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Monday, October 21st, 2013
If you collected your calendars at the last meeting, could you check for missing pages please? Someone has reported that the centre pages were missing from two of their copies. If there’s a problem, you can exchange them at the next meeting.
Ron
October meeting
Thursday, October 17th, 2013
Last night an audience of over 50 heard Nigel Wakefield’s fascinating presentation on the effect of the cosmos on our climate. Many thanks to Nigel for taking the place of our scheduled speaker who unfortunately couldn’t make it. We welcomed several visitors and three new members. As usual, our thanks go to all who helped prepare and serve refreshments and who did the washing up. If you haven’t done this yet, watch out!
Thanks also to Arthur for his excellent sky notes and we were once again treated to some of Bill Reed’s excellent images. The Horsehead nebula was superb as was M42 and how he managed to image the faint, fast disappearing Comet Pan Starrs is a mystery to me. Nice work Bill.
It’s starting to look like we might soon have to find a bigger venue and this is being investigated. Obviously we would like to keep our meetings in Crewkerne but all options will need to be explored.
As noted on a previous post, the National Trust at Brean Down are hosting a stargazing evening on 26 October. Talks start at 7.30 and, weather permitting ,there will be telescopes on hand for viewing. Just turn up.
Ron
Stargazing at Brean Down
Wednesday, October 16th, 2013
The National Trust is hosting an astronomy event on 26th October at Brean Down. Observing and talks. All welcome!
Urgent! The end of Sky at Night?
Wednesday, September 25th, 2013
It has been reported that the BBC are considering axing The Sky at Night. Please do what you can to persuade them otherwise. Please sign this petition as soon as you can.
Thanks,
Ron
New astrophotography link
Friday, September 20th, 2013
I’ve just added an astrophotography link sent by Katey. You can find all the links in ‘Resources’.
Ron
October sky notes
Thursday, September 19th, 2013
October Sky notes from Arthur Davis October notes
October Sky chart October Sky chart
September meeting
Thursday, September 19th, 2013
Another hall- full this time to enjoy Bob Mizon’s ‘Weird Astronomy’. Thanks Bob, another excellent talk.
For the first time, (there always has to be a first time), we had a glitch with our projector/ computer interface. Coincidentally (weirdly?), one of our first time visitors just happened to be a software engineer! Thanks to him the problem was quickly sorted.
A warm welcome to all our visitors, young and old. Hope to see you again next month. Nigel Wakefield will be speaking on the effects of the cosmos on our climate. Should be interesting! (This is a change from the advertised programme)
Many thanks to those who volunteered for ‘kitchen duty’ during the break. It was much appreciated!
Bill Reed continues to amaze with his deep sky images. Those galaxies lurking in the background of his great shot of the Pleiades were a revelation, not to mention his ‘blinking’ of the Delphinus nova.
There are still places on our DSLR astro photography course for beginners on 16 November in Marston Magna Village Hall, so please contact us if you’re interested. £10 for members, £15 for non members.
We will be at the Crewkerne Community Fair on 5 October from 10 to 1 at the George Reynolds Centre, South Street Crewkerne. Why not pop in to see us or even give us a hand with our display.
John Chuter has organised a star party for Friday 11 October starting 7 pm at Brian Hill’s caravan site, Hilltop, Long St. High Ham TA10 9DN. If cloudy there will be talks indoors. Bring any optical equipment you have or just come along anyway. Contact John on 07891 609285 or email john.wchuter (at)gmail.com.
Last but not least, thanks to Arthur Davis for his sky notes and related presentation.
Ron
Basic Astrophotography workshop
Thursday, September 12th, 2013
Tony Morris will be leading this workshop on the basics of astrophotography on 16 November at Marston Magna Village Hall starting at 10 am.
The cost will be £10 for CADAS members and £15 for non- members.
Please bring your registration fee to the next CADAS meeting on Wednesday 18 September.
Contact CADAS for further details.
August meeting
Thursday, August 22nd, 2013
By general agreement Pete Ashtead’s talk on ‘X-planes and the space race’ was right up there with the best we’ve had. His presentation kept us riveted throughout. Thanks Pete! A winner.
As it turns out we broke our attendance record at last night’s meeting with 50 people turning out for the treat. There was a great buzz at break time. We welcomed several visitors and four new members joined us.
Lot of us had observed a good number of Perseids, including the group who met at our field on 13th.
We decided not to hire a coach for the trip to the Hubble exhibition due to the cost.
At next month’s meeting we will be taking the names of those interested in the basic DSLR imaging workshop we’re hoping to hold on 16 November in Marston Magna Village Hall. This will be led by Tony Morris from the BAA who has written a book on the subject. (We expect by then to be able to confirm the workshop) Cost will be £10 for members and £15 for non members. Numbers will be limited to 25. Please bring your payment to next month’s meeting.
Finally, thanks to Zena and helpers for refreshment, Bob and Arthur for their presentations and Bill for sharing his images of the Bubble nebula and especially the new supernova in Delphinus.
(Thanks too, to those who offered to hang on to those library books for me.) 
Clear skies,
Ron
Binocular sale
Thursday, July 25th, 2013
Harry Truman has acquired a stock of high quality binoculars and will be bringing some along to the next meeting on Wednesday 21 August. If you’re interested in acquiring some decent bins there will be bargains to be had!
Ron