2nd November 2007 Minutes
ALTRINCHAM AND DISTRICT ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY430TH Meeting held at 1st Timperley Scout Hall on Friday 2nd November 2007
PRESENT
Kevin Thurstan, Tony Aremia, Steven Holt, Geoff Flood, Chris Suddick,Peter Baugh, Graham Sinagola, Paul Brierley, Colin Eaves, Geoff Walton,Colin Bowler, Nick Dixon, Richard Bullock, John Tipping, Nick Odham,Norman Thurstan.
total - 16
The Chairman welcomed everyone to the 430th meeting.Tony Aremia gave an update on the situation with Don Utton who is undergoing radiation treatment at Christies Hospital. It will be some weeks before the outcome is known.Various pieces of post were dealt with:North West GAS, minutes of their last meetingFrom the FAS , with Newsletter.Fedastro, with meetings list.Herschel Museum of Astronomy (Bath) with details of Space Quest 2007.Beacon Hill Telescopes advertising various bits equipment at “Best Prices”Kevin Thurstan reported on the NWGAS meeting.Dave Ogden (Macclesfield AS) has taken over as Secretary.It has been decided that in future they will only meet once per year and the next meeting will be held at Chester AS which will be combined with a Star Party and BBQ.It was felt that it is sensible to have face to face meetings periodically to sort out any issues which might arise.A number of Societies have not been in contact with NWGAS for some time and they will be written off if they do not make contact shortly.There was some discussion of the 17p/Holmes comet which is visible and now quite bright - ca mag 2.5.N.B. Following the meeting the sky was clear and some good viewing of the comet was had using binoculars which some members had with them.Kevin announced that the next meeting will be in the form of a quiz and the January meeting a “tell and show” event enabling members to swank about their latest kit!The second part of the evening was taken up with a talk from Dave Ogden (Macclesfield AS) entitled “Martian Madness or the real Martian Invasion”Dave took us through the exploration of Mars and showed how technology has changed over the years starting with Orson Wells!Although a small planet, Mars has a similar angle of tilt to the Earth, its atmosphere is largely CO2. Mars has only about 38% of the Earth’s gravity and there are winds of up to 200mph.The temperature ranges from -23C to +123CRussia, America and Europe have all made attempts to land on Mars or to examine it,these flights have not always been successful - there have been twice as many failures as successes. Recently the Chinese and Japanese have been getting in on the act.Dave’s talk was wonderfully illustrated and the audience was thoroughly engrossed throughout.The meeting closed at 10:30pm
PRESENT
Kevin Thurstan, Tony Aremia, Steven Holt, Geoff Flood, Chris Suddick,Peter Baugh, Graham Sinagola, Paul Brierley, Colin Eaves, Geoff Walton,Colin Bowler, Nick Dixon, Richard Bullock, John Tipping, Nick Odham,Norman Thurstan.
total - 16
The Chairman welcomed everyone to the 430th meeting.Tony Aremia gave an update on the situation with Don Utton who is undergoing radiation treatment at Christies Hospital. It will be some weeks before the outcome is known.Various pieces of post were dealt with:North West GAS, minutes of their last meetingFrom the FAS , with Newsletter.Fedastro, with meetings list.Herschel Museum of Astronomy (Bath) with details of Space Quest 2007.Beacon Hill Telescopes advertising various bits equipment at “Best Prices”Kevin Thurstan reported on the NWGAS meeting.Dave Ogden (Macclesfield AS) has taken over as Secretary.It has been decided that in future they will only meet once per year and the next meeting will be held at Chester AS which will be combined with a Star Party and BBQ.It was felt that it is sensible to have face to face meetings periodically to sort out any issues which might arise.A number of Societies have not been in contact with NWGAS for some time and they will be written off if they do not make contact shortly.There was some discussion of the 17p/Holmes comet which is visible and now quite bright - ca mag 2.5.N.B. Following the meeting the sky was clear and some good viewing of the comet was had using binoculars which some members had with them.Kevin announced that the next meeting will be in the form of a quiz and the January meeting a “tell and show” event enabling members to swank about their latest kit!The second part of the evening was taken up with a talk from Dave Ogden (Macclesfield AS) entitled “Martian Madness or the real Martian Invasion”Dave took us through the exploration of Mars and showed how technology has changed over the years starting with Orson Wells!Although a small planet, Mars has a similar angle of tilt to the Earth, its atmosphere is largely CO2. Mars has only about 38% of the Earth’s gravity and there are winds of up to 200mph.The temperature ranges from -23C to +123CRussia, America and Europe have all made attempts to land on Mars or to examine it,these flights have not always been successful - there have been twice as many failures as successes. Recently the Chinese and Japanese have been getting in on the act.Dave’s talk was wonderfully illustrated and the audience was thoroughly engrossed throughout.The meeting closed at 10:30pm
posted by Kevin at 10:53 AM
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