JANUARY NEWSLETTER 2005
INDEX: MEETINGS, OTHER NEWS, CONTACTS
A Very Happy New Year to all members of the Wadhurst Astronomical Society!
DECEMBER MEETING
The
last meeting of the Wadhurst Astronomical Society was held at Uplands College on
Wednesday the fifteenth of December and was also the Annual General
Meeting. The meeting was well
attended, but sadly our anticipated speaker for the evening failed to
arrive.
Ian
Reeves opened the evening as our stand-in Chairman but by the end of the AGM he
had been voted in as the Society's new Secretary, and it is in this capacity
that he writes the following report of events:
Report of the Wadhurst Astronomical Society's AGM by the New
Secretary
Members were poised to welcome Norman Walker to the December meeting but
the searching questions each of them had assembled remain unanswered. Our would-be speaker did not
arrive. The following day he
expressed his regrets for the
disappoinment his no-appearance had caused. His 2004 year plan had become faint to
indecipherable. Fortunately we had
an absorbing AGM on hand with hot coffee and star class mince pies to capture
that attention of some 20 members.
A
relaxed but friendly formal process was adopted this year. A temporay Chairman in the shape of Ian,
our outgoing Treasurer, (wearing a jacket!) using text book jargon, moved that
Mr. Tim Bance take the Chair and in the absence of any other candidate, members
were invited to indicate their approval by a show of hands. The response was unanimously in
favour.
Tim took the Chair and briefly thanked the meeting for the honour conferred on him. He then thanked the outgoing Treasurer for serving seven years in office before proposing that Jason Gardner be elected to the post of Treasurer. By another show of hands members gave their approval and Jason was elected.
Tim moved on to announce that seven other members had agreed that their names could go forward for election to the committee. Since no further offers were forthcoming he read out the names in alphabetical order. There was once again a show of hands with none against to show members satisfaction.
The line-up is as follows:
Name Served on the
Committee since
Office
Tim Bance Jan 1998 Chairman
Jason Gardner new Treasurer
Joan Grace Nov
1997
Michael Harte Sept 1999
Ian King
Oct 2002
Geoff Rathbone Nov 2003
Ian Reeves Nov 1997
John Vale Taylor new
Mike Wyles new
Individual responsibilities will be allocated following the Committee
Meeting to be held at the Abergavenny Arms at Frant on Monday 10th January
2005. The Abergavenny Arms is about
2 miles south of Tunbridge Wells on the A267 and all members are welcome to
attend.
The
Chairman advised that Ian Reeves has agreed that he was prepared to serve as
Secretary for one year only.
He
then asked for reports on the previous year.
The
Accounts of the previous yea,r having been examined, were presented.
In
the absence of any questions, approval was sought and given by all members
present. The former Treasurer then
proposed a vote of thanks and members expressed their gratitude to Steve Hale,
the Accountant who has kindly examined our accounts each year.
The
meeting then evaporated to re-assemble in the direction of the Greyhound to
discuss everything under the sun - and beyond...
THE DECEMBER STAR PARTY
A Star
Party was declared by Tim Bance from the 13th to 19th of December 2004 at his
home in Leigh, when members were invited to turn up if it was agreed that the
weather looked good. There were in
fact some very clear crisp evenings but only one member managed to turn up. It
was just before Christmas and many of us probably were involved in preparations
for Christmas or, like me, laid up with a heavy cold. But sadly some good observing
opportunities were missed.
Tim
says he hopes to be holding more Star Parties in the future, and I for one look
forward to that very much.
NEXT MEETINGS
Committee meeting
As noted in the Secretary's report, and also in the last Newsletter, there will be a Committee Meeting at the Abergaveny Arms in Frant on Monday 10th January 2005 at 2000.
January meeting
The next Wadhurst Astronomical Society meeting will be held on Wednesday 19th January 2005 when the speaker will be Peter Gill whose illustrated talk is entitled "The Sun".
As usual, the meeting will be held in the Drama Studio at Uplands College. The doors open at 7.15 pm and the meeting starts at 7.30 pm prompt.
Proposed arrangements for the next few meetings
Our new Secretary has been very
industrious since taking on the role and has already had a great deal of success
in arranging speakers for the coming months.
It is proposed
that the February meeting should be
In
March, Greg Smythe-Rumsey will give a talk about "The Craig Telescope at
Wandsworth" Members may remember
Greg's inimitable style from his slightly improptue talk given at the "Mars
Extravaganza" meeting last year.
Then
in April, John Murrel will give a talk called "Virtual Observatories- Fireside
Astronomy"
Ian Reeves has arranged even more talks for the following months, but I think that is probably enough for the present.
Membership Subs
Membership subs are due (well,
techinically they were due on 1st November 2004) Quick off the mark, 25 members have paid
up and both old and new Treasurers are pleased with the response.
Subs
for the current session 2004/2005 are:
Single membership £15
Joint membership £20
A new telescope display room
One of the Society's members, Jan
Drodz, reports that he recently visited the display room of Broadhurst Clarkson
and Fuller Ltd. on the North Farm Estate, near Tunbridge Wells. He says he was very impressed and the
shop is well worth a visit where a large number of telescopes and other
astronomy-related items are on display.
The
facility can be found at Unit 6 in the Tunbridge Wells Trade Park towards the
southern end of Longfield Road, behind Tile Magic.
Cassini/Huygens mission
Members following the progress of the Cassini Mission will be awaiting with interest the culmination of the Huygens Probe part of the mission when on the 14th January 2005 the probe is expected to land on the surface of Saturn's satellite Titan. (Interestingly, Saturn is at opposition to the Sun at this time.)
The
Huygens probe seperated from the main Cassini craft on Christmas Day and since
then has been sending data and images back to the main craft ready for
transmitting back to earth.
On
the 14th January it is hoped that the Hygens probe with land on the surface of
Titan at a speed of about 5 metres per second having taken many images during
the descent. The probe is not
designed to survive the landing specifically, but it is hoped that it will
survive long enough to send back data from the surface for at least three
minutes after impact. We may then
get an idea of what the surface is like.
We can only wait!
There have
been some incredible pictures from the mission so far and the latest images
can be seen here
There is also
information and other details to be found here
Chairman
Tim Bance 01732 832745
timbance@hotmail.com
Secretary
Ian Reeves 01892 784255
Newsletter Editor
Geoff Rathbone 01959 524727
Geoff@rathbone007.fsnet.co.uk