountainscape.

As usual some great images from Bill too as well as Arthur’s constellation of the month – Perseus, a video of the recent Lunar Eclipse from Bud and a short talk on the Object of the Month from Bob – Al Giedi alpha Capricorni.

Next month is a members’ short talks evening – look forward to seeing you there!
Don’t forget to check out our website www.cadas.net

Thanks to all who turned up on a rather wet evening. It was good to welcome Caroline, Maureen, Alan and Barry. We hope they enjoyed the evening.
Ron did a session on Rocks from Space, followed by Bob’s ‘Object of the Month’ and Arthur’s ‘Constellation of the month’. We had time for Bill to share his great shot of the Elephant Trunk nebula and some sunspots and Ron also showed some H-alpha images of an active area and large prominence. In the break there was also time to do a short ‘setting up a mount ‘ clinic.

A lot of us would like to visit the Norman Lockyer Observatory and Arthur will investigate this for us.

It seemed to me that the hall was cleared in record time at the end thanks to many hands making light work. Thanks too as usual to Zena for refreshments and to everyone who helped in the kitchen.

Next month Bob Mizon will be doing his Astronomy Picture of the Day presentation. What will it be this time I wonder. Whatever, it’s going to be good!

In the meanwhile, don’t forget to at least look out your window for the total eclipse of the moon on 28th September even if it means setting the alarm for an ungodly hour of around 3 am.

Wells and Mendip Astronomers along with the Interplanetary Society will be hosting an exhibition of  space art ‘Artists in Space’ in Wells and Mendip Museum from Saturday 7th November to 21 November. The work of top artists will be on display.

Also of note is a major exhibition ‘Cosmonauts’ at the Science Museum in London. This highlights the Russian space program and will have some rarely seen artefacts. Check the Museum website for details.

Our next meeting is Wednesday 21 October. Hope you can make it.

Ron