ALTRINCHAM AND
DISTRICT
ASTRONOMICAL
SOCIETY
MINUTES | 2009
2nd January 2009
Present
Kevin Thurstan (Chairman), Norman Thurstan, Geoff Flood, Steve Holt,
Tony Aremia, Peter Baugh, Geoff Walton, Colin Bowler, Paul Brierley,
Stephen McHugh, Colin Eaves, Richard Bullock.
The Evening took the form of a Quiz, which was set by Kevin, who also acted as Quiz Master. Clearly a good deal of time and effort had gone into setting the Quiz and some great photographs had been down loaded for the event.
Many thanks to Kevin for his efforts which led to a thoroughly enjoyable evening. The Quiz was won by the “Paul Brierley All Stars”.
Following the quiz and a break for tea the Secretary announced that he had received information from:
1. The BAA regarding their Exhibition Meeting at the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich on 27th June 2009.
2. Liverpool AS regarding their monthly meeting on January 16th 2009. This came in the form of a poster on the International Year of Astronomy format which can be used by Astronomical Societies to promote their events.
A card has been received from Marie Utton in which she says:
"Thank you very much for the lovely gesture, visiting Don's grave and leaving flowers. My thanks to ADAS for the kind thoughts of you all.
Some of my family were here for Don's anniversary and when we went to the cemetery and saw the flowers we were all very touched at your remembrance."
The next meeting will take place at 8:00pm on Friday 6th February when Dave Ogden will give a talk on “The Meaning of Light”
6th February 2009
Present
Kevin Thurstan (Chairman), Geoff Flood, Jonathan Odom, Nick Odom, Peter Baugh,
Norman Thurstan, Chris Suddick, Richard Bullock, Colin Eaves, Colin Bowler, Graham Sinagola, Paul Clark, Tony Aremia, Ged Burbeck, Anne Muldoon, John Tipping.
Kevin introduced our speaker, Dave Ogden from Macclesfield AS his topic was:
The Meaning of Light
Dave's talk began with the thought that more than 3000 years ago man understood that the Sun had a bearing on life and that they worshipped it. Later the Egyptians worshipped Aton, the Sun God.
The ancient Greeks originally believed that light came out of your eyes but later Leucippus and Democrates thought that light was particles which came into ones eyes. Euclid decided that light travelled in straight lines. Archimedes wrote a book on optics and tried to burn Roman ships using mirrors to focus the sun's rays on them.
In 900 AD Ibn Al Haytham gave the first explaination of vision and made the first use of the Camera Obscura - Vermeer is thought to have used a Camera Obscura, which inverts images to aid his painting.
Kepler made a Camera Obscura used in a dark room and went on explain the working of the eye.
The early Egyptians possibly had telescopes, they had the capability of polishing glass. Galileo however made his own telescope in 1609.
Robert Hooke, who was a wide ranging scientist and who worked with Wren and Isaac Newton amongst others made an early microscope.
The refractive index of the medium through which light travels can alter the effects thus we get spectra by passing light throught a prism and we see water droplets acting as prisms to create rainbows. In nature there are many uses of light, for instance chlorophyll creates energy from light and Carbon Dioxide certain creatures glow using a photochemical process.
In the 1800's Herschel showed that there was energy beyond the red end of the spectrum - Infra Red but it was Johanne Ritter who discovered Ultra Violet rays by use of Silver Nitrate.
The Elctromagnetic spectrum was gradually built up after it was realised that light is an electromagnetic effect and used to identify various elements from the spectra that they emit. This of course is invaluable in identifying stars, as their emissions indicate their make up.
In more recent times there has been a better understanding of light and Einstein and Planck found that light was indeed made up of particles - photons - but that they act in a wave like manner.
Photons might take millions of years bouncing about and crashing into one another in the Sun but once they come to the surface they race away at around 186,000 miles per second. Galileo had long since worked out that light travels faster than sound and, of course, he was correct.
