Volume22, Issue 3 NWASNEWS November 2016 Newsletter for the Wiltshire, Swindon, Beckington WHAT DO WANT FROM YOUR SOCIETY? Astronomical Societies and Salisbury Plain Firstly can I welcome our returning In the early years there may have been Wiltshire Society Page 2 speaker Philip Perkins who last came to more beginners experiences, especially us when we met over the road in the WI where I was learning the hard way myself, Swindon Stargazers 3 hall. not worried about putting my mistakes to the society so, hopefully, they may learn Beckington and SPOG 4 His imaging of the night sky is really in- from my mistakes. spirational, making the transition from Space Place What kind of plan- 5 film (hyposensitising film was no joke) Would somebody like to write a beginners ets could be at Proxima then moving over to digital. piece every month? It doesn't have to be Centauri. all your own work. His work can be seen on his website Space News: Falcon X, 6-13 Astrocruise.com. He has an observatory Saturn’s hex changes colour. in the south of France, but also does a lot At last we have our darker skies with Mars probe crash site. of imaging from here in Wiltshire near longer nights, it may bring cold and some How many planets in Milky Way Aldbourne. cloud, but did you know there are more Pluto and Charon data at last cloudy nights in August than in Decem- Argentine 30tonne meteorite ber? It is just a case of wrapping up warm Formation of the Earth What I have noticed is the drop in sub- and getting out there. Formation of the Moon missions for the newsletter from mem- bers, indeed the two usual submitters We have to put up with a lot of media Images. 14-15 were indisposed for various reasons this hype these days, and a lot of inaccurate month. It leads me to ask the question for reporting, but Supermoons and Brilliant What’s Up November 2016 16 the future. Meteor Displays (sometimes BOTH at the SAME TIME as last month Orionids, this What type of articles would you like to Leonids 17 months Leonids and next months Gemi- see in the newsletter/web site/Facebook nids) are thrown at us and builds expecta- Constellation of the Month 18-19 pages? Taurus tions from the public. I feel we have to Do we need the full 20+ page newsletter represent a more balanced view for the Herschel Lecture 20 going forward? public, so some trawling for information With my resignation coming up, it would will appear in the Space News section. Space Station Timings 21 be nice to get all the future for the society Clear skies agreed, and most importantly it can be- Andy IMAGES, VIEWING SESSIONS 22 come even more member representative. and OUTREACH As predicted October brought us aurora as for south as Wiltshire, but only just. Here the mauve glow is all that could be seen on the 25th August, with bright Capella visible through the glow. Other nights we had cloud or high mist just at the wrong time for seeing the glow. It could just be seen to the naked eye. Andy. 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 Andy Burns (Chairman, and Editor ) Tel: 01249 654541, Meetings 2015/2016Season. email: [email protected] NEW VENUE the Pavilion, Rusty Lane, Seend Vice chair: Keith Bruton Meet 7.30 for 8.00pm start Bob Johnston (Treasurer) 2016 Philip Proven (Hall coordinator) 1 Nov Philip Perkins, Imaging the Cosmos Peter Chappell (Speaker secretary) 6 Dec Andrew Lound, Saturn – Lord of the Nick Howes (Technical Guru) Rings Observing Sessions coordinators: Jon Gale, Tony Vale 3 Jan TBA (Probable beginners set up ses- Contact via the web site details. This is to protect individuals from unsolicited mailings. sion) 7 Feb Professor david Southwood, 10 Years of Space Science at the European Space Agency 7 Mar Steve Tonkin, And yet it Moves! Rusty Lane, Pavilion 4 Apr Dr Chris North, Telescopes through the Ages 2 May Marn Griffiths, Planetary Nebulae Marathon 6 Jun Mark Radice, Observing from the Carib- bean + AGM Observing Sessions The Wiltshire Astronomical Please treat the lights and I have been interested in astronomy since about the age of Society’s observing sessions return to full working order twelve, when I can remember reclining full length on the are open, and we welcome before leaving. With enough dew-laden lawn of my parent's house in Parkstone, Dorset, visitors from other societies care shown we may get the trying to spot the polar caps of Mars through a 2" non- as well as members of the National Trust to do some- achromatic refractor I was