Abingdon Astronomical Society has received a certificate from NASA to mark our contribution in spreading the knowledge of astronomy in the community in Oxfordshire.
14-17 October 2004
Kielder Star Camp
Five members of the society drove to Kielder in Northumberland for the annual star camp there. Despite heavy rain and some tents being flooded there was one five-hour long clear patch on the Saturday evening during which time the Milky Way arched spectacularly overhead.
26 June 2004
Society visit to the Herschel Museum, Bath
A society outing was organised to the William Herschel Museum in Bath, from where Sir William Herschel and his sister Caroline made many astronomical observations and discoveries, including that of the planet Uranus in 1781. Approximately 10 members travelled to Bath on a rainy summer's day, and enjoyed well over an hour visiting this caringly maintained Georgian house.
8 June 2004
Venus Transit
Many of our members took the opportunity to witness this day what had not been seen by anyone alive at the time - the first transit of Venus across the face of the Sun to occur for over 180 years. Several members opened their gardens to others to view the transit through a telescope fitted with a solar filter, or used to project an image of the event on to a white card. Venus took several hours to cross the face of the Sun, so there was plenty of time for observations and photographs. And for once we were blessed with clear skies for the event.
Venus, mid-transit, photographed by Andrew Ramsey using an Olympus C220-Z digital camera down the eyepiece of the society's 6" Newtonian reflector fitted with a Baader Astro-solar film filter.
31 August 2003
National Astronomy Week 2003
For NAW, Abingdon Astronomical Society laid out a stall in Abingdon's
Market Place on Saturday 30 August. A table top display of Mars-related
images and general astronomy information attracted much interest from
shoppers and passers-by. Guidance on viewing Mars was provided, together
with information on the Society and its forthcoming public meeting about
Mars on 3 September. Robin Scagell's Galaxy Picture Library postcard
commemorating the Mars approach was a popular purchase, and the freely
offered educational leaflets, generously provided by PPARC, were widely
taken. On this sunny day, however, the biggest attraction, was the solar
filter-equipped 100 mm refractor. At times, queues formed to observe the
sunspots, with guidance provided by experienced solar observers.
Photo of the NAW stand in Abingdon,
photographed by Brian James.
8 February 2003
Grant Win
Abingdon Astronomical Society is pleased to announce it has received
a grant of £4,756 from the National Lottery's Awards for All
programme. We plan to purchase new presentation equipment, such as a
video projector, to enable members and visiting speakers to show digital
images of the heavens and provide computer aided presentations to the
public. In addition, the society will be able to cater for those members
and visitors who are hard of hearing with the purchase of a radio mike
for use with an induction loop. The grant comes just in time for the
Society to use the new equipment for this years National Astronomy Week
in August. Club chairman, Bob Dryden, said, "This generous award
will help us introduce local people to astronomy with vivid images of
planets and distant galaxies".