Hau has been able to slow down the speed at which light travels and indeed has been able to stop it altogether at very low temperatures in in atomic condensates. There have been a variety of experiments in this area.
Finally Dave concluded that light IS indeed particles ie Photons.
Kevin thanked Dave and the meeting showed its appreciation.
Geoff informed the meting that we have had notification that the Isle of White Star Party will be held on 26th to 30th March 2009,
Also we have had notification of the Liverpool AS Conference details were passed around.
There being no other business Kevin closed the meeting.
6th March 2009
Present
Kevin Thurstan, Nick Odom, Roger Livermore, Peter Baugh, Chris Suddick,
Tony Aremia, Graham Sinagola, Mark Crossley, Paul Clark, Paul Brierley,
Geoff Walton, Colin Eaves, Colin Bowler, Ged Birbeck + Chloe, Richard Bullock,
John Tipping, Gerard Gilligan.
Total 18.
The meeting started a few minutes late due to electrical power problems.
Kevin welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced our speaker (Gerard Gilligan).
He then started with society business due to the power problem.
The first item was whether we should have a presence at the Jodrell Bank Astro Party on May 9th. Kevin said he will get in touch with them as the society no longer has a contact there and find out the situation as to tickets for people who bring a scope along.
We then got the power back we went straight into the evenings talk.
Gerard started by telling us that he had been researching William Lassell in 1993 after a memorial lecture by Alan Chapman in Liverpool.
We were told William Lassell born on 18th June 1799 in Bolton and was educated in Bolton & Rochdale. His father was a timber merchant but died in 1810 and William moved back to Toxteth where his family came from in 1815.
He served an apprenticeship as a brewer from 1815-1822, then set up as a brewer in 1824 and married Maria King in 1827.
William did well as a brewer due to the growth of Liverpool, its docks and immigration.
Over his life he used his money to fund three large telescopes. His first was a 9 inch reflector and was instrumental in the building of Liverpool’s first observatory on waterloo dock in 1844.
Gerard explained how William Lassell was held in high regard by fellow astronomers.
He was a guest of William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Ross, and helped develop polishing machines for telescope mirrors.
His next telescope was a 24inch version of his original. He would give dinner parties for up to 19 people and after the meal he would take them all out to his observatory and show them the sky through eyepieces he made himself.
He discovered triton, Neptune’s largest moon, only 12 days after Neptune its self was discovered and shares the discovery of Saturn’s moon Hyperion with his great competitor
William Cranch Bond. William also met Queen Victoria and prince Albert on their visit to Liverpool in 1851.
He went to Malta 1861-1864, shipping his telescopes with him. While there he had a 48 inch open truss telescope built & tested then shipped over to him in Malta. He also had Albert Marth working for him making observations for many of his discoveries, many to do with Saturn.
In 1864 he moved back to Maidenhead bringing his telescopes.
He died in 1880of a heart attack and is buried with his wife who died 2 years later.
Gerard was thanked for his talk and the meeting then took a break.
On re-starting Gerard took questions.
After again thanking Gerard, the chairman stated that the next meeting would be on Friday 3rd of April and that the speaker would be William Stewart from South Cheshire AS with a talk on Observing Satellites.
The meeting was then closed.
3rd April 2009
Present
Kevin Thurstan (Chairman), Geoff Flood, Tony Aremia, Peter Baugh, Norman Thurstan,
Geoff Walton, Chris Suddick, Colin Eaves, Colin Bowler, Rosamund Tanner-Tremaine, Chris Tanner-Tremaine, Richard Bullock, Nick Odom, Jonathan Odom.
William Stewart from South Cheshire AS was introduced by Kevin as our speaker for the evening. The title of his talk was:
Observing Satellites
There are 3 aspects to the life of a satellite, namely Launch - Orbit - Landing.
How do they stay in orbit? As the earth is round they need to have sufficient energy to blast off and then get high enough so that they circle the earth and keep going round i. e. not crashing back down to earth.
