The May lecture meeting is Monday 14th at 8pm.

We welcome Alistair Hamilton as our speaker on the wide ranging subject that today, affects us all.. RADIO COMMUNICATIONS.

8pm at Cranbrook School.  Contact us for a map, if you are not sure where.

M109 26 March 2012 Processed & desaturated

M51 Whirlpool Galaxy 26 March 2012 Processed

M109 and M51 taken with the Alan Young telescope.

Archaeoastronomy - 11th April 8pm with Charles Barclay

Join us at 8pm Wednesday 11th April 2012 for a lecture on Archaeoastronomy by Charles Barclay.  (free for members and under-16s, others £2 on the door)

We are delighted Charles has agreed to travel from Marlborough College, Wiltshire to give us his fascinating talk, so please come along to meet him and support CADSAS.

Here is a synopsis of the lecture:

Stonehenge and Avebury in UK are sites of global importance and at the focus of this lecture on 7000 years of inherited knowledge common to all Earth’s cultures and nationalities.

The Celestial Sphere was of overarching importance in pre-light pollution skies and the first astronomies and cosmologies brought some order to an otherwise tumultuous existence.

This highly illustrated lecture covers the multinational and multicultural development of astronomical observation and takes the audience on a voyage of discovery, suggesting meaning and significance particularly in Avebury, Stonehenge, Silbury Hill and other ancient sites around the World.

And a brief biography of the speaker:

Charles Barclay graduated from St Andrews University in 1986 in Astronomy and
Astrophysics. Since 2004 he has been Director of the Blackett Observatory at Marlborough College, Wiltshire, where he teaches astronomy and physics. He is an Academic Visitor in the Oxford University Astrophysics Department and an Associate Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford. At the forefront of UK Astronomy education, he chairs the Royal Astronomical Society education committee and is chair of examiners for Edexcel GCSE Astronomy and a Principal Moderator for Edexcel Extended Project at KS5. He is also a member of International Astronomical Union Commission 46 (Astronomy in education and development) and sits on the Science Council Education Programme Coordinating Group.

Guide to the Spring Night Sky - 7pm 12th March 2012

At 7pm Monday 12th March, we are welcoming all visitors for an outdoor observing session (weather permitting).

It will be a guide to the Spring Night Sky.

We shall wave our arms, shine laser pointers upwards and generally try to explain, what is up there in the sky to see at this time of year.

Hope to see you. It starts at 7pm (note earlier time) Monday 12th March at the CADSAS
Observatory

In the observatory, under the ever present risk of a thick layer of frozen snow perched periliously on the edge of the roof, the AY scope secured some fine images to add to the growing collection of Messier objects (principally open clusters).

M103 (NGC 581) an open cluster in Cassiopeia
M41 (NGC 2287) an open cluster in Canis Major
NGC 2264 The Christmas Tree Cluster & the star 15 Monoceros
M34 (NGC 1039) another open cluster in Perseus

As astronomers and good scientists, we should keep our minds open.

So for our February monthly talk, we will tackle the subject of Astrology and cover some aspects you might want to know about, but are too scared to ask!

Our speaker team have views from “it’s total rubbish” to “science can’t explain everything yet”.

Should be interesting… see you at 8pm in the Lecture Theatre.

Special Offer:  Would you like your personal natal (birth) horoscope calculated for the talk?  If you will be there on the night and are happy to share, please say. Just send me your birth date and time (we will keep the year secret, if you prefer).

M67 OpenCluster - 27 Jan12 (click for larger)

Continuing our quest to capture images of the Messier objects, we secured another one at last night’s observing session

This image was captured using the Alan Young 22.5″ reflector telescope.

M67 (NGC 2682) in Cancer. An open cluster known to be one of the oldest in excess of 10 billion years old!!

It was successful with very clear skies and about 30 people attending.

The following images of 3 Messier objects, were taken on the night with the Alan Young telescope.

Wide-field image of constellation Orion

This nice wide-field picture (click thumbnail image for a larger version) was taken last night at the Observatory by CADSAS member Graham.

He writes:
“One picture for the gallery. I’ve touched it up a bit but this isn’t a stacked output, just a single photo. If you look closely you can just about make out the Orion Nebula.

For those budding astrophotographers the settings for the shot were:
Exposure: 20secs
Aperture: 3.5
ISO: 1600
Focal length: 18mm

Thank you!