MINUTES | 2013

4th January 2013

PRESENT Chris Suddick (Chairman), Geoff Flood, Raj Goel, Nicola O'Callaghan, Paul O'Callaghan, Colin Eaves, Geoff Walton, Margaret Masterson, Mike Masterson, Pat Gothard, Graham Cliff, Chris Lavender, Richard Bullock, Kevin Rodgers, Karen Rodgers, Ged Birbeck.
APOLOGIES Graham Sinagola, Peter Baugh.

This was a Club Night and we did not have a speaker. Although there was broken cloud it was decided to Do some viewing from the car park, which is reasonably dark. initially we struggled to see Jupiter but as time went by the cloud thinned and eventually we got a large area of clear sky. Several telescopes and binoculars were available so that everyone could look at what was visible. Despite cloud, Richard managed to get his LX90 aligned and then Jupiter was the first target of the night, initially through thin cloud and occasional gaps - but then it cleared later and we came back to Jupiter after it had fully cleared. The seeing was excellent: The four Galilean Moons were joined by a 6th magnitude star HD 27639 - making it seem like Jupiter had five large moons. On the face of Jupiter, the main two equatorial cloud belts could be seen, as well as the narrower northern temperate belt. Noticeable darkenings observed in the north and south polar regions. Structure could be seen in the equatorial belts, however the Great Red Spot had set about an hour earlier. In the highest power eyepiece, Io was easily resolved as a disk. After Jupiter, we had a look at M36, M37 and M38, open clusters in Auriga. The Pleiades, M45 were better observed in the binoculars than through the 'scope. We tried some more challenging targets: M31, the Andromeda Galaxy was obvious through the telescope, however M1 in Taurus was a much more difficult target - the light pollution from the Manchester Airport direction making that a difficult averted vision object. Other objects seen include M42 which was still low and behind trees, but its greeny-hue easily seen - and the planet Uranus - which was even more behind trees and a tough capture - but it still provided some new members with their first ever view of the planet. All in all, a decent hour or so observing - and the views of Jupiter in particular were superb. After some good viewing a cup of tea was in order and following that we dealt with a few items of business, which included The notification of the next FAS meeting which will be held at the Godlee Observatory in the Sackville Building, Manchester University. The meeting will be on Saturday 26th January at12:00 noon.

Tony Aremia and his wife have both been unwell, our good wishes were expressed.

1st February 2013

PRESENT Chairman Chris Suddick and 20 members and guests

APOLOGIES Tony Aremia, Raj Goel, Geoff Walton.

Peter Baugh gave the second part of his talk about Caroline Herschel, 1750 - 1848.

Caroline followed her brother, William, to England where they set up house in Bath.

Originally a musician, William became interested in Astronomy and built his own telescopes the biggest being 70 feet long. he would stand on a platform and shout his results down to Caroline who recorded them. Caroline became interested and had her own 2 feet long telescope with which she made observations and in her time discovered 6 comets. She was a regular correspondent with the Royal Society and became well known to the Scientists of the day.

King George 3rd made William Astronomer Royal and gave Caroline a stipend of £50 for life.

After William's death Caroline returned to Hanover but retained an interest in astronomy.

The Chairman thanked Peter and following a break we dealt with correspondence matters which included details of local events in the coming months and also some promotional material about astronomy courses or tours.

6th September 2013

ADAS 49th AGM & 486th Meeting

PRESENT

Chris Suddick (Chairman), Geoff Flood, Peter Baugh, Steve Worsley, Pat Gothard, Geoff Walton, Norman Thurston, Kevin Thurston, Ewan Hill-Norris, Eddy Bruce, Kevin Rodgers, Karin Rodgers,

Isobel Gordon, James Heatley, Chris Lavender, Richard Bullock, Graham Cliff, Raj Goel,

Ged Birbeck. Total 19

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Tony Aremia, Graham Sinagola.

MINUTES

The Minutes of the 48th AGM were read and approved.

There were no arising matters.

TREASURER'S REPORT

Full Accounts attached.(in the Minute Book)

During the past ADAS year we had 23 paid-up members

During 2012/2013 we ran at a loss of £204.65. This loss was as a result of paying back a loan which had occurred because of paying off back rent to 1st Timperley Scout Group at a time when we were having difficulties with moving the bank account, these difficulties are now resolved and we have settled the account at Barclay's. There remains £1059.32 in the account.

It was proposed by Graham Cliff, seconded by Kevin Thurston and agreed that subscriptions should remain at £20 for senior and £1 for junior members.

There was a proposal that we should consider using the larger room at the Community Centre, however this would be much more expensive and so such a move was not approved, however we have an informal agreement to use that room on odd occasions at no extra cost - if it is available.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS

1. Chairman Peter Baugh - proposed by Chris Suddick, seconded by Geoff Flood

Elected unopposed.

2, Secretary Geoff Flood - proposed Geoff Walton, seconded by Karin Rodgers

                                    Elected unopposed.

3. Minutes Secretary  Eddy Bruce - proposed Chris Suddick, seconded Geoff Flood
                                    Elected unopposed

3, Treasurer Richard Bullock - proposed Peter Baugh seconded by Raj Goel

Elected unopposed.

4. Meetings Secretary Chris Suddick - proposed Peter Baugh seconded Kevin Thurston

Elected unopposed

5.Webmaster Kevin Rodgers - proposed Chris Suddick seconded by Karin Rodgers

Elected unopposed

6. Catering Officer Karin Rodgers - proposed Geoff Flood seconded by Geoff Walton

Elected unopposed

Chris thanked the out-going Officers for their efforts during the year and also welcomed and thanked the new Officers for the 2013/2014 season.

Following a break Peter Baugh spoke about our stand at the BAA Exhibition at Manchester Municipal University with particular reference to the photographs of Lunation 1094 taken by Colin Henshaw in Tobuk, Saudi Arabia in June 2011 and a poster produced by himself promoting ADAS and our 50th Anniversary in 2014.

Richard Bullock gave a presentation of what will be happening in the skies in the near future drawing attention to Comet ISON which will be getting brighter, although it will be a little difficult to see because at its brightest it will be close to the horizon. There is also a new comet which has been discovered by the Australians about which details are a bit thin at present.

Richard was thanked for his talk and the meeting closed.