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January 21st - Society Dinner |
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 The Annual Society Dinner was again held at Ferrari's in Bromley. More than thirty members and friends gathered for an evening of gastronomy and conversation, rounded off by another pun-filled speech from our President, Gilbert. |
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February 5th to 7th - Winter Deep Sky Camp 2005 |
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 Winter Deep Sky Camp this year was held at the usual venue over the weekend of February 5th to 7th. |
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February 16th - An Evening with the Stars |
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 Our chairman, Paul Whitmarsh writes: Looking at the sky on Friday 18th February was most depressing, as tonight we were to go to Greenwich for an evening with the stars. However as I left the house it looked more like an evening with an umbrella was in the offing. Driving with windscreen wipers racing I wondered if it might not be such a bad idea to turn back and head for home. Although the rain did seem to be letting up, and now it was stopping. By the time Kidbrook was reached a star could be glimpsed between the clouds. Arriving at the observatory gates at 18:50 we streamed into the observatory building ready for the 19:00 show, only to find out that we had arrived an hour early our slot had been booked for 20:00. We looked enviously upon those members of the public who were lead along the path and up the observatory steps, while we wondered how long the now clear sky would last for. The observatory staff kindly gave us a private tour of the ground floor instruments from Halley's quadrant to Airy's transit circle, a fascinating half hour, many thanks to the observatory staff for helping out. This left just enough time to pop outside and check on the cloud cover. Doh! It was coming back, but by 20:00 the errant cloud had parted and it was our turn to climb the stairs to the 28", which was aimed at the crater Clavius on the Moon. The views of the crater walls were stunning. Then we moved onto Saturn, with seven moons, this was the best view of Saturn I have ever had. Then finally Tony Sizer moved the telescope to M42 Tony had to take care not to bump the tube on the safety rail only a foot or so below or clout the dome. The steps were rolled out and we climbed them to view the trapezium area of the nebula, and six stars! An excellent evening, with stunning views, through an excellent instrument. |
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April 23rd - Royal Astronomical Society Library |
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 This Saturday was the day appointed for our visit to the Royal Astronomical Society's library, and by 10:30am 15 of us had gathered at the foot of the stairs in Burlington House. Peter Hingley, the Society's librarian, showed us around. He had stories to tell about various artifacts ("A piece of Isaac Newton's apple tree"), portraits, charts and books. The library seems to occupy more than just the room with "Library" on the door. There were cupboards full of books squirrelled away in quite a few of the rooms. Peter had selected a small number of treasures to show us. Among them were copies of Copernicus' "De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium", a couple of Galileo's works, "Istoria e Dimonstrazione Intorno" and "Sidereus Nuncius", and Caius Hyginus' "Poeticon Astronomicon" which contains some of the oldest printed start charts. It was nearly 1:00pm by the time we emerged into the London drizzle and headed for a nearby pub to get some lunch.
Conveniently, there was a British Astronomical Association meeting in the afternoon, and a few of us stayed in London in order to attend it. There were two main lectures. The first, on "Quasars, black holes and galaxy formation" by Omar Almaini of Nottingham University, included new images of the centre of the Milky Way, which show stars in orbit around the galaxy's central super-massive black hole. The other, on "Bonneville and Beyond : A Year on Mars with the Spirit Rover" by Doug Ellison, was a fascinating account of the progress of the Spirit Rover on Mars, and included some impressive 3D images of the Martian landscape. It was gone 6:00pm by the time the meeting ended. |
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July 2nd - Starbecue |
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Another excellent barbecue, with plenty of food, drink and conversation. The sky remained overcast, but it did not rain or get too cold, and we were able to enjoy another excellent barbecue, with plenty of food, drink and conversation in the setting of Ray and Sandra's spectacular garden. |
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Summer Deep Sky Camp - 5th - 8th August 2005 |
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The Summer Deep Sky Camp was held as usual in Penny's Field, Headcorn over the weekend of 5th - 8th August 2005. The skies were excellent, and the camp was very well attended. |
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Public Perseid Meteor Watch - Friday 12th August 2005 |
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By contrast with Deep Sky Camp, the clouds gathered, and the skies remained obscured for the whole evening. Nevertheless a couple of dozen gathered at High Elms to listen to talks by Greg, Jeff and Paul. |
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IMAX 3D Spectacular - Sunday 16th October 2005 |
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 The Society's outing to see "Magnificent Desolation" on Sunday afternoon was a success, and a fine way to round off the Society's 25th anniversary weekend. |
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Autumn Deep Sky Camp - 28th - 31st October 2005 |
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Despite some extremely wert weather, twenty six members and friends camped in Penny's Field near Headcorn, and enjoyed a very successful Deep Sky Camp. |
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An Evening with Mars - 12th November 2005 |
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 The weather did not look promising as we gathered at High Elms for a public observing session, so Greg stepped in to keep us amused and informed by giving us a short talk on Mars and its place in the Solar System. After his talk we had a quick look outside, and as Mars was just about visible through the thin cloud, Rick set up his telescope in a dark corner of the Nature Centre garden, and visitors took turns to see what they could see. Some were able to get brief clear views of the planet before the clouds again thickened. Jeff and Mirriam ran a quiz during the latter part of the evening, but the clouds could not be persuaded to part. |
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Mars from Greenwich - 9th December 2005 |
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Again the weather favoured a Greenwich evening observing session, with a break in the mist allowing those who'd made their way to the old observatory to have some fine views of Mars and the Moon. |
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