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Monthly Newsletter of the Durban Centre

December 2016 Page 2

Table of Contents

Chairman’s Chatter ………………………………………...……… 3 Two Fine Galaxies in the Sculptor Group ………………...…… 5 At the Eyepiece ……………………………………..…………….... 8

The Cover Image - …..……………...…………… 10

NASA Space Telescopes ..…………………….....……………… 14

Why Does Uranus Spin The Wrong Way Round ……..……… 17

The Month Ahead ..…………….…………………………...……... 19

Minutes of the General Meeting 9 Nov 2016 ………………..… 20

Public Viewing Roster ……………………………………………. 21

Member Submissions Disclaimer: The views expressed in ‘nDaba are solely those of the writer and are not necessarily the views of the Durban Centre, nor the Editor.

All images and content is the work of the respective copyright owner

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Chairman’s Chatter

By Mike Hadlow

Dear Members, I can’t believe it’s the first week of December and this will be the last ‘nDaba this year. I have to thank John Gill for his tireless work in having successfully produced the ‘nDaba for the past five months and to all of you who have contributed to the publication. I personally believe that we have an interesting and informative monthly publication that appeals to all of our different interests in astronomy. Being fully into the rainy and cloudy season the society has not been very active during the last month. We were geared up for the viewing of the ‘super moon’ on the 14th, with our public relations representative Logan Govender being interviewed by the press in both the newspapers and on radio, (see extracts from the newspaper cuttings in this publication), but alas, the only super moon that we in Durban saw, was on the social media, where a beautiful photo of the moon rising above False Bay in Cape Town was published on Facebook. Also, once again, our public viewing on 25 November was cancelled due to cloud and rain. Our speaker for the monthly meeting held on the 9th was Logan Govender, his talk was titled, “Variable stars”. Not only did we learn about variable stars and how to find and identify them, we learnt that as the local society, we must be proud to have one of the few amateur astronomers amongst us, who has been recognised for identifying a variable star, our very own Ray Field!

Our next and final gathering of the year will be held on 14 December which will be our end of year annual dinner.

Page 4 … Chairman Chatter

The next public viewing will be on the 30 December and I remember it always seems to rain at this time of year. However, if it’s clear, please contact your facilitator whose details you will find on the web site, to confirm if there will be a viewing. As indicated over the past few months, despite our wanting clear skies, the drought has not yet been broken and we still need abundant rain to fill the dams. We must therefore still be praying for rain. Looking forward to seeing you all at our dinner on 14 December and for those who I won’t see at the dinner, have a fantastic festive season and holiday, with family and friends, and we will meet again on the second Wednesday in January 2017. At our first meeting in January 2017, Piet Strauss will give us the highlights of the viewing year 2017. Wishing you clear skies and great viewing. Mike

Page 5 Two Fine Galaxies in the Sculptor Group October 14, 2016 By Brian Ventrudo

Image of galaxy NGC 55 acquired by Brett Soames of NSW, Australia and processed by Warren Keller at www.billionsandbillions.com.

One of the closest congregations of galaxies to our own, the Sculptor Group consists of a series of relatively bright and shapely galaxies clustered in the barren sky near the south galactic pole. The group is anchored by the majestic NGC 253, the Silver Coin Galaxy, one of the most beautiful galaxies for a small telescope. But a little farther south lie two more gems, NGC 55, also called the ‘String of Pearls’, and NGC 300, one of a handful of galaxies known as the ‘Southern Pinwheel’.

For northern observers, this pair is low in the thick air over the southern horizon in the late months of the year. Southern-hemisphere observers, however, see these galaxies nearly overhead where it’s much easier to see their distinctive shape and features in a small telescope.

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… Sculptor Galaxy

First to NGC 55. The galaxy is located near the southern edge of the Sculptor near its border with the constellation Phoenix. The galaxy is about 3.7° northwest of the star Ankaa or α Phoenicis in Phoenix, and 2o west of a 5th magnitude orange star and a string of three 7th-magnitude stars that point right to the galaxy.

While smaller and fainter than the more famous Silver Coin Galaxy, NGC 55 is in many ways a far more impressive sight in a small telescope. At lowest power in a 4-inch or larger scope, the galaxy looks like a long graceful comet with a tail and anti- tail thrusting off a brighter and well-structured nucleus. The long axis of the galaxy stretches nearly half a degree from the east-southeast to the west-northwest. With your telescope, use averted vision to help the core of the galaxy snap into definition, and look carefully for the delicate lacework of dark dust lanes and brighter patches of stars.