Satellites are always launched in an easterly direction which gives a saving of around 1000 mph in speed which has to be generated.
The angle of inclination at launch depends upon the latitude of the launch site but steeper angles require bigger rockets, as of course do heavier payloads.
The height at which the satellite operates and its orbit depends on the purpose to which it is to be put.
. Spy satellites need not be very high but are in polar orbit to cover the earth whereas equatorial ones only cover a given area. Geostationary (26000 miles above the earth) are used for communication satellites which are very specific in the coverage that they give.
The ISS operates at around 200 – 400 miles high and can be seen reflecting the light of the sun; if it went in areas of shadow it would require huge batteries to keep operating.
In 1957 there was 1 satellite in orbit, Sputnik, but by 2009 there were some 13,000.
There is lots of debris floating around in space everything from rocket bodies to tiny pieces, which never the less could puncture a space suit, so great care has to be taken in space. The antennae on the Hubble telescope have been pierced, thus one of the jobs astronauts have to carry out is to film the Shuttle before returning to earth to ensure that all is well.
Naval Ocean Surveillance Satellites listen to signals from ships and can workout their position with great accuracy
Re-entries are normally over the sea but Skylab came down over Australia – fortunately in an uninhabited area. Russian satellites frequently come down over land in relatively uninhabited areas.
Weather satellites, in addition to following the weather, may be used to track launches as vapour trails from them can be easily picked up.
For the future there will be increased global surveillance there will be more satellites and their uses disguised (camouflaged) for instance with an inflated balloon around them.
There was no Society business discussed because of time constraints.
1st May 2009
PRESENT
Kevin Thurstan (Chairman), Geoff Flood, Roger Livermore, Peter Baugh, Steve Holt, Tony Aremia, Nick Apostocides, Fran Apostocides, Paul Brierley, Geoff Walton, Paul Clark, Colin Bowler, Colin Eaves.
Kevin welcomed members and guests and introduced Phil Rogers from Chester AS.
Phil spoke on the topic of:
Optics in Astronomy and Space – Huygens to Hubble
Phil has retired from Thales, manufacturers of lenses and is now a visiting professor at the Cranfield Institute.
In 1655 Huygens who had devised a new and improved means of grinding lenses built a refracting telescope but it had to be many metres long to get a decent image and of course telescopes this long are very unstable which brings its own difficulties. The lenses were also imperfect and it wasn’t until 1758 that John Dolland came along with the achromatic lens.
In the 19th century Airy produced a diffraction image of a star and Rayleigh worked on mirror accuracy.
It is quite amazing that Huygens discovered that Saturn has a “flat solid” ring and a moon - Titan - in 1655, considering the equipment available to him.
Newton believed that a single lens of any material would always split colours from light but blur due to chromatic aberration and this as not too bad with small lenses but double the size of the lens and you double the size of the blur.
In 1758 John Dolland produced an improvement with a double lens of window glass (crown glass) and crystal which was 25 times better than a single lens.
There was much experimenting with lenses and mirrors and finding the best equipment for the type of astronomy to be undertaken. Arrangements lenses and mirrors were made to cancel out interference patterns but there was usually a down side with, for instance, edge effects.
Reflectors, we were told, give more problems with diffraction patterns but are better for double stars and worse for planets.
In 1906 Lowell discovered the canals or canale on Mars however his interpretation may well have been due in part to an optical illusion.
More recently the Hubble telescope used adaptive optics which need to be set up very accurately, 3 tests were applied to check the set up. The main test indicated that all was well but 2 subsidiary tests indicated otherwise, sadly these were believed and the field lens was set up incorrectly – by 1.3 mm and this is what caused the early problems. The later corrections have improved things enormously, as was illustrated with side by side photographs; although still not perfect it is phenomenal all the same.
Adaptive optics used has unusually shaped mirrors and to reduce edge effects.
Other modern telescopes include the Keck in Hawaii which has two 10m mirrors comprising of 36 segments. This instrument is in a controlled temperature environment and has a computer controlled primary mirror.
