Friday 14 December 2012

Quiz night - 11th December.

Our usual 1st Tuesday in the month meeting was scuppered by a double booking hence it was on the 2nd Tuesday that we met for the Quiz Night.
What with the freezing weather and the date change our numbers were greatly diminished - just 14 faithful souls met up - many of our " regulars" were greatly missed - we look forward to seeing you in the new year.


Our new chairman - Jim - introduced the meeting with a few announcements and followed this with the "What's up in December" presentation - a brief look at what's on view this month.
One highlight mentioned was the Geminid Meteor Shower - one of the better meteor showers of the year, this one, and a number of our members had already seen some meteors even though the peak wasn't expected until the 13th/14th.

We then adjourned for refreshments while the room was set up for the quiz.

The quiz was a first for us but it was so well received that it is something we will be repeating in the future.
We had 3 teams of 4 people and the quiz had 16 questions for individual answering and another 4 "team" questions each divided into 4 parts.

 A maximum of (4x16) + (4x4) = 80 points were attainable though a few (!) questions proved somewhat challenging. :)

The winning team - Jim's - had 60 points though Phil's team and Andrew's team were not far behind.

It was a bit of fun and the winning team members each received a fridge magnet, a PAG car window sticker (a new item - get yours for 50p at the next meeting) and a "Certificate of Excellence".



These pictures show a few of our members getting acquainted before the meeting started.

We generally have one or more attending for the first time and this month was no exception.
We have also had a number of inquiries through the website from people keen to join us - again we look forward to seeing them in January.





A few of our quiz questions to conclude with -
can you name these Messier objects either by name or by M number?.
 



Following the quiz it was again time for tea/coffee along with mince pies or biscuits depending on preference.

Next month - January - Stargazing Live returns to BBC2 on the 8th - 10th so we will be having our meeting the day following - Friday 11th January.

We will follow much the same format as last year with telescope displays, Andrew's image presentation and a rotating powerpoint presentation to show what is in the sky in January.
If the weather is kind we should get some viewing in also.
Please come and join us - invite family and friends and we can make this a night to remember.

Wednesday 7 November 2012

Jupiter Event - 6th November

Our Jupiter event was announced through local "Radio Pembrokeshire", advertising in the "Western Telegraph" as well as astronomy magazines and posters placed in many places including "Morrisons" at Haverfordwest..


We were  pleased to have in excess of 30 attending, including several for the first time.

Here we have some of that number waiting patiently for the lectures to commence. 

Refreshments were made available during the evening - plenty of sandwiches, cakes, tea and coffee to give a homely feel to the proceedings.




The other side of the room was filled with more smiling faces while around the perimeter there were displays of various 'scopes and binoculars together with images taken by members and a number of leaflets giving helpful advice to visitors.

The pictures below illustrate a number of the displays that were enthusiastically enjoyed by one and all.





Our display boards generally carry photographic images by our members and other helpful advice.



More images here along with the equipment
used to capture them.


A  selection of the telescopes on display.
The one in the foreground is the Solarmax - used to great effect in the summer when the sun shone occasionally.!!
At our Newgale event the public had great views of prominences through this 'scope.







The evening lectures began, as is our custom, with a review of what can be seen in the November sky.

Jim, our "Newsletter" editor covered this enthusiastically in his Glaswegian accent and as a result we all have things to look out for, if and when the clouds part!!
After further refreshments Rob, our secretary, covered the main lecture.



This covered some enlightening material including visits to Jupiter from the Pioneer days in 1973 down to the future missions that are planned.

Information on the make-up of Jupiter and its moons were well received and we certainly were looking forward to getting out there to view these things firsthand.

Following further refreshments we did indeed manage to get some viewing in - the main tool being Rob's 12" Lightbridge which revealed the  main features of the planet - a great climax to the evening particularly for those for whom this was a new experience.
  


Many grateful comments were received but perhaps particularly heartwarming were such comments as  - "We look forward to meeting you again next time."

Next time is December 4th when we will be having a "Quiz Evening".
This will, of course, be preceded by our "What's Up in December" feature.

We look forward to seeing you all there.