The 424th Meeting of the Altrincham and District Astronomical Society, held at Timperley Village Scout hut on Friday 2nd of March 2007 at 8pm
Those present were:
Paul Clark, Kevin Thurstan, Philip Masding,
Don Utton, Norman Thurstan, Colin Eaves,
Geoffrey Walton, Graham Sinagola, Ged Birbeck,
John Tipping, Roger Livermore, Paul Brierly,
Colin Bowler, Geoff Flood, Colin Henshaw,
Peter Baugh, Mike Tyrell, Nick Odham,
Jordan Odham, Nikki Grimshaw, James Grimshaw,
Paul Stringer, Clive Prior, A. Bradshaw.
(total 24)
The Chairman welcomed everyone and said we would start with a talk from Colin Henshaw on astronomy without a telescope, followed by some of the members recent pics including Peter Baugh’s from New Zealand.
Colin began by explaining that even small telescopes can be expensive but that you can do quite a lot of astronomical observations without one. All you need is some basic equipment and to be properly prepared. He then listed some of the equipment as a rucksack, groundsheet, gloves, torch, notebook pen & pencil, watch, star atlas, latest BAA handbook, binoculars and a good pair of eyes. Other possibilities were a camera or ccd, tripod, cable release and maybe a driven equatorial mount for the camera or ccd. The other is a dark safe observing site such as a rooftop, a backyard not overlooked by lights or maybe a local park or golf course.
Colin then reviewed what can be done with each type of observational equipment.
Using just the naked eye you can learn to find your way around the night sky , you can watch and record meteors and variable stars, view several planets as well as other phenomena like zodiacal light, the milky way, eclipses and aurora.
With binoculars you can add comets, some deep sky objects and more variable stars to the list as well as improving your view of some of the other items listed.
Cameras and ccd’s can be used to take various wide angle pictures and do photometry.
After some questions the meeting had a short break.
When the meeting resumed Paul showed us his pictures of comet McNaught.
Peter Baugh then told us about a guided tour he took to Mount St John Observatory when he was in New Zealand recently. He explained that they were using the 1.8 meter telescope to observe gravitational lensing events within our own galaxy. Peter then showed us some aurora pictures and some pictures, by the Australian Peter Gurns that he picked up on his trip of comet McNaught.
Next the meeting was shown some pictures of the recent grazing occultation of Saturn taken by Paul Clark, Mike Tyrell and Phil Masding, as well as a 20 second video of the event put together by Paul.
We were then reminded that the following evening there would be a total lunar eclipse and that there was a public star party at Jodrell bank to which members of the society Megan Argo invited free of charge if they brought along a telescope.
The meeting was then brought to a close.
Those present were:
Paul Clark, Kevin Thurstan, Philip Masding,
Don Utton, Norman Thurstan, Colin Eaves,
Geoffrey Walton, Graham Sinagola, Ged Birbeck,
John Tipping, Roger Livermore, Paul Brierly,
Colin Bowler, Geoff Flood, Colin Henshaw,
Peter Baugh, Mike Tyrell, Nick Odham,
Jordan Odham, Nikki Grimshaw, James Grimshaw,
Paul Stringer, Clive Prior, A. Bradshaw.
(total 24)
The Chairman welcomed everyone and said we would start with a talk from Colin Henshaw on astronomy without a telescope, followed by some of the members recent pics including Peter Baugh’s from New Zealand.
Colin began by explaining that even small telescopes can be expensive but that you can do quite a lot of astronomical observations without one. All you need is some basic equipment and to be properly prepared. He then listed some of the equipment as a rucksack, groundsheet, gloves, torch, notebook pen & pencil, watch, star atlas, latest BAA handbook, binoculars and a good pair of eyes. Other possibilities were a camera or ccd, tripod, cable release and maybe a driven equatorial mount for the camera or ccd. The other is a dark safe observing site such as a rooftop, a backyard not overlooked by lights or maybe a local park or golf course.
Colin then reviewed what can be done with each type of observational equipment.
Using just the naked eye you can learn to find your way around the night sky , you can watch and record meteors and variable stars, view several planets as well as other phenomena like zodiacal light, the milky way, eclipses and aurora.
With binoculars you can add comets, some deep sky objects and more variable stars to the list as well as improving your view of some of the other items listed.
Cameras and ccd’s can be used to take various wide angle pictures and do photometry.
After some questions the meeting had a short break.
When the meeting resumed Paul showed us his pictures of comet McNaught.
Peter Baugh then told us about a guided tour he took to Mount St John Observatory when he was in New Zealand recently. He explained that they were using the 1.8 meter telescope to observe gravitational lensing events within our own galaxy. Peter then showed us some aurora pictures and some pictures, by the Australian Peter Gurns that he picked up on his trip of comet McNaught.
Next the meeting was shown some pictures of the recent grazing occultation of Saturn taken by Paul Clark, Mike Tyrell and Phil Masding, as well as a 20 second video of the event put together by Paul.
We were then reminded that the following evening there would be a total lunar eclipse and that there was a public star party at Jodrell bank to which members of the society Megan Argo invited free of charge if they brought along a telescope.
The meeting was then brought to a close.
posted by Kevin at 1:48 PM
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