The Giant Magellan Telescope has seven 8.4 m mirrors and gives images 10times sharper than Hubble.
The TMT – thirty metre telescope mirror has some 950 segments some of which are manufactured in North Wales.
Other modern telescopes use X-Ray optics which give remarkable images of very high energy (hot) objects
Phil gave us a very entertaining and informative talk and was thanked by Kevin and the whole audience.
Following the talk Kevin reported on a NWGAS meeting. They are trying to organise an imaging workshop and are looking for contributors or “lecturers”.
A Star party is to be held at Jodrell Bank on Saturday 9th May 2009, several members showed interest.
On June 5th there will be an open imagery meeting.
BAA are having a membership drive and are offering 18months membership for the price of 1 year, forms are available from the Secretary.
In the absence of the Treasurer, speakers’ expenses of £30 were paid by Kevin Thurstan.
5th June 2009
PRESENT
Kevin Thurstan (Chairman), Geoff Flood, Colin Bowler, Mark Crossley, Steve Holt, Norman Thurstan, Paul Clark, Chris Suddick, Geoff Walton, Colin Eaves,
Tony Aremia, Peter Baugh, Stephen McHugh, Roger Livermore,
John Tipping, Richard Bullock, Ged Birbeck.
Kevin welcomed members to the meeting and congratulated Graham Sinagola who “starred” in the recent Sky at Night programme.
On this occasion the evening was given over to members’ presentations of some of their images taken in recent times.
Paul Clark showed some images taken with his 6inch refractor in La Palma, these were simple photographs but stacked(X10) Paul illustrated an incredible improvement that could be made by varying the contrast on the computer some others were taken using a 220mm instrument with a tracking mount.
Colin Bowler had visited La Palma with Paul and showed some terrestrial shots showing the observatories, and also the general terrain.
He explained that the Trade Winds bring cloud during the day but that they clear at night.
Mark Crossley showed some of his highly technical photographs and explained some the tricks of the trade for instance using a Hyper Star set up and then replacing it with a camera.
Photographs of M81/82 taken with a 3 minute exposure showed some activity as indicated by red colouration of hydrogen. There was a good deal of light pollution at the time and a good deal of processing was required.
A Fish Eye photograph of this back garden gave a very good illustration of light pollution in the area.
Kevin thanked all the contributors and also Paul and John Tipping for their help at Jodrell Bank which went down well with the general public. Another event will be held at Jodrell Bank on August 8th when there will hopefully also be a BBQ and again in December a Star Party is planned.
ADAS can now be visited ont th Clubz site
There was a NWGAS meeting at the end of April which Kevin attended - he has a copy of the Minutes - the Website is to be updated.
NWGAS is trying to get an imaging workshop and memebers should speak to Kevin if interested.
The NW group still needs an FAS representative.
Mention was made of the Campaign for Dark Skies and NWGAS newsgrooups.
Kevin is looking for a speaker from the Society for the November meeting - any offers will be gratefully accepted.
The next meeting is the AGM which will be held on Friday 4th September.
There was no other business and Kevin closed the meeting.
4th September 2009
9 paid-up members and 3 visitors present.
The Chairman welcomed all to the meeting.
Apologies for absence were heard from Norman Thurstan, Paul Brierley and Geoff Flood.
Minutes of the 443rd AGM were read and accepted.
Treasurer gave his report:
· Room rent accounts form most of expenditure. We are now paid up on rent for all of last year and this year.
· Room rent has been doubled to £20 per meeting – it was suggested we need to discuss a larger and cheaper room for future monthly meetings.
· Noted that accounts are provisional, as the previous secretary still receives all correspondence.
· All accounts in order
Appointment of Officers:
· Due to the lack of paid-up members, it was stated that decisions could not be made at this AGM – it was not quorate. The meeting thus decided to discuss issues informally.