A rough sketch of NGC 55 made with a 10″ f/4.7 Newtonian reflector at 65x.

NGC 55 has a modest surface brightness, but its core takes magnification well. Try 60x to 80x to bring out more detail. And look especially for the dark rift that cuts from the core and out through the eastern section of the galaxy. Truly stunning.

Page 7 … Sculptor Galaxy

Location of galaxies NGC 55 and NGC 300 in the southern constellation Sculptor. North is up and east is to the left.

NGC 55 is about 7 million light years away, which makes it one of the nearest of all galaxies. At magnitude 8.1, it’s one of the dozen brightest galaxies in the heavens, and perhaps one of the four or five most detailed galaxies for observers with a small telescope, especially for observers in the southern hemisphere.

NGC 300 lies at about the same distance as NGC 55 and shines with the same brightness. But its light is spread over a larger apparent surface, so it looks fainter and is harder to find in a small telescope. Look for it about 1.8o northwest of the star xi (ξ) Sculptoris.

While not as striking as NGC 55, NGC 300 is still a compelling sight in a 4-inch or larger scope at low power. There are traces of two spiral arms visible in very dark sky. The overall view brightens in an 8- inch or larger scope, but lower power usually gives a better view. The galaxy grows apparently larger but dims appreciably at higher magnification. Look also for a number of foreground stars superimposed on the galaxy. These stars often tantalize supernova hunters who mistake them for exploding stars.

Astronomers have long considered NGC 55 and NGC 300 to be members of the Sculptor Group. But they are sufficiently far away from NGC 253 and other Sculptor galaxies that some doubt they are truly members. They may be only foreground A rough sketch of NGC 55 made with a objects. 10″ f/4.7 Newtonian reflector at 65x.

Page 8 At The Eyepiece DECEMBER, 2016 by Ray Field

THE SUN reaches the summer solstice for the southern hemisphere on the 21st December.

THE MOON is First Quarter on the 7th, FULL on the 14th, Last Quarter on the 21st and NEW on the 29th. the Moon is near Albebaran on the 13th, Regulus on the 18th, Jupiter on the 22nd and Spica on the 23rd.

MERCURY is in the twilight above the western horizon after sunset during the first half of the month. It will be highest on the 11th and will get lower after that and reaches inferior conjunction on the 28th when it will be too close to the Sun to be seen.

VENUS is the very bright planet in the early evening sky after sunset. It sets about 10 P.M. The thin crescent Moon goes past it on the 3rd.

MARS, near the MOON on the 5th, is low in the evening sky over the west in the constellation of Capricornus, in which it spends most of the month before moving into Aquarius for the remainder of the year. It appears as a fairly bright, reddish star of about the first magnitude. There are no stars as bright as Mars in Aquarius or Capricornus.

JUPITER is a very bright object in Virgo this month in the morning sky. It rises about 2 a.m. at the beginning of the month and by half an hour before midnight by the end of the month. The diagram on page 61 of ASSA SKYGUIDE 2016, shows the daily relative positions of Jupiter's 4 Galilean moons. Our Moon is near Jupiter on the 22nd.

SATURN is too close to the Sun for observation this month. It is in conjunction with the Sun on the 10th.

URANUS, in Pisces, is in the evening sky all month. It needs binoculars to be seen. The Moon is near Uranus on the 9th.

NEPTUNE, in Aquarius, is even harder to find than Uranus and needs at least binoculars to be seen. The Moon is near Neptune on the 6th.

The diagrams on the bottom of pages 58 and 59 of SKY GUIDE are an aid to finding these two faint planets.

METEOR SHOWERS: There are three showers listed in SKY GUIDE for this month. The December Phoenicids are best observed from 20hr 30m to 03h 0m and reach a maximum on the 6th. Their observing prospect is rated as "good".

The Geminids are a northern shower with a maximum on the 14th. They are best observed from 23hr 30m to 03hr 0m. Because the the brightness of the full Moon will interfere with observation near maximum their observing prospects are not good.

Page 9 … At The Eyepiece

Ray Field pointing out a star cluster in the night sky

The Puppid-Velids have a maximum on the 29th. They are best observed from 22hrs 30m to 03hrs 30m. Their observing prospect is rated as favourable. They are a southern shower.

