HOME » Society News Archive
Here is an archive of major Society activities over the years.
Mars Star Party (2005-12-06)
 |
On Friday 11th November WAS held a “Mars” star party, for both members of the Society and the public. As a back up, in case of poor weather, Heather Couper and Nigel Henbest agreed to give a talk on the planet. Numerous leaflets had been distributed, a local newspaper advertised the event and the local radio station, Radio MIX107, co-operated extensively. They interviewed Paul and Heather and broadcast this four times during the day to invite visitors to our Society that night. Unfortunately, the weather was atrocious with high winds and driving rain, which of course, stopped any outside viewing. However, despite this, the event attracted over 100 members of the public, many with interested young family members. They were ‘supported’ by around forty WAS members, who also came to enjoy the evening. The youngsters were presented with a goody bag of items on arrival and were also enthusiastic when they benefited from some of the ten raffle prizes on offer. The talk by Heather and Nigel proved extremely interesting and included up-to-date information, from the ESA and NASA satellites still operating around Mars. In addition, telescopes belonging to WAS members were on display and these attracted considerable interest. Finally, after the talk had taken place and questions answered, Heather made a special presentation to Paul – see next news item.
|
WAS Chairman Paul Millington granted RAS fellowship (2005-11-01)
 |
The Society's chairman, Paul Millington, has recently been granted a Fellowship of the Royal Astronomical Society. The award was made to mark his work as a committee member of the Society of Popular Astronomy and for his work over many years supporting astronomy through our own Society. He was surprised and honoured to be elected a Fellow of the RAS and we would like to congratulate him on behalf of the members of WAS. We are very pleased for Paul and also welcome the added prestige this brings to Wycombe Astronomical Society. The photograph shows Paul 'receiving' his certificate from the Society President Heather Couper, at the end of the recent Mars 'Star Party'. |
Heather Couper finds out how Arthur C Clarke predicted satellite communications... (2005-09-19)
 |
Sixty years ago this month, in October 1945, the magazine Wireless World published an article by a relatively unknown writer and rocket enthusiast. Its title was: "Extra-Terrestrial Relays: Can Rocket Stations Give World Wide Radio Coverage?" Today, the author's name is known throughout the world. He is the science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke, and his prediction of satellite communications has come true in ways even he never imagined. To mark the anniversary, in a recent BBC Radio 4 programme, Heather Couper travelled to Arthur C Clarke's home in Sri Lanka to hear his own story.
|
Telescope Evening 2005 (2005-03-15)
 |
The Telescope evening, held on February 16th 2005 was well attended once again, with members bringing their telescopes and other astro equipment for display. Unfortunately the sky conditions were too poor for any real outside viewing, but a brief sighting of Saturn was made. There are several more photographs, viewable by members, in the April edition of Cygnus. |
The Society's new Deep Sky Imager (2005-03-15)
 |
Taking the opportunity of a visit to the recent Astrofest, the Society purchased a Meade DSI (Deep Sky Imager), for use with the LX200 at the Observatory. The image shown is one of the first to be taken with this new camera and shows the excellent results that can be obtained. To produce the image, the DSI was set to black and white deep sky mode, and was used with a focal reducer giving about f/5. The image was processed with Stella Magic using a logarithm intensity to show the dim parts of the galaxy and gaussian blur to reduce the noise. Further details and another image, plus a larger version of this one, can be seen by members in April 2005 Cygnus. |
2004 Christmas quiz night (2005-01-12)
 |
On the 8th December about 30 members and guests met at Woodrow to celebrate Christmas with a Quiz plus festive food and drink. |
Exciting schedule for WAS Practical evenings in 2005! (2005-01-11)
 |
Practical astronomy sessions have developed from our original Beginner's evenings which were introduced in 2003 to support those newer members who were keen to understand more about the wonders of the sky above us. They have developed into very successful monthly meetings on the first Thursday of the month which allow all WAS members to enjoy an excellent social evening involving an initial short talk covering various aspects of the practical side of our hobby followed by (weather permitting) group practical observing sessions using the Society's telescope and member's own telescopes. We have an exciting schedule for our 2005 meetings covering many aspects of astronomical observing. We look forward to seeing you there! |
WAS members have cloudy barbecue (2004-08-12)
 |
