Volume21, Issue 10 NWASNEWS June 2016 Newsletter for the Wiltshire, Swindon, Beckington Into the Summer Astronomical Societies and Salisbury Plain Before we get on with tonight’s matters, Thank you all for turning up… without the Wiltshire Society Page 2 can I ask you all to thank our committee for members of a society we are nothing. the work they have done this year, Peter Swindon Stargazers 3 I personally would like to step down soon, for the excellent speaker programme with perhaps next year, as some complications Beckington and SPOG 4 one bit of sweating mid term but we made with the arthritis cures may be wrecking it, I know Bob has had a heck of a time my kidneys. I am still having tests but it Space Place : New Earth 5 trying to get the bank to add signatures for could be a choice of painful kidneys or views from Space. cheque signatureries, as asked for at the very painful arthritis. I would stay in sup- last AGM. It has taken us 10 months and Space X success and look- 6-16 port for a new chair, and will continue the the ban k are still mucking us around. I newsletter until the complayent abut mi ing for first reuse. included his email to the committee so you Mysterious lonely galaxy spleling mishtaiks. can see the headaches. I even went in and Hubble finds higher expan- sion rate of universe. got assurances everything was OK on the Life giving chemicals on paper work for the bank to reject it again! On to tonight, not too for removed from comet. John and Tony on organising the observ- the search for a new chair is the search Water on Moon likety Aster- ing sessions, but also adding their for Extraterrestial Life. oid delivery. In Martin Griffiths we have someone who Pluto images and examina- knowledge with deep sky observing lists tion. and efforts helping out at outreach observ- worked a lot in America and Europe on The Big Bang ing sessions, along with Dave B, Peter C, Astrobioligical research, and the hunt for Finding the alphabet on the Peter E, Martin and others as occasional life out there is just part of the SETI quest. Moon help they have helped a lot of people see He is here to update us on the current Tutankhamun’s meteorite more in our skies. moves and financing issues that may af- dagger. Keith B as vice chair, and stand ins as vice fect our listening for life out there. The search for extra terres- 16-23 treasurer… it may not seem a lot, but it is a He will be joined tonight by his colleague tials tremendously load off the duties of chair if and the director of Dark Sky Wales, Allan there is good back up for all positions. Also Viewing log and images 24-27 Trow. Together we have had many ad- thanks to Philip P for keeping the hall avail- ventures in sky watching in Portugal, able and even coming out of ‘retirement’ to What’s Up Summer 2016 28-29 Spain and Wales… very few of which are help Keith and Dave behind the kitchen repeatable in mixed company! getting coffees etc. Constellation of the Month 30-31 Have a great summer, and keep looking Hercules The accounts look slightly inflated but we at the skies. We will try to arrange a Per- have more panels to be printed for out- seid viewing session for Friday 12th Au- Perseids 32 reach at Nibley, and the hire of the hall in gust so keep in touch. January at Lacock. M4 33 Clear skies Andy Lots more uses to be made of the small Space Station Timings 35 grant we received. IMAGES, VIEWING SES- 36 SIONS and OUTREACH Star trails and the Interna- tional Space Station from the 5th May. The centering of the concen- tric star arcs is just at top centre of the picture, so this marks the point of Polaris. Around 2 hours of exposures (some had to be deleted due to icing up on the lens. 250 pictures were then com- piled using a free piece of software called ‘Startrails’. The original is in German but an English download made. Andy Burns 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) June 7th The Current State of SETI : Martin Griffiths Peter Chappell (Speaker secretary) NEW SEASON Nick Howes (Technical Guru) 6/9 Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe ‘Efforts Observing Sessions coordinators: Jon Gale, Tony Vale of Space Microbes on Earthly life’ 4/10 Paul Money ‘Images of the Universe’ Contact via the web site details. This is to protect individuals 1/11 Philip Perkins ‘Imaging the Cosmos’ from unsolicited mailings. 