Blog Archives

2013-09-10 A New Era Begins

So, it’s goodbye Mayfield, hello Ranmoor. Our first meeting at the Ranmoor Parish Centre was an out of this world experience as David Whitehouse held the audience captivated by his talk ‘One Small Step’. I think everybody believed the talk would be about Apollo but it started in World War II and finished with Alan

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2013-08-12 Perseid Meteor Downfall !

The society had a wonderful send off for Mayfield tonight as it was our last public event at the site we have used so successfully for the last 14 years. And what a send off it was as it was possibly the best Perseid meteor shower in years. Over 40 people oohed and aahed as

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2013-08-03 SAS invades Jodrell Bank

Despite a heavy downpour and a small detour on the way to Jodrell Bank, the Sun shone while we were there and many of us watched the huge radio telescope rotate around on it’s railway tracks.  We were treated to a talk about the telescope and spent a lot in the shop!  Overall, a great

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2013-07-22 Our last meeting at Mayfield

A wonderful final evening at Mayfield after 14 years of meeting here. We had a group photo of all the 60 people who came on the night along with a lovely buffet and lots of chat amongst everyone.  Talks were given on what was happening in astronomy and space back in 1999 when we had

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2013-07-19 Waving at Saturn while Cassini takes picture

A group of us met on Burbage Moor around 22:00 to prepare for the picture which was a series of images taken between 22:27 and 22:42 BST by the Cassini spacecraft, from the orbit of Saturn. Earth was only about a pixel in size from Cassini’s vantage point 898 million (1.44 billion kilometers) away, but

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2013-07-13 Sungazing Live

Record temperatures of 29 degC and a only partially cloudy sky attracted many visitors to our Sungazing Live event at Mayfield.  Lots of flares seen through our H-alpha scope and some decent astrophotographs taken too.  A local newspaper reporter was impressed by our setup and we hope he can get an article published soon, detailing

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2013-07-08 Our last Speaker’s Evening at Mayfield

Who better to close our time at Mayfield than Paul Money who gave us a great talk entitled “Images of Earth”.  This was not, as you may imagine, just beautiful pictures of fluffy clouds and mountains but a view of our amazing Earth taken from a variety of passing spacecraft.  A packed room ensured a

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2013-07-06 Walkley Festival

A lovely sunny day greeted us at the Bole Hills bowling green when we set up our solar viewing equipment ready for Sungazing Live.  This was part of the Walkley Festival and after 3 hours in the Sun, we retreated into the bowling green clubhouse for a series of astronomical talks. A great day with

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2013-06-15 Sungazing

Despite a rainy forecast and a short downpour, several visitors had a good look at the Sun with a variety of solar telescopes. A few sunspots were visible along with several prominences.

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2013-02-15 The Three Merry Lads

Our first “Astronomy in the Pub” venture went very well with an enthusiastic audience of over 100 people who managed to see Jupiter and Orion during cloud breaks as well as be entertained by several talks in the pub.

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