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On the evening of the late August bank holiday Saturday, Michael Harte and his wife Claire provided facilities for an Astro-barbecue and about fifteen members and families took advantage of their generosity.
The weather began with almost clear skies and a number of telescopes and binoculars appeared in the field.
There was an impressive 8-inch LX 200 Meade scope on a sturdy tripod provided by Steven Anderman. The “Ian Reeves” 4-inch refractor Kunos telescope, which is available to any member to borrow, and there were tripod-mounted monocular and binocular instruments.
Phil Berry’s Personal Solar Telescope (PST) was set up and used as soon as we arrived just as the Sun was setting in the north-west. The Sun could only be observed for a few minutes by setting the telescope up on a temporary table in a barn and looking through a gap in the far wall. No sun-spots, but prominences could be seen by carefully tuning the Hydrogen-alpha filter. Soon very high cloud spoilt any more viewing of the Sun that evening.
Telescopes having been lined up, the barbecue soon got underway then John Vale-Taylor appeared over the horizon struggling with a huge device which had a large wooden box with a ground glass screen on one end and a huge brass tube on the other housing an 8-inch object lens.
This turned out to be an instrument John had been given because of his well known interest in optics and was being discarded.
John’s first thoughts were that it might have been a First World War aerial plate camera. It certainly sounded plausible although it must have weighed a good forty or fifty pounds.
As the Sun set and the skies grew darker, Jupiter was the first night object to be seen in the sky. The four visible moons were clearly visible in a line with Ganymede to the east and the others to the west.
Two of the equatorial belts could be seen but then as we were searching for tighter eyepieces the clouds began to make their appearance.
Cassiopeia and the Summer Triangle could be seen but sadly not long enough to be observed in any great detail.
Michael Harte had prepared a list of passes of the International Space Station from Brian Mills’ Sky Notes but all was in vain in the end.
Phil had brought his Celestron SkyScout but was unable to demonstrate it because of the cloud though a couple of green laser torches at least could light up the underside of them. Will it one day (or night) be possible to burn holes in the clouds and disperse them? On second thoughts, not such a good idea, particularly as Michael lives under the glide path into Gatwick Airport!
Never the less it turned out to be a very enjoyable and sociable evening with stories of telescopes, techniques, Michael’s farm and the on-going saga of the “Tennis Court Lights” in Wadhurst which is not progressing too well (from the astronomer’s point of view – that is).
We were lucky in that the rain held off until we were actually leaving.
Once again, many thanks are due to Michael and Claire Harte for being our hosts on what turned out to be one of the few pleasant summer evenings – so far…

            Wednesday 17th September 2008 At this meeting there will be a talk by John Punnett, a member of the Orpington Astronomical Society.
            He calls his talk “An Enthusiastic Amateur’s Journey in Astrophotography”.
            It is well worth visiting John’s website
            There, one can see much of the work that he has been able to achieve and will be talking about at the meeting.

Wednesday 15th October 2008 The meeting includes two video lectures from Alex Filippenko’s astronomy series. Alex Filippenko is a professor at the University of California.

            Wednesday 10th December 2008 As this is December this is the second Wednesday of the month instead of the third as in other months.
            Paul Treadaway, who is a member of the Society gives a talk about the birth of stars.
            Members will remember the talk Paul gave last year and will recall the fascinating scenarios he gave us to think about.

Wednesday 21st January This is the Annual General Meeting. That should not take too long, and then Phil Berry gives a fascinating talk about the impressive progress he has achieved with his observatory.

Michael Harte has come across an fascinating website which he feels members may be interested in here
Great Dane Pro can't type - so watch their mis-spelling of the URL above and have several sites on the internet, but this one contains some stunning NASA images from the International Space Station and of Endeavour. There is background music which can be turned off if wished.

Mercury although as an evening object it is too close to the horizon for observation setting only half an hour after the Sun on September 11th.

Venus is also poorly placed for observation this month but things will improve as the year progresses.

Mars is not suitably placed for observation this month as it moves closer to the Sun.

Jupiter at magnitude -2.7 lies in the constellation of Sagittarius (the archer) and is a prominent object in the south east.

Saturn will become a morning object later in the month at magnitude +0.9 in the constellation of Leo (the lion).

As usual I’ve only included events for stars down to around magnitude 7.5 that occur before midnight BST. DD = disappearance at the dark limb whilst RD = reappearance at the dark limb. Only the brightest re-appearances are shown here – there are a number of others. Times are all BST.
There is another chance to see the moon pass through the Pleiades cluster on September 20th although this occurs in the early hours of the morning. If anyone would like details then please let me know.

New	First quarter	Full	Last quarter
29th	7th	15th	22nd

ISS
There are a large number of favourable passes of the ISS this month as seen from Wadhurst so I have only included the brightest. The information given is for when it is at maximum altitude, so it is best to look a few minutes before this time. Full details of all passes can be found at:
www.heavens-above.com
Times are all BST.

September	Time	Star	Magnitude	Ph	PAo
6th	2010	SAO 184205	6.9	DD	120
9th	2037	SAO 187388	6.3	DD	6
9th	2123	SAO 187438	7.8	DD	104
15th	2145	SAO 128436	6.3	RD	258
20th	2237	SAO 77350	6.4	RD	267

Sept	Mag	Time BST	Altitude	Azimuth
22nd	-1.5	2013	33	SSE
23rd	-2.4	2014	66	SSE
24th	-1.5	1931	36	SSE
24th	-1.2	2105	43	W
25th	-2.3	1957	70	SSE
26th	-2.3	2024	81	N
27th	-2.3	1915	74	S
27th	-1.8	2050	60	WNW
28th	-2.3	1941	80	N
29th	-2.3	1908	80	N
30th	-2.2	1859	78	N
30th	-2.2	2034	72	SW