THE STARRY SKY. By 9 p.m. mid-month the Southern Cross is on the horizon and the bright star Achenar and the bright globular cluster 47 Tucanae are well placed up over the south. Canopus is down to the left of Achenar and Sirius is to the left of Canopus. ORION is already up over the north east with the 3 belt stars pointing up to the right towards Sirius and down to left towards Aldebaran and the in Taurus. By midnight Orion is well up over the north, with the bright M42 in the sword.

REFERENCES: Norton's Star Atlas 2000, 2016 SKY GUIDE Africa South, Philips Planisphere for 35 degrees South, Stars of the Southern Sky by Sir Patrick Moore.

Page 10 The Cover Image - Orion Nebula Images by Angus Burns, Text from Sky Portal

The Orion Nebula, catalogued as Messier 42 or NGC 1976, is one of the brightest nebulae in the sky, and one of the nearest star-forming regions to Earth. It is rewarding in telescopes of every size, and is perhaps the most studied and photographed object in the sky. M 42 is visible to the naked eye as a hazy patch surrounding Theta Orionis, the middle star in the Sword of Orion, just south of Orion's Belt.

Imaged by Angus Burns. Newcastle, KZN

Discovery and History

The Mayans of Central America had a folk tale which suggests that they knew of the Orion Nebula. But despite being visible to the naked eye, the Nebula is not mentioned in any known historical records before the invention of the telescope. Neither Ptolemy nor Al Sufi noted the nebula, even though they both listed patches of nebulosity elsewhere in the night sky. Around 130 AD, Ptolemy catalogued the brightest stars within the nebula as one bright star, as did Tycho Brahe in the late 16th century, and Johann Bayer in 1603, who designated them Theta Orionis (θ Ori).

In 1610, Galileo detected a number of faint stars when he first looked at this region with his telescope, but he curiously failed to note the nebula as well. Later, in 1617, Galileo took a closer look at the star, θ Ori, and found it to be triple, but again he failed to perceive the nebula. This has led to speculation that its illuminating stars have flared up since that time, increasing the nebula's brightness.

The discovery of the Orion Nebula is generally credited to Nicholas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, a French lawyer who turned his telescope to this part of the sky in 1610. His sighting, however, was only reported in his own personal documents and never published. The nebula was found independently in 1611 by the Jesuit astronomer Johann Baptist Cysatus of Lucerne.

He was the first to publish note of it, comparing it to a comet he had observed in 1618. The first known drawing of the Orion nebula was created by Giovanni Batista Hodierna. All of these discoveries were apparently lost for some time. Eventually Christian Huygens, whose sketch was the first to be published, was credited for its rediscovery in 1656 - both by Edmond Halley, who included it in his list of six nebulae in 1716, and by , who added it as the 42nd object to his catalog.

Page 11 … Orion Nebula

Charles Messier first noted the nebula in 1769, along with three of its central stars. The nebula's smaller north eastern portion, previously reported as a separate object by Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan in 1731, was also added by Messier as number 43. Messier 42 and 43 were the first deep sky objects observed by William Herschel, who in 1789 described them as "an unformed fiery mist, the chaotic material of future suns."

The Orion Nebula's gaseous nature was revealed in 1865, with spectroscopy done by William Huggins. In 1880, Henry Draper took the first photograph of the Orion Nebula with an 11-inch refractor, marking the first historical instance of deep-sky astrophotography.

Amateur Observation

It is very easy to find the Orion Nebula. M 42 is visible to the naked eye under good conditions as a faint nebulosity surrounding Theta Orionis, the middle star in the sword of Orion. Theta Orionis is an extremely wide (135") binocular double, whose western component, θ1 Ori, is the famous Trapezium multiple star.

M 42 is the finest example of a diffuse visible to mid-northern hemisphere observers, and is the brightest diffuse nebula in the sky, shining at 4th magnitude. It is also a large object, extending over 1 degree in diameter, and covers more than four times the area of the full moon.

Messier 43 is a bright nebulous arc to the north, detached from the main body of M 42 by a dark lane. This dark nebula extends well into M 42, forming a feature nicknamed the "Fish's Mouth".

The bright regions to both sides are called the "wings". The wing extension to the southeast is called "The Sword"; the bright nebulosity below the Trapezium "The Thrust"; and the fainter western extension "The Sail".

The Orion Nebula contains a very young open cluster, at the end of the Fish's Mouth, known as the due to the asterism formed by its four primary stars. Two of these can be resolved into their component binary systems on nights with good seeing, giving a total of six stars.

In the neighbourhood to the north, there are also fainter reflection nebulae, partially reflecting the light of the Great Nebula. They were not noted by Charles Messier, but were later labelled with the NGC numbers 1973, 1975, and 1977.