6/12 Andrew Lound ‘TBN’ 2017 3/1 TBN 7/2 Professor David Southwood ’10 years of Space Science at the European Space Agency’ Martin Griffiths BSc. (First Class Honours) MSc. 7/3 Steve Tonkin ‘And yet it Moves!’ (Distinction) FRAS. FHEA. 4/4 Doctor Chris North ‘Telescopes through the Martin Griffiths is an enthusiastic Ages’ science communicator, lecturer, 2/5 TBN writer and professional astrono- 6/6 Mark Radice ‘Observing from the Caribbean’ mer utilizing astronomy, history and science fiction as tools to encourage greater public under- standing of science. Rusty Lane, Pavilion He was a founder member of NASA’s Astrobiology Institute Science Communication Group, active between 2003-2006 and managed a multi-million pound ESF programme in Astrobiology for adult learners between 2003- 2008. Martin has written and pre- sented planetarium programmes for key stages 1, 2 and 3 and has been an adviser to sever- al museum projects on the interface between science and science fiction. He was consultant to the University of Gla- Observing Sessions morgan computer graphics team on their development of the Alien Worlds multimedia tools, (now available free at the The Wiltshire Astronomical Please treat the lights and iTunesU store) which won the Alternative Learning Technol- Society’s observing sessions return to full working order ogies second prize in 2008. are open, and we welcome before leaving. With enough visitors from other societies care shown we may get the Martin continues to promote cross-disciplinary links between as well as members of the National Trust to do some- science and culture that reflect his educational background public to join us. thing with them! and interests. He has written monographs on the science We will help you set up communication of the proto-feminist Margaret Cavendish, equipment (as often as you PLEASE see our proposed Duchess of Newcastle; and the 18th century scientist, assay need this help), and let you changes to the observing master and political adviser Joseph Harris of Breconshire. test anything we have to help sessions, contacting and He is also a regular contributor to the online science journal you in your choice of future other details. Back Page LabLit: the culture of science in fiction and fact. Recently he astronomy purchases. assisted the Brecon Beacons National Park in surveying the darkness of the night sky for their successful bid for the In- ternational Dark Sky Association’s Dark Sky Reserve Status – the first such reserve in Wales. Martin is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society; a Fel- low of the Higher Education Academy; a member of the British Astronomical Association; the Webb Deep-Sky Soci- ety; the Society for Popular Astronomy, The Astronomical Society of the Pacific and the Astronomical League. He is also a local representative for the BAA Campaign for Dark Skies. Martin broadcasts regularly on BBC Wales radio and has appeared on science programmes for the BBC, Einstein TV, Granada TV and the Discovery Channel. He is also a member of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, dedi- cated to promoting the science, arts and literature of Wales. He is now working for Dark Sky Wales in their outreach work to schools and adult learning groups. He has now writ- ten three books in the Springer Astronomy Series. Page 3 Swindon’s own astronomy group At Liddington Village Hall, Church Road, Lidding- The club meets once a month at Liddington Hall, Church ton, SN4 0HB – 7.30pm onwards Road, Liddington, Swindon, SN4 0HB at 7.30pm. See pro- gramme below. The hall has easy access from Junction 15 of the M4, a map and directions can be found on our The Transit of Mercury website at: http://www.swindonstargazers.com/clubdiary/ We were set up at Avebury on time for Mercury to com- directions01.htm mence its journey across the face of the Sun. The weather was not great and earlier in the morning there were actually Friday 17 Jun 2016 a few spots of rain. It was very over cast, but now and then the Sun did shine through. The Sun did manage to burn Programme: James Fradgely: How (on Earth) Did Life Start through to allow us to see the first ingress of Mercury. Alt- hough I have seen this before, back in 2003, I was still sur- Friday 16 Sep 2016 prised how small Mercury appeared. The Sun exhibited two sunspots, which Mercury seemed smaller than. Programme: Guy Hurst: Star Clusters For the next few hours the clouds taunted us with breaks Friday 21 Oct 2016 every now and then.