Latest news about the Society
Tony will be giving Part 2 of his talk on his astrophotography experiences, this time with a DSLR.
Should we have time after that we can have a general discussion on the subject of astrophotography. I have received a number of pictures taken by Philip & Nick with their smart scopes. We can see what can be done with this developing technology. Any experiences from members or thoughts on the topic will, I’m sure, be of great interest to us all.
See you Monday evening – ALL ARE WELCOME!
The next meeting will be at the usual time and place, 7:30pm upstairs in the Hen & Chicks, Abergavenny
Tony P-F will be giving the 2nd part of his talk about astrophotography entitled:-
“Easy Astrophotography using a DSLR and clockwork tracker”.
(The picture below is just an illustration I got from the WEB – NOT Tony’s equipment!)
The first part of Tony’s talk in December was describing his experience with his Seestar S50 smart telescope. That talk raised a lot of interest in this developing technology and a number of members have since had a go.
It would be interesting if members who have used smart scopes, or cameras of course, were to share their experiences and thoughts on astrophotography at the meeting. I’m sure others would also find the exchange of views of interest.
If you have any photos you think illustrate aspects of astrophotography please send them to me (webmaster@abergavennyas.org.uk) and I will show them on screen at the H&C on Monday. I look forward to the evening.
As always all are welcome, all you need is a curiosity about the skies.
This Thursday, 26th March, there is a show which tells the stories of the stars to an electro-acoustic soundtrack
Created by Daniel Morden, Hugh Lupton and Sarah Lianne Lewis it is described as:
“A majestic, intimate and hypnotic re-imagining of Greek myths and legends weaving ancient stories, cosmic projections and a spine-tingling electro-acoustic soundscape. Be transported into the night sky on the breath of stories that have lit up the darkness for thousands of years.”
Short notice I know but for more information and tickets check
https://boroughtheatreabergavenny.co.uk/shows/stars-and-their-consolations/
The next meeting will be at the usual time and place, 7:30pm upstairs in the Hen & Chicks, Abergavenny
The speaker will be Dr Leo Jenner. Inspired by Halley’s comet appearance in 1986 he later studied physics at University College London (UCL), starting with astronomy & moving to particle physics.
Dr Jenner has worked at CERN (large hadron collider), USA (Fermilab, Chicago and the high energy physics lab at Tower mine, Minnesota) and various projects in the UK and elsewhere.
The presentation will be on screen at the Hen & Chicks via Zoom. Dr Jenner will talk about CERN and astroparticle physics. This field grew out of the discovery of high energy cosmic rays from space in the early 20th Century. You can read a bit more information about what this field is investigating, according to Wiki, LINK HERE
I’m sure that it will be an interesting talk, so I look forward to meeting up. All are invited newcomers and regulars, all you need is curiosity.
Following on from our discussion in the Jan meeting re LEOs there was an Astrobites post last week
“Two satellite proposals threaten dark and quiet skies worldwide”. (LINK HERE)
To quote from the article “The first proposal is from Reflect Orbital, a company with the stated goal of selling “sunlight after dark”. To achieve this, they propose to deploy a constellation of over 50,000 in-space mirrors by 2035 to redirect the sunlight back to Earth at night”.
This sounds like a game changer to me!
In connection to this topic the campaign for dark skies is being re-launched, Nick is on the committee. More information on their website (LINK HERE)
The next meeting will be a practical demonstration, led by Nick, looking at “Developments in optical glasses for modern telescopes”. It’s sure to be both informative and entertaining.
The usual place & time; The upper room at the Hen & Chickens, Abergavenny at 7:30 pm.
I look forward to meeting up, all are welcome.
A reasonable number of people made it to the January meeting, our first AGM for some 6 years, despite the miserable weather. The draft minutes have been put on the website “Download” page, HERE.
We also had time for a general chat about the effect that the vastly increasing number of low earth orbit satellites (LEOs), eg Starlink etc, may have on observational astronomy. The overall feeling was that although there is an issue for professional astronomy the impact on amateur observation is likely to be minor. I guess time will tell.