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… Orion Nebula

The Orion Nebula is also one of the easiest and most rewarding targets for amateur astrophotographers. Regions of red and areas of blue-violet are apparent in long-exposure photographs. The red hue is emitted by ionized hydrogen, particularly H-α emission at a wavelength of 656.3 nm. The blue-violet coloration is light reflected by fine interstellar dust grains from the massive O-class stars at the core of the nebula. Visual observers have long noted a distinctive greenish tint to the nebula. This greenish appearance was a puzzle for astronomers in the early part of the 20th century, but is now known to be caused by radiation from doubly ionized oxygen.

Properties and Evolution

M42 is located at a distance of 1,350 light years, with an uncertainty of about 2%, and is estimated to be 24 light years across.

But the Orion Nebula is just a small illuminated blister on the surface of a much larger cloud of gas and dust that extends over 10 degrees, covering half of the constellation Orion. This much larger Angus Burns nebula is known as the Orion Molecular Complex (OMC 1); we happen to see this structure approximately face-on. The Orion Molecular Cloud extends several hundreds of light- years, and includes Barnard's Loop, the Horsehead Nebula, the Flame Nebula, and the reflection nebula M 78.

M 42 is the closest region of massive to Earth. The youngest and brightest stars we now see in the Orion Nebula are thought to be less than 100,000 years old. Some of these newborn stars are particularly massive, and emit large quantities of ionizing ultraviolet radiation. The ultraviolet light of these hot stars causes the nebula to glow by fluorescence.

The Trapezium multiple star complex is among the most recent products of star formation in the Orion Nebula. This small group of class O and B stars is also responsible for most of the ultraviolet radiation that ionizes the nebula.

Two million years ago, this cluster may have been the home of the "runaway stars" AE Aurigae, 53 Arietis, and Mu Columbae, which are currently moving away from the nebula at velocities greater than 100 km/s.

Altogether the Orion Nebula contains about 700 stars in various stages of formation. Many of the faint stars around the Trapezium are so young that they are still radiating energy from gravitational contraction, and have not yet settled down as stable main sequence stars. Other studies of the Nebula have revealed the presence of about 150 protoplanetary disks, supporting the view that these objects are common around infant stars.

Page 13 … Orion Nebula

Stellar winds emitted by newly formed stars creates shock waves when it encounters the gas in the nebula. This complex and turbulent motion shapes the gas clouds, leading to gravitational collapse, and triggering additional star formation. Eventually, most of the Orion Nebula's gas and dust will be ejected. The remaining stars will form an open cluster, which gradually disperse under the gravitational influence of other stars as it travels around the galaxy. The Pleiades are a famous example of such a cluster.

Technical Specs : Images by Angus Burns Newcastle, KZN

Celestron SE8” OTA on CGM Mount Canon 60 Da Camera

Orion 30 x 60 second 30 x Bias, Darks & Flats

Runningman 45 x 60 second 30 x Bias, Darks & Flats

Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker Processed in Photoshop CS3

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NASA Space Telescopes Pinpoint Elusive Brown Dwarf

In a first-of-its-kind collaboration, NASA's Spitzer and Swift space telescopes joined forces to observe a microlensing event, when a distant star brightens due to the gravitational field of at least one foreground cosmic object. This technique is useful for finding low-mass bodies orbiting stars, such as planets. In this case, the observations revealed a brown dwarf.

This illustration depicts a newly discovered brown dwarf, an object that weighs in somewhere between our solar system's most massive planet (Jupiter) and the least-massive known star. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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… NASA

Brown dwarfs are thought to be the missing link between planets and stars, with masses up to 80 times that of Jupiter. But their centers are not hot or dense enough to generate energy through nuclear fusion the way stars do. Curiously, scientists have found that, for stars roughly the mass of our sun, less than 1 percent have a brown dwarf orbiting within 3 AU (1 AU is the distance between Earth and the sun). This phenomenon is called the "brown dwarf desert."

The newly discovered brown dwarf, which orbits a host star, may inhabit this desert. Spitzer and Swift observed the microlensing event after being tipped off by ground-based microlensing surveys, including the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE). The discovery of this brown dwarf, with the unwieldy name OGLE-2015-BLG-1319, marks the first time two space telescopes have collaborated to observe a microlensing event.

"We want to understand how brown dwarfs form around stars, and why there is a gap in where they are found relative to their host stars," said Yossi Shvartzvald, a NASA postdoctoral fellow based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, and lead author of a study published in the Astrophysical Journal. "It's possible that the 'desert' is not as dry as we think."