given for my birthday. public to join us. thing with them! My interest waned somewhat during my later teens, 20's We will help you set up and 30's (a misspent youth and subsequent preoccupations equipment (as often as you PLEASE see our proposed with career and family seemed to be the main cause), but re need this help), and let you changes to the observing -emerged strongly in 1988 when I purchased my first 'real' test anything we have to help sessions, contacting and telescope - a Meade 8" LX3. It was with this telescope that I you in your choice of future other details. Back Page started to dabble in astrophotography, but went on to more astronomy purchases. serious things in 1994 with the acquisition of a Meade LX200 10". I started to become seriously involved in astrophotography in December 1996. In order to get better images I needed a dark site, so I started making regular trips to the south of France. I also acquired many images from the back garden of my house in Wiltshire, UK. During 1998 I replaced my Tamron 300mm lens with Nikon 300mm and 400mm lenses and upgraded my hypering kit to support high vacuum film hypersensitisation. During my first two years of experience in astrophotography I became in- creasingly aware of the need to cover focal lengths in the 1000mm range. Therefore late in 1998 I made two major acquisitions: an AP 900 GTO mount and an AP 155 EDF f/7 refractor with 4" Field Flattener. A little later I also acquired a Pentax 6x7 camera to enable medium format photography with the new refractor. At this time most of my photography was done on gas hypersensitised film. In October 2000 I replaced my 10" LX200 OTA with a 12.5" Ritchey-Chretien from RC Optical Systems to support high- er quality in wide field photography. The RC has other ad- vantages, such as 1/6 wave optics, a superb focusing sys- tem, and very good thermal stability (the focus does not shift Our speaker tonight: during the night). A little later, in February 2001, I made a Philip Perkins move into CCD imaging with the purchase of an SBIG ST- Astrocruise 8E camera. I am grateful to the many friends on mail lists such as APML http://www.astrocruise.com/ and SBIG who have given me invaluable help. Mail lists are His biography is to the right. a wonderful thing - there is more knowledge and experience to be had than in any book, and it's totally free. Without this help I would still be in the proverbial dark ages. Page 3 Friday 17 March 2017 Swindon’s own astronomy group The club meets once a month at Liddington Hall, Church Programme: AGM plus Dr Bob Gatten - Using the Faulkes Road, Liddington, Swindon, SN4 0HB at 7.30pm. See pro- Telescope Project's remote telescopes, results so far gramme below. Friday 24 April 2017 Ad-hoc viewing sessions Programme: Dr Pauline Norris - The Ancient Egyptians and Regular stargazing evenings are being organised near Swin- their Astronomy don. To join these events please visit our website for further information. Friday 19 May 2017 Lately we have been stargazing at Blakehill Farm Nature Programme: Martin Griffiths - Contact with extraterrestrials, Reserve near Cricklade, a very good spot with no distrac- how will it affect us tions from car headlights. We often meet regularly at a lay-by just outside the village of Uffcott, near Wroughton. Directions are also shown on the Friday 16 June 2017 website link below. Programme: Paul Roche - Robotic Astronomy When we use East Kennett, we meet at the public car park just below The Red Lion pub at Avebury; we usually hang on Website: for 10 minutes and then move on to our viewing spot at East Kennett. Information about our evenings and viewing spots http://www.swindonstargazers.com can be found here: Chairman: Peter Struve http://www.swindonstargazers.com/noticeboard/ noticeboard06.htm Tel No: 01793 481547 Email: [email protected] If you think you might be interested email the organiser Rob- Address: 3 Monkton Close, Park South, Swindon, SN3 2EU in Wilkey (see website). With this you will then be emailed regarding the event, whether it is going ahead or whether it will be cancelled because of cloud etc. Secretary: Dr Bob Gatten (PhD) Tel Number: 07913 335475 We are a small keen group and I would ask you to note that you DO NOT have to own a telescope to take part, just turn Email: [email protected] up and have a great evening looking through other people's Address: 17, Euclid Street, scopes. We are out there to share an interest and the hobby.