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Volume24, Issue 5 NWASNEWS January 2019 Newsletter for the Wiltshire, Swindon, Beckington Belated Happy New Year Astronomical Societies and Salisbury Plain Observing Group Due to the fall of the calendar, that horrible the potential issues I foresaw, and I ex- manmade constriction of time we had to pect these didn’t cover all the problems Wiltshire Society Page 2 delay our monthly meeting to next availa- that cropped up. But he is going to give us ble day we could get the meeting hall, a presentation at the start of the meeting Swindon Stargazers 3 which is the 15th January. I hope this but I leave you with a big request. Please Beckington AS and 4 doesn’t put off to many people to our meet- use it! Not just to see what one or two of Herschel Society ing. Luckily it is only us we are upsetting the regular contributors are doing, but with no speakers needed for our forum also to ask questions, post late ’private NASA Space Place 5 view sessions, viewing logs or your own L:unar Eclipse question and answers meeting for newbies and oldies like myself. astronomy cv’s may help you connect Viewing Logs emails 6-7 with similar people to share the journey in I always feel that if one person is bold our wonderful hobby. enough to ask a question that has been MESSIER 76, Supur Nova to 8-22 Schools have become slightly more active Blackhole seen, Streak on Venus, troubling them then you can bet there are Hubble Wide Field problems, another 10 members who have the same in the curriculum and outreach areas, with Radio Bursts caught, Microbes on issues. The forums then became an ideal year 1’s doing simple Moon, Earth and ISS are developing, Extra Solar ‘drinks machine’ conversation point where Moon topics and year 5’s covering space visitors not rare, Tess gets going, the committee, and in particular the speak- as a topic. Some of the requests for help Chine Yutu 2 rover, Opportinity er secretary can get a feel for the speaker may be later than we would like but I think not signaling, Space X starhopper, and speaker topics that the members need we do a lot that is appreciated around the Moon viewing Software, New county. Horizon at Ultima Thule, India to to fill in the gaps of their knowledge. You launch crews into space, Cold have to appreciate how hard this can be in I have quite a few commitmnets coming crater on Mars, In Sight plants a society with practical and armchair as- up with Dark Sky Wales in Luton taking 2 seismometer on Mars, Saturn’s tronomers , beginners and experienced, weeks in February, then I am going on a ring disappearing, China Yutu2 youngster and some way over the toppers, long self promised journey to northern and Chang’e 2 images. new comers and old lags of the society all Iceland to catch the Aurora which means mixing in the same room. I’ll miss the March meeting (speaker is my I hope we can get it right, well for most of DSW colleague Martin Griffiths), but if What’s Up December 2018 23-24 the members, most of the time. anyone can do the 4 page meeting news- letter I’ll be grateful. Another ‘forum and voice’ area we have Constellation of the Month 25-26 If anyone wants to come to Spain and the Orion had trouble keeping fresh and functional has been our web site. We needed some- observatory there around April 26th to Space Station Timings 27 one who has regular attendance so we 29th then I will arrange something. could keep the feel of the society going, Happy New Year., Astrofest is coming Forum Q and A 28-31 the Facebook page is OK but a bit limiting and a Star Cound in February. when posting a lot of files and background Big 32pp issue! details all the time. Sam Franklin stepped IMAGES, VIEWING SESSIONS 32 Clear Skies Andy and OUTREACH in and I hope I warned him enough about The Comet that almost wasn’t. Comet Wirtanen 46P was amazingly one of the 10 closest comet passes to the Earth in the past 120 years, but it is a very small comet, around 1km across so the surface activity was very low, Here at nearly closest to the Earth on 18th Decem- ber it was around 2 de- grees West of the Pleia- des, and a disappointing 8th magnitude. On this evening it was a mere 11.8 million km away. Andy Burns 30seconds (bright Moon less than 30 degrees away) using 127mm re- fractor. Page 2 Volume21, Issue8 Wiltshire Society Page Membership Meeting nights £1.00 for members £3 for visitors Wiltshire Astronomical Society Wiltshire AS Contacts Web site: www.wasnet.org.uk Keith Bruton Chair, [email protected] Meetings 2018/2019Season. Vice chair: Andy Burns and newsletter editor. NEW VENUE the Pavilion, Rusty Lane, Seend Email [email protected] Meet 7.30 for 8.00pm start Bob Johnston (Treasurer) Debbie Croker (vice Treasurer) Date Speaker Title Philip Proven (Hall coordinator) Dave Buckle (Teas) 2019 Peter Chappell (Speaker secretary) 15 Jan Open Forum/Beginners Meet. 5 Feb Prof. David Southwood: Mars: Delirium, Delight & Nick Howes (Technical Guru) Disasters, some personal stories. Observing Sessions coordinators: Jon Gale, Tony Vale 5 Mar Martin Griffiths: ‘Universal Death’ or How the Uni- Web coordinator: Sam Franklin verse is trying to kill us. 2 Apr Chris Starr: A Most beautiful Moon – A History of Contact via the web site details. Lunar Exploration. 7 May Mark Radice: Observing the Solar System. 4 Jun Jon Gale: Observing the Herschel 400. Rusty Lane, Pavilion Forum Meeting I have received several questions from members seeking answers to prob- lems and questions they have, and these are at many levels of experience so I hope you bare with us, and, indeed, not be too Observing Sessions worried to ask some of the basic astronomy questions in the future. We may have time for open to the floor questions but these will be answered on the fly, but they are valued because they can help the speaker secretary book speakers and topics to help put your astronomy on the right foot in the future. Sam Franklin will kick off the evening with the develop- ments he has made to our society web page. He has put a lot of time into this and I hope you all take a look the site. I will also call on one or two of our members to help an- swer/augment some of the topics raised by the questions asked. A few of them would take a whole meeting to go through in detail so I hope we can do it justice and give The Wiltshire Astronomical you all something to use/think about in the future. Society’s observing sessions PLEASE see our proposed are open, and we welcome changes to the observing Andy Burns visitors from other societies sessions, contacting and as well as members of the other details. Back Page public to join us. We will help you set up Note this year we have equipment (as often as you moved away from the ‘4th need this help), and let you Friday of the month’ routine test anything we have to help to get away from nights when you in your choice of future the Moon is too bright to view astronomy purchases. other objects, so may be 1st Please treat the lights and Friday of month... return to full working order before leaving. With enough care shown we may get the National Trust to do some- thing with them! Page 3 Swindon’s own astronomy group Meeting Dates for 2019 The club meets once a month at Liddington Hall, Friday 18 January 2019 Church Road, Liddington, Swindon, SN4 0HB at Programme: Ray Doran, Reaction Engines: SABRE: 7.30pm. See programme below. Unlocking the future of Hypersonic Flight and Space Stargazing Season Access We have quite a few observers at Swindon Stargazers Friday 15 February 2019 so we are very much looking forward to the winter sea- Programme: Graham Bryant: Astronomical Events son. that have effected Human History Ad-hoc viewing sessions Friday 15 March 2019 Programme: AGM plus Viv Williams: Astro Imaging - Regular stargazing evenings are being organised near the Basics Swindon. To join these events please visit our website for further information. Friday 12 April 2019 Lately we have been stargazing at Blakehill Farm Na- Programme: Dr. Sarah Bosman: Dark Matter the ture Reserve near Cricklade, a very good spot with no most distant Objects distractions from car headlights. Friday 17 May 2019 We often meet regularly at a lay-by just outside the Programme: Mark Woodland FRAS: Exoplanents and village of Uffcott, near Wroughton. Directions are also the Charterhouse Exoplanet Project shown on the website link below. Friday 21 June 2019 When we use East Kennett, we meet at the public car Programme: TBA park just below The Red Lion pub at Avebury; we usu- ally hang on for 10 minutes and then move on to our viewing spot at East Kennett. Information about our Website: evenings and viewing spots can be found here: http://www.swindonstargazers.co http://www.swindonstargazers.com/noticeboard/ noticeboard06.ht Chairman: Peter Struve Tel No: 01793 481547 If you think you might be interested email the organiser Robin Wilkey (see website). With this you will then be Email: [email protected] emailed regarding the event, whether it is going ahead Address: 3 Monkton Close, Park South, Swindon, or whether it will be cancelled because of cloud etc.