What is microlensing?

In a microlensing event, a background source star serves as a flashlight for the observer. When a massive object passes in front of the background star along the line of sight, the background star brightens because the foreground object deflects and focuses the light from the background source star. Depending on the mass and alignment of the intervening object, the background star can briefly appear thousands of times brighter.

One way to understand better the properties of the lensing system is to observe the microlensing event from more than one vantage point. By having multiple telescopes record the brightening of the background star, scientists can take advantage of "parallax," the apparent difference in position of an object as seen from two points in space. When you hold your thumb in front of your nose and close your left eye, then open it and close your right eye, your thumb seems to move in space -- but it stays put with two eyes open. In the context of microlensing, observing the same event from two or more widely separated locations will result in different magnification patterns.

"Anytime you have multiple observing locations, such as Earth and one, or in this case, two space telescopes, it's like having multiple eyes to see how far away something is," Shvartzvald said. "From models for how microlensing works, we can then use this to calculate the relationship between the mass of the object and its distance."

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… NASA

The new study

Spitzer observed the binary system containing the brown dwarf in July 2015, during the last two weeks of the space telescope's microlensing campaign for that year.

While Spitzer is over 1 AU away from Earth in an Earth-trailing orbit around the sun, Swift is in a low Earth orbit encircling our planet. Swift also saw the binary system in late June 2015 through microlensing, representing the first time this telescope had observed a microlensing event. But Swift is not far enough away from ground-based telescopes to get a significantly different view of this particular event, so no parallax was measured between the two. This gives scientists insights into the limits of the telescope's capabilities for certain types of objects and distances.

"Our simulations suggest that Swift could measure this parallax for nearby, less massive objects, including 'free-floating planets,' which do not orbit stars," Shvartzvald said.

By combining data from these space-based and ground-based telescopes, researchers determined that the newly discovered brown dwarf is between 30 and 65 Jupiter masses. They also found that the brown dwarf orbits a K dwarf, a type of star that tends to have about half the mass of the sun. Researchers found two possible distances between the brown dwarf and its host star, based on available data: 0.25 AU and 45 AU. The 0.25 AU distance would put this system in the brown dwarf desert.

"In the future, we hope to have more observations of microlensing events from multiple viewing perspectives, allowing us to probe further the characteristics of brown dwarfs and planetary systems," said Geoffrey Bryden, JPL scientist and co-author of the study.

JPL manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech in Pasadena, California. Spacecraft operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech. NASA's Swift satellite was launched in November 2004 and is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Page 17 Why Does Uranus Spin The Wrong Way? November 2016 by Russell Adam Webb

Venus and Uranus are mysteriously spinning in the wrong direction. Independent studies have revealed theories to explain the odd behavior.

Venus is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty, but it’s actually a really weird place, proven by the fact that a single day on Venus actually takes longer than a year on Venus. Venus is also weirdly the only planet to spin completely clockwise. Uranus is just as weird as it spins on its side. This movement is known as retrograde rotation and has puzzled scientists for many years.

William Herschel first observed Uranus on 13 March 1781, and thought it was a planet-like comet. He actually wanted to call it Georgium Sidus as a tribute to the then King of England, King George III, but the name was predictably unpopular outside of Great Britain. Other proposed names were Neptune George III or Neptune Great Britain, which I actually don’t mind to be honest, being a Brit myself. A German scientist, Johann Elert Bode then proposed Uranus, the Latinized version of the Greek god of the sky, Ouranos. He said that the names of the planets should follow some order and he was probably right to be honest.

All the planets in our solar system spin from West to East, apart from Venus and Uranus. Scientists have known this for a very long time but they could never concretely explain why.

Uranus has an especially peculiar movement as it practically spins on its side and Venus spins in completely the opposite direction to us. Given that all the planets were created in similar ways, they should all spin the same way, in theory of course. The belief is that the solar system was formed by the destruction and chaos in rotating gas clouds, which the planets, such as Earth, carried over and continued. Venus and Uranus, however, had other ideas and spin in what is known as a retrograde rotation, or opposite to the direction of the sun.

Page 18 ...Uranus

The most common theory when it comes to retrograde rotation states that something must have collided with both Venus and Uranus at some point in history to have caused the odd behaviour. To cause the change of direction, the impact must have been enormous and probably involved planet sized objects. Others have suggested that Uranus may have once had an enormous moon that dragged its planet down with its gravitational pull; a bit like a needy younger brother dragging you back. Some suggested it could have been a series of smaller collisions that caused the rotations.

