2024
January 4th: Trevarrian
With all the new telescopes that have arrived over Christmas, we will be holding another evening where you can bring your new scope for some help and advice of setting it up. We have also received a number of requests on how to set up an equatorial mount for visual observing as well as some users whose go-to mounts are not pointing to targets as well as they expect, so we’ll help them troubleshoot these problems.
January 17th: : Tretherras School Newquay
We have another observing event for you. This time it’s organised by Tretherras School, Newquay and we have been asked to help out with a few scopes.
The event is open to everyone (even if you don’t have a child at the the school ) and kicks off at 17:00 on 17 January. Click the link below for full location information:
https://tretherras.net/contact-us/
January 18th: : Summercourt
Noel will talking about Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin and one of the most important discoveries in the history of astronomy. After the break , Mark will give us a short history of the Calendar.
February 1st: Trevarrian
Image processing for the beginner. Following on from imaging introduction we did in December, this evening we will be allowing you to get hands on experience on some basic image processing techniques. Please bring your own laptops with you – we will provide and list of the software you will need to download and install beforehand.
February 15th: Summercourt
Tonight Nick will be discussing one of the most popular free desktop planetaria – Stellarium. Most users never get beyond the default setup, so Nick will show you a number of options that will maximize your usage and enjoyment from this software.
Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. It runs on all major OS platforms and can be downloaded from the Stellarium website here.
March 7th: Trevarrian
This evening our resident Solar imaging wizzo, Nigel will show how he processes his wonderful Ha Solar images taken through his heavily modified Coranado HST Hα scope. After the tea break we will also be showing a number of solar filter types and their safe use on your own telescope to help you observe increasing Solar activity during 2024 and beyond.
March 16th: Club Annual Dinner
Held at the Plume of Feathers at Mitchel. The closing date for booking your place is Tuesday 5th, March.
March 21st: : Summercourt
Dan’s talk will be on Aurora. He will start with what the aurora actually are , i.e. the reactions with charged particles with different elements in the atmosphere and how the magnetosphere channels them. He’ll then move onto solar events that release them and why they like equinoxes. He’ll also describe how other phenomena, that look like aurora, are formed.
April 18th: Summercourt
The Club AGM: Your chance to shape the future of how the club is run and what activities and talks we provide going through 2024 and into early 2025. If we have time after the meeting Frank will give a 10-minute talk on ‘Historical Eclipses and Transits’
April 20th: Sun & Stars – Carnewas
The first of this years Sun & Stars events. The event, as always, is dependant on clear skies, but this evening we hope to be able to see sunspot activityon the surface of the Sun and maybe a brief look at Jupiter as they both set in the western sky. The Moon will be full as it rises in the east, which is not ideal, but will still allow us to observe some interesting Lunar features. As it gets darker we should be able to show some interesting Open and Globular star clusters throughout the evening.
Click the link below for full location information https://goo.gl/maps/kFJSUZd588YQvNaS9
May 16th: Summercourt
EAA, or Electronically Assisted Astronomy is an ever increasing popular way to do Astronomy. While it uses a camera to make observations, it’s not astrophotography and because you are not looking through an eyepiece, you don’t need to be at the telescope to do it. Nick will give an overall view on what EAA is and how you can simply and relatively cheaply use your existing go-to telescope- no matter what kind it is and maybe change the way you observe the night sky.
After the tea break Glynn will be giving us his 10 minute talk ‘Meet the Herschels’
Meeting Leader Roy
June 20th: Summercourt
Supernovas are the explosions that happen when a star runs out of enough fuel to support it against its own crushing gravity. When stars explode they are some of the brightest and most violent astronomical events known. In tonights talk Nigel will be exploring the different types of supernovae and how they are useful to astronomers and to models of how the universe works. The clouds of gas and dust that are produced make for some beautiful objects to image and also give rise to the elements that make life possible.
Meeting Leader Glynn
June 29th: Norman Lockyer Observatory
A day trip for club members to visit the NLO in Sidmouth to attend their annual Astrofair. Activities at the event will include;
– Free tours with talks of the Historical Telescope Dome
– Free Access to The Planetarium Shows
– Free programme of Events and Talks by the NLO Groups
– Live Solar Observing (weather permitting)
– Displays from Astronomy Societies
– Trade Marquee with Exhibitors: Widescreen Centre, First Light Optics, Bresser, Astronomy Now
9, July: Tretherras School Newquay
We have another observing event for you. This time it’s organised by Tretherras School, Newquay and we have been asked to help out with a few scopes.The event is open to everyone (even if you don’t have a child at the the school ) and kicks off at 16:30 on 9, July.
