Feb 2016 Newsletter
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Volume21, Issue 7 NWASNEWS February 2016 Newsletter for the Wiltshire, Swindon, Beckington February, Astro Fest time. Astronomical Societies and Salisbury Plain Observing Group Firstly can I send a thankyou to Peter This Friday and Saturday sees the Astro- Chappell for late arranging and Owen Bra- fest in London at the Kensington Confer- Wiltshire Society Page 2 zell for standing in to give a talk tonight on ence and events centre. Swindon Stargazers 3 galaxy cluster. Owen is well qualified as a The talks are the key to this exhibition as deep sky observer, especially eyeball to Beckington and SPOG 4 the stands tend to be very cramped for eye piece! He has frequently come along space, and many suppliers can no longer to mass observing sessions, and is well Software list: Downloadable 4 afford to rent the space. Even so, they are software and apps. known to several members. across 3 floors and you do need to go One of Owen’s previous visits was at a with an idea of what you want to see and Space Place : Lonely galax- 6 Stargazing live event 3 years ago, but we MUST prebook talks on both days.9’00am ies. were rained of the field but the previous to 6pm, 8 talks each day. year we had a very full day… This year, Space News: 6-17 Some ideas of my favourite purchases Moon haloes, Curiosity thanks to more late coordination from the last year have been two mounts, one, the selfie, Why does the Earth Beeb we made a low key event for the Sky Watcher Star Traveller has been the rotate, Blue origin soft land- 15th, and had clear skies AND the use of tool for astrophotography I have been ing, Opportunity 4 years the Manger Barn at very short notice. chasing for years. Something that is quick into a 40 day mission!, Thank you to the observing team, Nick to set up, gives option for small telescope Space X so near to sea Howes and the National Trust. landing, Does the Moon use with or without camera, and no trail- phase affect the rain?, Un- On Monday May 9th we have the transit of ing leads other than your camera release. derstanding the Magnetic Mercury across the front of the Sun, start- You can even plug in a computer to pro- Sun. ing at 12:12BST and finishing at 19:40 vide a goto facility, but I’ve not tried this BST, about half an hour before sunset. I yet. A good sturdy tripod is needed to Viewing log and images 15-17 am putting this here because the English mount it on. Heritage at Stonehenge have come to me The other mount was an observatory What’s Up February 2016 18-19 and asked if we will put on an event near mount, but other than the astro DSLR the stones, where we will have permission these were my most used and successful Constellation of the Month 20-22 to stay until the end of the eclipse. If we purchases. Gemini can put a team together we can view and image the transit beginning to end as long Good eyepieces will make a big differ- Archeoastronomy Lecture 22 as we also show the public the telescope ence to your viewing experience with any telescope, and there will be plenty on sale Space Station Timings 23 views at the same time. We will need to work at quite high magnification, all cor- at the exhibition. IMAGES, VIEWING SES- 24 rectly shielded, to get a chance of seeing Enjoy... SIONS and OUTREACH Mercury that will be about 6 arc seconds Clear skies across against 33 arc minutes for the solar Andy surface background. The Moon and Jupiter First one taken at 1/250 of a second, this brings Jupiter out a bit but the Moon is over exposed. Both pictures taken with a Canon 60Da DSLR camera attached to a William Optics 80mm refractor at f6.8 on a Porta Mount II. Rare clear sky in Janu- ary! Peter Chappell Ed I have worked on the Jupiter zone only to bring out the planet. I was racing home from giving talks in Wales to capture this, but thin cloud spoilt the view from Chippenham. Andy Page 2 Volume21, Issue2 Wiltshire Society Page Membership Changes in fees to be discussed. Could be lowered! Wiltshire Astronomical Society Meeting nights £1.00 for members £3 for visitors Web site: www.wasnet.org.uk Wiltshire AS Contacts Meetings 2015/2016Season. Andy Burns (Chairman, and Editor ) Tel: 01249 654541, NEW VENUE the Pavilion, Rusty Lane, Seend email: [email protected] Meet 7.30 for 8.00pm start Vice chair: Keith Bruton Bob Johnston (Treasurer) 2016 Philip Proven (Hall coordinator) Feb 2nd Owen Brazell: Galaxy Clusters Peter Chappell (Speaker secretary) Mar1st Life on Mars : Professor Mark Sims Nick Howes (Technical Guru) Apr 5th The Story