· The Chairman stated that he and the current Secretary both wished to step down. The current Treasurer stated he was willing to continue for another year
· The Chairman called for nominations. No nominations or volunteers to serve were forthcoming for either Secretary or Chairman.
· Chairman proposed an Extraordinary General Meeting in December to decide the future of the society. Geoff proposed this should be later, in January. December was agreed in informal discussion. The Chairman agreed to stand until that point in order to continue the society.
· The Chairman noted that officers feel they have little support from the general membership – particularly the events and fundraising secretary in relation to support for the Timperley Country Fair, our main fundraising event.
· The Chairman described the role of secretary in response to a request
· The Chairman proposed the role of vice-secretary and vice chairman, to make the main roles less onerous. No-one was in disagreement during informal discussion.
· The Chairman asked if anyone would prefer a different meeting night. No-one wanted any day in particular other than Friday night. Colin B proposed a vote when sufficient people were present, as agreement would be unlikely otherwise.
· Informal discussion proceeded on the meeting room size, as it was agreed that some meetings were very busy for the current room size. A consensus was reached that the current venue was sufficient for smaller meetings only. Timperley Village Hall was suggested, but it was noted that this was also 50% (£10) more expensive, and was not feasible at the current membership rate and number.
· Possibilities for more outdoor meetings were discussed. Light pollution was seen as a significant problem locally, and sites close to Timperley but away from immediate LP were suggested. Siddington was the most popular suggestion, but no consensus was reached.
· Public Liability Insurance was discussed. The Treasurer stated we were not covered at present – particularly for new members, visitors, or external events. This was seen as a problem, with Jodrell Bank outreach events in particular noted as a cause for concern.
· A need to stimulate group outings to local sites was discussed, following on from the previous discussion. Weather, lack of time, lack of interest and lack of access to newsgroup postings were seen as significant barriers to organisation.
· However, it was noted that the newsgroup is seen as the only real means of communication within the society. The Chairman proposed that all members should supply email addresses for officers to communicate. A sheet of paper was circulated for those present to give their email addresses.
· Level of subscription – it was decided (as far as is possible for an in-quorate AGM) that the present level of subscription would continue at £20 for adults, and £1 for minors.
· Geoff asked for all pertinent discussions from this AGM to be distributed in the October meeting, for discussion at the EGM in December. ColinB agreed to make the meeting minutes available for the October meeting.
· NWGAS – The Chairman reported that he was prevented from attending the recent meeting due to family illness, and no other member wished to attend when requested, so no representative from ADAS was present.
· Geoff suggested a monthly newsletter of some form to try and inform people of events, meetings and possibilities for dark-sky observing. The Chairman stated that, as ever, it was difficult to get anyone to volunteer and commit to producing it.
· Difficulties in gaining control of various areas of the ADAS website were discussed. No consensus was reached, but it was stated that several areas would be more accessible to members shortly. Ged entered the AGM at this time, and stated that he would get the current owner/webmaster to remove redundant links.
· Timperley Country Fair: Ged stated that it was on September 12th, and he requested assistance at the Scout Hut the on Friday 11th September to organise and prepare.
· Jodrell Bank Star Party was discussed, and the consensus of the members that had attended was that it had been a very successful and enjoyable evening. More attendance was requested for the next Jodrell event on Sat 12th December.
· Ged asked for fliers which the Chairman had distributed at the previous Jodrell event to be made available for distribution at the Country Fair.
· The Chairman asked for volunteers to get fliers distributed to local libraries. Geoff also agreed to update the Stockport Telescope and Binocular Centre with the new website address.
------------ Tea Break ------------
· It was suggested that groups and dark-sky observing visits should be formally organised, possibly following each monthly meeting.
· Society equipment was discussed. It was suggested that all society equipment holders should bring in equipment at the next meeting so that members could see what was available.
· It was agreed that further discussion and work was required on the ADAS website.
· Ged asked for consideration that a binocular observation session be arranged regularly following every monthly meeting.
· Ged again asked for help in organising the Timperley Country Fair, volunteers to be present at 9pm on Friday 11th September.