The Society's annual barbecue took place in August to coincide with the Perseid meteor shower. The evening was a success even though the cloudy skies did not allow any observing to take place, of meteors or otherwise! Over twenty members and guests enjoyed themselves at the barbecue and admiring the new dome on the observatory with it's smooth, easy opening, motor drive control and larger area within the 10-foot dome. |
WAS observatory has a new dome (2004-07-27)
 |
In May 2004, Wycombe Astronomical Society received an award from the National Lottery for refurbishments to the Society's Chiltern Observatory. The money was invested in a new dome for the observatory to replace the previous aging dome. Work is now underway to change the domes over. On Saturday 24th July, members installed the new dome with the help of manufacturers, AstronomyDome. The Chiltern Observatory was opened in 1997 by Heather Couper and is available for use by both Society and members of the public as a means of educating people about the wonders of the night sky. |
WAS members watch the Venus transit (2004-07-08)
 |
Instead of staying up late, WAS members were up early on the morning of June 8th, 2004 to go to the Society's observatory at Woodrow House, Amersham. Their goal - to watch a once-in-a-lifetime event from British soil - Venus making a transit of the Sun. The event will never be seen again in our lifetime from the UK, so it was not to be missed. For once, the British weather was on our side - sunny with highs of 32 celcius throughout the day. |
February 2004 Telescope evening (2004-02-19)
 |
In February 2004, members got together for the annual telescope evening. This gives members a chance to demonstrate their telescopes to other members or show off their recent Astrofest purchases! It is also an excellent chance for beginners or new members to talk to telescope owners and get some unbiased and helpful advice before making a big purchase. Members are always happy to help others. If the weather is clear, we always take the telescopes outside, but as is most often, this telescope evening was indoors. |
December 2002 Christmas party (2002-12-12)
 |
In December 2002, the Society celebrated Christmas with its usual festive food, drink and astronomy quiz. Despite early attendance at the bar, the teams managed to get very high scores in the quiz and there was even a three-way play-off to decide the winners. In the photo (left), some members chat while enjoying the evening. |
Re-launch of WAS newsletter - from paper to PDF! (2002-08-21)
 |
In August 2002, Wycombe Astronomical Society's monthly newsletter, Cygnus changed from being a bi-monthly paper magazine to a monthly newsletter available online for members to read. The new version offers full colour (online) and high quality laser printed black and white versions for members without access to the internet. For non-members, the twentieth anniversary edition of Cygnus is being put online containing almost 60 pages of personal articles on astronomy written by WAS members. |
The covers of Cygnus in the past (2002-08-21)
|
|
Before going online in September 2002, Cygnus was been presented in an A5 format every two months. The cover of Cygnus changed to show the winners of the Society's Astrophotography competition every year. This format ran from 1995 to 2002 and all the covers are stored for historical reference. Each winner also received a shield engraved with their name for the year they where winner. The next astrophoto award will be made in 2003 and the winning image displayed on the website. |
The National Lottery provides funding for a new Society telescope (2001-05-31)
 |
In May 2001, Wycombe Astronomical Society received a lottery grant from the Awards for All Committee for the purchase of a new Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and MegaWedge for our Observatory. Society Chairman, Paul Scott said "This is fantastic news for the Society. We have been the position of having an excellent observatory but a poor telescope for several years now and this is the final piece of the jigsaw that will see a first class public observing facility in Buckinghamshire". |
The Opening of the Chiltern Observatory (1997-05-31)
 |
On a typically cloudy evening in May 1997, the Wycombe Astronomical Society closed one chapter in its history and opened a new and even brighter one. Our President, Professor Heather Couper came to open the newly built Chiltern Observatory. Heather said "it is wonderful to have an Observatory in Buckinghamshire." At that time, the observatory housed a 12-inch fork mounted Newtonian telescope. Since the opening in 1997, the telescope has been replaced with a Schmidt-Cassegrain instrument. |
The Building of the Chiltern Observatory (1997-05-31)
 |
The buiding of the Chiltern Observatory began in 1991, shortly after planning permission was granted by Wycombe Council. The plans for the observatory were originally rejected and had to be resubmitted until approval was given. Here are some pictures of the construction of the building and the dome taken from the early 1990s. |
Content © 2007 Wycombe Astronomical Society. No part of this site may be reproduced in any way without prior written permission. Read our Privacy policy.
Wycombe Astronomical Society is a UK Registered Charity No. 297024. Connectivity supplied by Internet Services.