Here you'll find reports of the various events and outings organised by the Society in 2006. If you were at one of these events and would like to correct or expand the report relating to it then please email our webmaster.
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January 13th - Society Dinner |
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 The Annual Society Dinner was held at The George in Hayes. A great many people turned up, and the restaurant was almost (but not quite) overwhelmed. An enjoyable evening. |
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Deep Sky Camp - February 24th - 26th, 2006 |
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This Winter Deep Sky Camps was memorable mainly for non- astronomical reasons. The rain of the previous two weeks had left the field very muddy. Cars got stuck, everyone got very dirty, and most folk enjoyed themselves. "The marquee was very impressive and all we needed was a bit of rock music for it to become a mini Glastonbury!" said vice-chairman Mike. |
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Otford Solar System Model Walk - May 7th, 2006 |
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 May 7th 2006 was a glorious sunny day, perfect for walking around the Solar System Walk at Otford. I had been looking forward to the walk as the scale of the Solar System is something that has always fascinated me and I have often thought about making a scale model myself. We all met at the pub to start with for lunch, then after a pint and a hearty meal made our way to the car park to meet up with David Thomas, the creator of the model, who was to give us a guided tour of our Solar System. We made our way to the Sun, which was a football sized gleaming ball of steel in the centre of a field. Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars were all visible from this vantage point. The interesting figures were then imparted to us from Mr. Thomas. |
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Summer Deep Sky Camp - August 25th - 28th |
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 Summer Deep Sky Camp was held on the weekend of Friday 25th to Monday 28th August at a new (to us) field at Tuesnoad near Headcorn. |
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Science Museum Special Collection - November 10th and 17th |
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On Fridays 10th and 17th November, groups of OAS members visited the Science Museum's Astronomy collection. Jim Metha reports: A very enjoyable visit was organised to the Science Museum Stores in Olympia over two Fridays in October. We attended the first of these on 10th November. The Stores are based at Blyth House, a magnificent Edwardian building originally built to house the National Savings and their hundred's of lady "Computers" who worked out the nations finances! Now the building is used for storage by the Science, British and V&A Museums. We were met and shown round by Jane West and her assistant, both curators of the Astronomical collections. The main collections are housed in one huge room with shelves up to the ceiling. Jane gave us a tour showing us instruments used by Smyth, Lee, the Herschels, South, Groombridge, Lord Rosse, and many others. Of particular interest were a replica of Newtons original 4-inch reflector as well as the Airy's Altazimuth Telescope, and Caroline Herschels own 8-inch reflector. After an hour we were free to look around at leisure and take pictures. A further tour was organised to look at the extensive sundial collection which included instruments from ancient Arabia as well as more modern examples from the 16C to the 19C. It's frustrating that all these instruments are not on view to the general public, indeed that there is no Astronomy gallery in the Science museum, and this is keenly felt by the curators. However Jane hopes that in 2008 a major exhibition of many of the items will be shown in the museum so we look forward to that. It was a great privilege to be able to walk around and look at these instruments, many thanks to Jane and her team for their time and interest. |
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Autumn Deep Sky Camp - 17th to 19th November |
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Autumn Deep Sky Camp was held at the campsite at Tuesnoad from Friday 17th to Sunday 19th November. |
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