Click the link below for full location information:
https://tretherras.net/contact-us
July 18th: Summercourt
Tonight Frank will be giving us a talk on ‘Historical Transits’ and after the tea break Roy will give us his 10-Minute talk on ‘Mars Missions’
– Meeting Leader Dean
August 15th: Summercourt
Tonight will feature two talks. The first poses the question ‘What does the 1982 TV series ‘Believe it or Not’ and Gamma Ray Bursts have in common? Dan’s talk tonight will reveal all. The second is ‘Globules and Elephant Trunks’ Nick analyses an image he took back in 2020 and explains what’s happening to a number of the features seen within the image.
September 14th: Carnewas
The first of our ‘Sun and Stars’ star party event held at the National Trust car park at Carnewas. Arrive just before sunset to safely observe features on the setting Sun before turning our attention to the rising Moon and the planet Saturn. As always this event is subject to there being clear skies. Exact location details are as follows
Google Maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/zoT1DmPnF3o3fDTQ8
What3Words: ///food.energy.grief
September 19th: Summercourt
There are three talks tonight. Mike will be discussing ‘Features on the Moon’ where he will touch on a few of the surface features, as well as aiming to present other aspects that are less well known; eg, why the Moon has a ‘lumpy’ gravitational field and what the implications are.
After the tea break we also have two short two shorter talks on ‘NASA Unmanned Missions’ and ‘Space Stations’ by Heather and Charles respectively. Meeting Leader Frank.
September 21st ; Llanhydrock
The first of two Star parties being held in the grounds of National Trust Llanhydrock. Kick off just before dusk at 18:00. Park in the main car park and walk towards to the house. As always this event is subject to there being clear skies. Exact location details are as follows.
Google Maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/7txrQ3q7fQvz8x6k9
What3Words: ///publish.defected.blend
October 3rd: Trevarrian
The first of this years practical club nights taking place on the 1st Thursday of every month until March next year. The emphasis of each meeting is to get out under the stars with our scopes ( so please bring yours along with you) and do some observing. If the weather doesn’t play ball, we will be arranging some observing or imaging techniques to enhance your practical skills.
October 12th: Carnewas
The second of our ‘Sun and Stars’ star party event held at the National Trust car park at Carnewas. As always this event is subject to there being clear skies. Exact location details are as follows
Google Maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/zoT1DmPnF3o3fDTQ8
What3Words: ///food.energy.grief
October 17th : Summercourt
Tonight we have two presentations for you. To start, Dean will discuss what astronomers currently know about globular clusters, which are amongst the oldest star structures in the Universe. These dense clusters of hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of stars are found orbiting galaxies. 151 of them can be seen from Earth orbiting our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
After the break, Nigel will be talking about a Helio Spectroscope project he is running for his pupils
Meeting Leader Mark
November 7th: Trevarrian
Practical club night taking place on the 1st Thursday of every month until March next year. The emphasis of each meeting is to get out under the stars with our scopes ( so please bring yours along with you) and do some observing. If the weather doesn’t play ball, we will be arranging some observing or imaging techniques to enhance your practical skills.
November 9th: Carnewas
The third of our ‘Sun and Stars’ star party event held at the National Trust car park at Carnewas. As always this event is subject to there being clear skies. Exact location details are as follows
Google Maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/zoT1DmPnF3o3fDTQ8
What3Words: ///food.energy.grief
November 21st: Summercourt
It’s that time of year again folks. Now’s the time to dig out your old copy of Trivial Pursuit and brush up on your general knowledge. – Meeting Leaders Frank and Phil
December 5th: Trevarrian
Practical club night taking place on the 1st Thursday of every month until March next year. The emphasis of each meeting is to get out under the stars with our scopes ( so please bring yours along with you) and do some observing. If the weather doesn’t play ball, we will be arranging some observing or imaging techniques to enhance your practical skills.
December 7th: Llanhydrock
The second Star party we had planned for the 7th December at National Trust Llanhydrock has been cancelled due to forecast of high winds. We hope to be able to organise further star parties during early 2025 and will announce those here and on our website when we have further details.
December 19th: Summercourt
A Christmas jumper and mince pie meeting. Bring either of these along for our last meeting of 2024. There is no formal programme arranged, but it would be good to listen to members thoughts on how they thought their astronomy went during 2024. Where there any observing or imaging highlights of the year that you enjoyed. Did you read any good books or view a Youtube that you really liked and wish to share with everyone. If you want to bring along a little presentation of anything like this, we can fire up the projector. Basically anything goes.