· 21:25 the Chairman brought the meeting to a close.aid
2nd October 2009
PRESENT
Kevin Thurstan (Chairman), Geoff Flood, Nick Odom, Norman Thurstan, Steve Holt, Geoff Walton, Roger Livermore, Colin Bowler, Tony Aremia, Elaine Rutherford, Adam Rutherford, Scott Rutherford, Chris Suddick, Graham Sinagola, Peter Baugh, John Tipping. Kevin Kilburn (Speaker)
Total 17.
Kevin welcomed members to the meeting and introduced the speaker for the evening, Kevin Kilburn from Manchester AS, Kevin’s talk was entitled:-
A NEW LOOK AT AN OLD MOON
Kevin introduced himself saying that he has been observing since 1954. He has seen 2 Apollo launches and as a member of Manchester AS has for some time been imaging the moon as one of a group of people with different specialities, a group which includes Phil Masding and Mike Tyrell.
Kevin uses a low tech approach. Early work used film photography but the cost of using rolls of film from which only the odd shot was worth keeping. Eventually, Kevin bought himself a digital camera, which a big improvement and then he discovered that he could take video which enabled him to stack frames and improve even more. Operating in Movie Mode he can achieve the equivalent of 100ft focal length. By this means it is possible to see craters down to a mile in diameter following stacking and cleaning up.
A good deal of work has concentrated on Aristarchus, a 40mile wide crater. From the pictures produced it is now suspected that this is a live volcanic area. Although some say that the moon is “dead” several astronomers claim to have seen glowing in some areas. In 1968 Kevin contacted Patrick Moore to say that he believed that he had seen such a glow and by chance so had Patrick, contact with NASA led to them asking astronauts to look at Aristarchus and they also reported glowing.
Colour on the Moon
The project at Manchester AS is looking at Transient Lunar Phenomena (TLP) and stratification.
Some astronomers had decided that Aristarchus is decidedly yellow, a colour plate in the Larouse Encyclopaedia of Astronomy, of a painting, shows colours all over the moon. Observation indicated that this was correct and with the help of digital photography we can show that this is correct. Kevin pointed out that once you see the colours they become obvious, the colours are best seen at the full moon of course, but contours etc. at lower light. Dark areas, which are blueish, are Titanium, brown areas Iron, Yellow Basalt etc. Thus by means of colour we can learn something of the geology of the Moon. Aristarchus is seen to be mainly blue but with a yellow rim, there is also pink and oranges to be seen.
Phil Masding and Mike Tyrell have developed software known as Planet Warp which corrects shapes distorted by the curvature of the Moon and Plato, which normally appears to be elliptical now appears round - which is what pictures taken from Apollo show. Encouraged by Patrick Moore this was published in the Sky at Night magazine.
Phil and Mike have also developed some software for “Colour Draping” where colour is lifted mathematically from a picture and then dropped onto a picture of the same area but taken at low illumination thus showing stratification but in the correct colour, brilliant results are achieved by this means.
Multi Spectral Polarimetry.
Kevin admitted to not fully understanding the maths of this technique but the results tend to speak for themselves.
We have had high resolution and colour but now we can bring in Polarisation, using filters. Pictures take by this means show the texture of particles (smooth ones being different from coarse ones). The Russians have suggested using the Hubble telescope with colour and polarising filters, in this manner it should be possible to map out suitable geological areas for exploration.
Sunlight is not polarised but scattered light is so using multi-spectra polarisation we get quite different images which tell us something about the structure of the surface. At a very high degree of polarisation we can see particle structure not seen by any other means.
According to Umov the albedo /polarisation should give a straight line but variations from this are caused by scatter by several different particle sizes. This type of plot has been used to examine different traces left around craters following meteor strikes.
Kevin finished off by talking about a white are on the moon which as yet is unexplained but which also has a magnetic field. It is thought that this might be the result of the magnetism of the meteor which crashed into the moon at that point.