It is thought that Venus once rotated like the rest of us, counter-clockwise, but then slowed, stopped and started going the other way. This should explain why it takes 243 days to fully rotate, but takes 225 days to get around the Sun.

Venus is famed for having one of the thickest atmospheres of all the planets, and its proximity to the Sun might mean that gravity reacts differently to it. This theory is known as Tidal Torque and might explain Venus’s retrograde rotation, especially if it got hit by another planet at some point.

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The Month Ahead

MEETINGS: The next meeting will be on Wednesday 14th December @ 19:30 Christmas Party. The theme is Star Wars. You are welcome to bring your own refreshments.

Please get all the raffle ticket stubs and the money to Richard Rowland . Don’t forget the ticket draw for the telescope. Good luck to all ticket holders.

MNASSA: Monthly Notes of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa. Go to www.mnassa.org.za to download your free monthly copy. MEMBERSHIP FEES: Members - R 145 Family Membership - R 160 Joining Fee - R 35 Payment by cheque, made payable to The Astronomical Society of Southern Africa - Natal Centre and either posted to: P O Box 20578, Durban North, 4016 or handed in to the treasurer. EFT: The Astronomical Society of Southern Africa - Natal Centre. Nedbank Account No. 1352 027 674 Durban North Branch Code 135 226

Please include your initial and surname in the reference line.

CONTACT US: Chairman & Observatory: Mike Hadlow (+27) 83 3264 085 Vice Chairlady & Events Co-ordinator: Debbie Abel (+27) 83 3264 084 Secretary: Logan Govender (+27) 83 2286 993 Treasurer: Richard Rowland (+27) 82 9203 377 PR & Publicity: Logan Govender (+27) 83 2286 993 Liason and PR: Sihle Kunene (+27) 83 2788 485 Librarian: Brian Finch (+27) 82 9241 222 Meet & Greet: Logan Naidoo (+27) 83 7772 459 Equipment Curator & Teas: Robert Suberg (+27) 73 2324 092 Public Relations: Sheryl Venter (+27) 82 2022 874 Meet & Greet and School Liaison: Maryanne Jackson (+27) 82 8827 200 ‘nDaba Editor & Webmaster: John Gill (+27) 83 3788 797 All other contact information is available on our website: www.astronomydurban.co.za

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Summary of the minutes of the General Meeting th held on 9 November 2016

Present: Members and visitors who attended are recorded in the register. There were 34 members, 11 apologies and 3 visitors Welcome: Chairman Mike welcomed everyone and three visitors. Minutes of the previous meeting were proposed for adoption by Dr Farouk Amod, seconded by Dr Stuart Hogg and accepted by the meeting. Secretary’s Report:

The Society had received an invitation to give a talk at the January meeting of the Kloof Rotary Club. Logan Govender had accepted the responsibility. Treasurer’s Report: Richard Rowland reported on the bank balances as follows: Current Account R 31 609.92 Savings R 27 321.00 Cash R 6 122.00 Telescope Fund R 48 780.00

Year-end Function: Scheduled for 14th December with a Space/Star Wars theme. Members and spouses gratis. Visitors would be charged R40.00 each. Observatory: Chairman Mike Hadlow advised that the next public viewing was scheduled for 25th November. Maryanne Jackson and Debbie Abel would be in attendance. General: Clinton Armitage was assured that the raffle was open to anyone including members. The cut-off for the raffle was 07th December and the draw would be done on the 14th December.

The Science Report: Presented by Debbie Abel Night Sky: Presented by Piet Strauss. MainTalk: Logan Govender presented a talk entitled, “Variable Stars”. The meeting ended at 21:15.

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MaryanneJackson Chanu Chetty Chanu Finch Brian Hardie Mark Ellinger David Visser John Hadlow Mike NaviNaidoo Chetty Chanu Finch Brian Hardie Mark Ellinger David Visser John Jackson Maryanne Hadlow Mike 2016

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2017

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BrianJackson PeterFoster Abel Debbie Pirie Kirsty George Marcia Gill John Kira Wisniewski Rambilass Ooma PeterFoster Abel Debbie Pirie Kirsty George Marcia Gill John Jackson Brian Kira Wisniewski

Public Viewing Public Roster

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Cheryl V Cheryl Visser John Gill John Jackson Maryanne Kira Wisniewski Hadlow Mike PeterFoster Abel Debbie Finch Brian Assistant

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