February Public Meeting

“The Telescope Earl” by John Green

Visit to the Peninsular Astronomical Society (by Neil Short)

A visit to the Peninsular Astronomical Society, California (Established 1949)

On the route home from a business trip to both Canada and the USA, I found myself south of San Francisco with a free Saturday morning. A quick review on the wonderful web identified that the Peninsular Astronomical Society (PAS) was offering Solar Observing at 10a.m. – what better way to spend a sunny morning.

1. The Observatory

 

The venue was the Foothills College Observatory in the Los Altos Hills. The Society, some 200 strong offers a full programme of Public Meetings, Observing Nights (and days) and a monthly Newsletter; just like the NEAS I hear you say. Unfortunately (for the NEAS) the similarity ends there; being near to Silicon Valley, being in California or just being in the USA meant that the PAS had a good number of worthy patrons. Both the primary telescope (a 16” LX200) and the co-mounted solar telescope (Solarmax 60) have been donated to the Society. Most if not all public speakers (a liberal sprinkling of worthy Professors and experts in the field) offered Public presentations for free.2. The Primary telescope

3. Jeff with the Solarmax

 

But enough of jealousy, we had a clear sky (it is California!) for solar viewing and saw a good few prominences – unfortunately we are at a solar minimum so little in the way of sun spots. Jeff Buell, our PAS host spent time explaining the specifics of Hα viewing (I helped a little as numbers grew). A good little visit, I promised to look them up when next in town, hopefully for a spot of night observing. If I make it, look out for my next instalment.

4. Sun shot through Solarmax

Events Calendar Updated

The events calendar has been revised and updated, with the public meetings programme for 2008 now complete. Guest speakers later in the year will include supernovae hunter Tom Boles and astrophotographer Nik Szymanek.

Astronomy Podcasts and Dark Skies

AstroTalkUK – http://www.astrotalkuk.org/ – is new weekly audio programme which looks into the role of amateur astronomy in the UK. The current podcast, available as an mp3 file, features news about the recent Astrofest event as well as contributions from Nik Szymanek and Allan Chapman. Look out for the episode as it features our own local Dark Skies officer David Paul.

Also of interest at the moment is slightly worrying Daily Mail report about supposed concerns with a partial switch off of streetlights. As usual the newspaper takes scaremongering to new heights and suggests that crime would be rampant should such a policy be implimented – something which evidence has shown wouldn’t be the case.

Not only would limits on streetlight time be advantageous to astronomy – for enthusiasts and general public alike – but would also save money, energy and help give respite to nocturnal wildlife.

WE DON’T WANT THE SKYGLOW TO GET WORSE – VOTE YES HERE

See the ISS

The Shuttle Atlantis launched successfully and is on it’s way to the International Space Station to deliver the Columbus module.

You can see both the ISS and Atlantis moving over the skies of Essex throughout February. This helpful page will tell you when and where to look. You may also be able to see the Russian “Progress” supply spacecraft around the same time.