Kevin Thurstan thanked Kevin Kilburn for his interesting and informative talk.
Following the talk there was a small amount of Society business.
Kevin thanked all those who had contributed to the stall at the Timperley Country Fair, following which Tony Aremia has paid £175.30 into the bank. All the prizes in the tombola were gone very early on. Many people asked about ADAS meetings.
Chris Suddick was asked if we could provide examiner(s) for the local Brownies Astronomy badge. Chris has agreed but would like some volunteers to assist.
The leaflets, prepared for the Jodrell Bank Star Party, have been distributed and the Secretary agreed to put one in each of the local libraries.
The next meeting, on November 6th, will be an open meeting when members can bring new images or equipment to show to members, but also those people holding pieces of Society equipment were asked to bring them in so that other members can see what is available.
On Thursday 15th October Tim O’Brian from Jodrell Bank will speak to a meeting of Manchester AS at MMU starting at 7:30pm. There is no charge for this event.
There being no other business the Chairman closed the meeting.
4th December 2009
MINUTES OF THE 451st MEETING HELD ON FRIDAY 4th DECEMBER 2009
EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING
PRESENT
Kevin Thurstan (Chairman), Geoff Flood, Graham Sinagola, Geoff Walton,
Steve Holt, Stephen Mc Hugh, John Tipping, Richard Bullock, Colin Eaves,
Paul Brierley, Chris Suddick, Tony Aremia, Ged Burbeck.
Total 13
APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Peter Baugh, Roger Livermore, Mark Crossley, Norman Thurstan.
The meeting was called because of the lack of members who were prepared to stand for office at the AGM.
Kevin opened the meeting by listing the offices to be filled, namely:
Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and Events Organiser.
There was some discussion about the various positions and it was suggested that, to ease the burden, the posts could perhaps be split and the work shared.
CHAIRMAN
The way matters are handled at present the Chairman, not only chairs meetings but also arranges the programme. The possibility of having a “Speakers Secretary” to arrange talks was considered and under those circumstances Chris Suddick agreed to take the position of Chairman and was proposed by Kevin seconded by Geoff and elected.
Chris stated that he would like to return to having more structured meetings with the minutes being read out each month, so that those without computer access are informed and could comment.
Kevin reported that with one exception speakers are booked for the remainder of this ADAS year to June and he agreed to complete the programme so that an incoming Speakers Secretary would not need to begin looking for speakers until about March 2010. The position was left open for the time being.
Kevin explained that speakers were found from ADAS members or from one of the lists of speakers provided by the BAA or by NWGAS. Contact is normally made via e-mail.
SECRETARY
Geoff Flood stated that he had some difficulty with minute taking but was prepared to continue as “General Secretary” which was approved by the meeting.
Graham Sinagola agreed to become “Minutes Secretary” and was proposed by Kevin seconded by Tony and elected.
TREASURER
Richard Bullock has agreed to remain as Treasurer and was elected.
Richard reported that a number of members have agreed to Giftaid their subscriptions on which the Society can claim the tax which the individual would have paid on that sum of money. This has rebate has not been claimed for several years so we should get a reasonable windfall from HM Customs and Revenue.
Venue
There was some discussion about the venue for the Society‘s meetings, some members feel that the room at the Scout hall is too small. Various options were discussed Graham mentioned the hall at Bowdon Parish church which appears to be ideal for our needs, although it would be difficult to get to for members travelling by public transport. Geoff F agreed to once more investigate Timperley Village Hall.
Kevin reported that a list of Society equipment and names of those holding it is available on the Yahoo website.
The question was asked, “Do we need anything else?” A laptop for use with PowerPoint presentations was agreed and Ged agreed to get prices for a decent second hand one.
It was also suggested that as the mount for the Large binoculars had been sold (without agreement of the whole Society) a suitable tripod should be purchased.
Paul B agreed to examine the possibilities.
It was reported that we have been invited to once more participate in the Jodrell Bank Star Party on Saturday 12th December 2009.