Next Meeting: Wednesday January 8th at 8:00pm Planetary Imaging at the Edge Martin Lewis

Membership details: •£10 per year - renewable at end of July* •Non-members £2.00 first 3 meetings then annual membership subscription due pro rata for remaining meetings. •Free to under 18s and full time students. Proof of status may be required. •Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

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Visitors welcome - £2.00 per meeting

We, Oct 11

Richard Goodrich

How the 1910 Return of Halley’s Comet (Almost) Destroyed Civilization

2024-25 Programme (subject to change)

Wed, Sep 11

Roger O’Brien

Distance Scales

Wed, Oct 9

Sam Rolfe

Raman Spectroscopy and the search for life in the Solar System

Wed, Nov 13

Robert Connon Smith

So Simple a thing as a Star

Wed, Dec 11

Jill Stuart

The governance of the "Final Frontier"

Wed, Jan 8

Martin Lewis

Planetary Imaging at the Edge

Wed, Feb 12

Quentin Stanley

The Art of (Computer) Modelling

Wed, Mar 12

Mike Foulkes

Eclipses.

Wed, Apr 9

David Southwood

A Decade as an ESA Director

Wed, May 14

Jerry Stone

AGM followed by Is Pluto a Planet? - 10 years since New Horizons flyby.

Wed, June 11

Kevin Fong

Living on the Moon

This meeting will be held at: University of Hertfordshire Lindop Building College Lane Hatfield AL10 9AB (What 3 words: stars.stones.energetic) and simultaneously on Zoom. There is plenty of parking space around the venue which is free after 19:00

The talk is titled 'Planetary Imaging at the Edge'. After a quick overview of the current best method of planetary imaging using a high speed digital video camera, I will talk through several planetary imaging challenges I have been involved in. These range from imaging the horn extensions of Venus and detail on the Galilean moons, to capturing craters on Mars and huge storms on distant Neptune. The idea is to give an idea of what the current 'state of the art' is in modern planetary imaging. The talk will be extensively illustrated with my own images, all taken from my back garden in St.Albans. Martin has had a fascination for all things in the sky since he was young. He is a professional engineer and part-time planetary imager, telescope builder, and deep sky sketcher. He images using his home-built 444mm and 222mm Dobsonian telescopes, both used on a home-built equatorial platform, from his garden in St. Albans, Herts. Martin has been shortlisted in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year for the last 8 years, primarily in the Planets section, and has been a category winner twice. He is treasurer of the West of London AS (WOLAS) and an equipment advisor in the BAA's Equipment and Techniques section.

Note for your diaries: Saturday March 29 - partial solar Eclipse 10:00 - 12:00 Noon - Public Eclipse Watch

Visitors most welcome at meetings or on Zoom

ZOOM

Visual Observing Sessions Our visual observing group is now up and running. You can learn more here or if you want to jump straight in then just complete the Visual Observing Response form below and we’ll let you know when we are next meeting.