From time to time we arrange outings and other special events like these: Deep Sky CampsRecently we've held a number of weekend camps near Headcorn, where the skies are dark, and conditions can be excellent for deep sky observing and astrophotography. These usually cost about £5.00 per night* per person (which covers use of the campsite facilities and some firewood). OutingsIn recent years we have visited places like the Greenwich Observatory, The radio telescopes and historic instruments at Cambridge, and the Herschel museum in Bath. Open DaysThese have usually co-incided with relatively predictable astronomical phenomena like meteor showers, and have included observing, short lectures and demonstrations. The most recent one was in August 2003 for the National Astronomy Week. Public Lectures & Exhibitions A recent one of our our exhibitions was our 21st Anniversary Celebration entitled Universe Day, held at St Olave's School in Orpington in 2001 - more than 300 people turned up to see all the latest in local astronomy. Every two or three years we hold in memory of one of our founder members and chairmen, the Kenneth Budd Memorial Lecture. So far we have held three well attended meetings. The first Kenneth Budd Memorial Lecture, in November 1998 was given by Prof. Sir Antony Hewish, who was awarded a Nobel Prize for his work on pulsars. His lecture was titled "Thirty Years of Pulsar Astronomy", and the second, in October 2000, when Ewen A. Whitaker FRAS gave a lecture titled "Fifty Years with Lunar Maps". * Please note, "night" is a convenient way of saying "twenty-four hours, or part thereof". If you're going to come down for the day and take part in activities, but go elsewhere to sleep, we still expect you to contribute to the cost of running the event. |
Our Chairman Jim Mehta writes: In celebration of The International Year of Astronomy 2009 to record the 400 years that have elapsed since Galileo invented the telescope, OAS staged a display at Bromley Central Library. There were eighteen displays in total, each one illustrating and explaining a subject area in Astronomy. Many members contributed to the display materials, which included telescopes, astro-photographs, meteorites, books, a spacesuit costume, and models of spacecraft from Apollo to the Space Shuttle. The exhibition ran every day for two weeks and was well attended. On the middle Saturday members of the Society were on hand with telescopes to talk to members of the public. Unfortunately the weather was bad so no Solar observing was possible but a very successful day was still had by all. The comments in the visitors book show how well the display was received, and there are more photographs of the displays in the Events section of our gallery.
A Deep Sky Camp will be held between Friday 10th and Monday 13th September 2010 near Hawkhurst.