As there was no invited speaker Michael
Harte opened the meeting announcing that two club members
would be giving short talks.
Joan then presented
her talk on how she thought the Solar
system had evolved. The talk was well illustrated
by slides, and the general theme was that the solar
system originated from a Supernova
remnant with first the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn
forming and subsequently a trigger - probably gravitational,
which then formed the Moons and the inner planets. The
talk was received with great interest and a vote of
thanks given to Joan.
To help fill in the time your
reporter gave a very short talk on Jupiter,
which in his opinion was a more suitable target for
beginners than the Moon. (Editors note: see Treasurers
report below!)
The evening ended with a talk by
Sean on Vesta.
This large asteroid Sean explained is nearly spherical,
and probably has an iron core. It certainly has a rocky
surface with many craters, one of these is very distinctive
near the southern pole. Sean's talk was again well illustrated
with slides, Sean conclude his talk with some charts
showing how to observe Vesta.
The next meeting of the society will be on Wednesday May 21 2003. As usual, the doors open at 7.15 and the meeting starts at 7.30 prompt. The speaker this month will be Peter Simmons and the title for the evening is "Images of the Sky".
The next observing session is to
be held on Friday 30 May. The venue and time is as usual
the Crow & Gate at Crowborough for 7.30pm. Please
contact Sean (or any other committee member) before
the night before the event if you will be attending.
This is useful so that
a) We know how many members
to expect, we don't want to leave the pub if you are
definitely coming!
b) So that you won't be the only
person present!
Membership
of the Society is recovering well from the figures quoted
last month from the Committee Meeting Minutes. We are
now 50 including 2 students all fairly evenly distributed
across the neighbouring counties: 25 East Sussex, 24
Kent & 1 France!
A big thank you to Joan Grace,
Sean Tampsett and Bob Wharton for the challenging and
interesting talks on April 16, which complemented each
other so well and without the speakers exchanging notes
in advance. It was appreciated all the more because
they were staged in the face of two late cancellations/postponements.
In Bob's case it was in response to a call at the start
of the meeting!
Thanks too to Michael Harte for
knitting the show together without any seams. The pre-Easter
absentees missed a treat. A pity about the catering
executive and his boiler, it seems he was still on the
train home while we concluded the evening with views
the night sky from the tennis courts.
The top topic
as members paused and forgot about refreshments was
the Web cam. A lot of interest has been generated since
George Sallit gave his talk in February. It must be
due to the prospects of operating a telescope out in
the cold and the viewer stuck in front of a monitor
in the comfort of indoors.
In order to catch the public eye with
more than a telescope tube it is proposed to accompany
our exhibition at Speldhurst Fete on 28th June with
a game of chance. It is normally a very popular local
gathering, and this year the organisers will be particularly
keen to make it a success in order to rebuild and re-equip
their hall.
A raffle of a few interesting, non-alcohol
prizes attracted as many to our stand last year as did
the static display (particularly the little telescope).
We propose to follow the same pattern this year provided
of course that we have some prizes. Would members kindly
see if they have some unwanted gadget or equipment,
which they are prepared to contribute.
Our very own Ian King has put together
a new website which features some recent images. It
is a work in progress and so there should be changes
made to the site in the future.
The address is:
www.ianking.darkhorizons.org
Ian Reeves March 2003
Chairman: Murray R. Barber 01892 654618 murray.barber@virgin.net
Secretary: Ian King 01892 836288
Treasurer: Ian Reeves 01892 784255
Editor: Peter Bamblett 01732 368656 pbamblett@hotmail.com
Publicity & Web Site: Michael Harte 01892 783292 michael@greenman.demon.co.uk
Dir. of Obs.: Sean Tampsett 01892 667092 sean_tampsett@hotmail.com
Librarian: Joan Grace 01892 783721