The Moon is popular again!

The Moon is once again popular with the USA, Japan, China and India all having or about to land spacecraft on the satellite. Intuitive Machines has just landed a probe, the first private company to do so, at a cost of one thousanth of the Apollo programme.

This weekend sees a full Moon that is also a minimoon and a snowmoon, or to some a hunger moon.

Don’t know your apogee from your perigee or still think the Moon looks temptingly like a round of Stilton? Then answers to most of your questions may be found in this month’s meeting of the Society, Monday 26th February upstairs in the Hen and Chickens, Abergavenny. Meeting starts at 7:30 and the topic is “A beginners guide to the Moon” by Nick Busby

Free talk for Dark skies week, 6:30 pm,15th February, The life cycle of stars

This event is part of Dark Sky Week Wales.

Mae’r ddigwyddiad hwn yn rhan o wythnos Awyr Dywyll Cymru

On the 15th February at 6:30pm Nick Busby will be giving an online talk on the life cycle of stars as can be seen in the sky at this time of year.

For further details and to sign-up (it’s free!) please follow the following link to eventbright.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cylch-bywyd-y-ser-the-life-cycle-of-stars-nick-busby-tickets-813860768467?aff=oddtdtcreator

Learn how stars form, shine and die and how you can see this in the sky yourself.

This online presentation will focus on the Orion Nebular and constellation of Taurus where you are able to see examples of newly formed stars and those which are nearing the end of life and dying.

Nick Busby will take you through this using Stellarium and help you to locate the nebulae and constellations which you will be able to see for yourself in the sky at night.

Questions will be welcome at the end of the session.

Dysgwch sut mae sêr yn ffurfio, yn disgleirio ac yn marw a sut gallwch chi weld hyn yn yr awyr eich hun.

Bydd y cyflwyniad ar-lein hwn yn canolbwyntio ar y Nebular Orion a chlytser Taurus lle gallwch weld enghreifftiau o sêr newydd eu ffurfio a’r rhai sy’n agosáu at ddiwedd oes ac yn marw.

Bydd Nick Busby yn mynd â chi drwy hyn gan ddefnyddio Stellarium ac yn eich helpu i ddod o hyd i’r niwl a’r cytser y byddwch chi’n gallu eu gweld drosoch eich hun yn yr awyr gyda’r nos.

Bydd cyfle i ateb westiynau ar ddiwedd y sesiwn.

Mae hen yn ddigwyddiad am ddim.

February Meeting

The next meeting will be on the usual 4th Monday of the month, that’s February 26th.
Normal place and time:- Upstairs in The Hen & Chicks, Abergavenny, at 7:30pm

The topic will be “A beginners guide to the Moon”

One other matter that came up at the last meeting was the “Celestial Observing Group”. This is a WhatsApp group for those who enjoy observing the heavens. If anyone is interested in joining then email me at webmaster@abergavennyas.org.uk and I will pass your request on to the group administrator, Andrew Lohfink.

Good Evening on the 27th

We had a great turnout for the AAS, UskAS and HOVAS get together in the Hen & Chickens. Thanks to all those who turned up, hope you had a good evening and also hope we can keep the momentum up in 2024.

Martin Griffiths gave a talk about Mars : Life – Fiction – Fact – Robots etc. I enjoyed it and it seemed to go down well. Suffice to say that Martin seemed to be a bit frustrated at sending more robotic missions to investigate what we already know and is waiting for engineers, biologists (and people with shovels to dig a few holes more than 8cm deep) to visit.

For the future are there any topics that people would be interested in hearing about, or would like to give a short talk/introduction on? Suggestions are more than welcome. If you fancy giving it a go but are a little shy don’t worry, you don’t need to be an expert, we will give any help that is necessary and the attendees don’t bite.

Again, great to meet up with everyone, enjoy the festive season and I look forward to meeting up again in 2024.

Oct Meeting

Great turnout and discussion on “The Oort Cloud” at this weeks meeting (23rd).

In case anyone is interested I have uploaded a pdf copy of the presentation slides onto the web site. LINK

There is a lot of info on the internet but one YouTube video I watched, “Unveiling the Oort Cloud“ by a Dr Nora Bailey, is quite straightforward.  LINK

Next Meeting is scheduled for the 4th Monday of November, the 27th. Topic will be advised later.
Hope to see everyone there.