of Star Names : Mark Hurn Observing Sessions coordinators: Jon Gale, Tony Vale May 3rd Oddities of the Solar System : Bob Mizon Contact via the web site details. This is to protect individuals June 7th The Current State of SETI : Martin Griffiths from unsolicited mailings. Rusty Lane, Pavilion Speaker for February Owen Bra- Observing Sessions zell. Webb society section director. The Wiltshire Astronomical care shown we may get the Owen Brazell, as well as previously Society’s observing sessions National Trust to do some- editing the DSO, is also the assis- are open, and we welcome thing with them! tant director of the British Astro- visitors from other societies nomical Associations Deep Sky as well as members of the PLEASE see our proposed Section and regular contributor to public to join us. changes to the observing Astronomy Now. When observing, We will help you set up sessions, contacting and his primary interests are in the ob- equipment (as often as you other details. Back Page servation of planetary and diffuse need this help), and let you nebulae -- although since the acquisition of a 51cm tele- test anything we have to help scope this has also moved to viewing galaxy clusters. you in your choice of future astronomy purchases. His interest in astronomy was sparked by an attempt to see Please treat the lights and a comet from his native Toronto. From early years, he kept return to full working order up his interest in astronomy which culminated in a degree in before leaving. With enough astronomy from St Andrews University in Scotland and tak- ing though not completing an MSc in Astrophysics. At that time, he also gained an interest in the northern lights. As with many astronomers, finding no living there, he moved into the oil business first in R&D and then as a computer systems designer (this explains his interest in the computer side of astronomy). Despite this he still uses Dobsonian type telescopes ranging from a 4" Genesis-sdf through a 21". The recent plethora of fuzzy objects that move has re- awakened an interest in comets! His searches for dark skies have taken him from the moun- tains of Canada through Texas to the Florida Keys as well as to Wales - the only good dark sky site he has found so far in the UK. Page 3 Meetings for 2016 Swindon’s own astronomy group The club meets once a month at Liddington Hall, Church At Liddington Village Hall, Church Road, Liddington, SN4 0HB – 7pm onwards Road, Liddington, Swindon, SN4 0HB at 7pm. See pro- gramme below. The hall has easy access from Junction 15 of the M4, a map and directions can be found on our website at: A Bad Month For Stargazing http://www.swindonstargazers.com/clubdiary/ It’s been a bad month for stargazing in the evenings; howev- directions01.htm er, the early mornings have been great for viewing the plan- Friday 19 Feb 2016 ets, some of which were on show together. Programme: Andy Burns: A presentation on John Herschel February Meeting Friday 18 Mar 2016 This month we welcome your chairman Andy Burns, who will Programme: AGM plus a presentation be giving a talk on John Herschel. We look forward to this, as it has been some time since Andy has spoken to the club. Friday 15 Apr 2016 Next month is our all important AGM and we are also looking Programme: Mark Radice: Observing the Moon forward to this. Friday 20 May 2016 Ad-hoc viewing sessions near Uffcott Programme: Owen Brazell: Shrouds of Night - Observing Dark Nebulae Regular stargazing evenings are being organised near Swin- don. To join these events please visit our website for further Friday 17 Jun 2016 information. Programme: James Fradgely: How (on Earth) Did Life Start We meet regularly at a lay-by just outside the village of Uff- cott, near Wroughton. Directions are also shown on the Friday 16 Sep 2016 website link below. Programme: Guy Hurst: Star Clusters When we use East Kennett, we meet at the public car park just below The Red Lion pub at Avebury; we usually hang on Friday 21 Oct 2016 for 10 minutes and then move on to our viewing spot at East Programme: Paul Roche: Robotic Astronomy Kennett. Information about our evenings and viewing spots can be found here: Friday 18 Nov 2016 http://www.swindonstargazers.com/noticeboard/ Programme: Mike Leggett: Exploration of Mars noticeboard06.htm Friday 16 Dec 2016 If you think you might be interested email the organiser Rob- in Wilkey (see website). With this you will then be emailed Programme: Christmas Social regarding the event, whether it is going ahead or whether it Website: will be cancelled because of cloud etc.