17 January 2017

There were no non-apologies

 

Guests

 

Mary Shepherd from Cresswell's

Derek Emmins from Worcester Severn

John Halstead from Leighton Buzzard

Mark Empson

John Airey

​Howard Paignton brought greetings from Worcester Severn

 

There were no notices or correspondence.

 

Steve Davies updated on the Abbey Trust (leaflets on tables).  The walls will be repaired and there will be an archaeological dig.  There will be lots of involvement within the town and from schools and the Trust are about to submit a heritage lottery bid.  They need support from the townspeople, so members were urged to complete the forms circulating at the meeting.  To scotch rumours, allotment holders are not being 'kicked out' of the site.  They have been offered another site within Evesham, donated  by the Rudge family.

A young archaeologists club will be set up from the schools who will use social media, on a weekly basis, to keep people informed.  Construction students from Evesham College will get involved with the rebuild of the wall, which will use lime mortar.  It promises to be a very exciting project to show what the abbey was like.

 

Derek Emmins drew attention to the charity concert leaflet on the tables.  Featuring the Black Dyke Band, it will be held on 1 April at the Forum Theatre, Malvern.  More details from Jonathan Sington on 07770 834050 email jonathansington@btinternet.com 

There is also the Worcestershire Night being held in the Graeme Hick Suite at Worcs County Cricket Club on 20 April 2017.  Contact Charles Taylor on 01886 832414 or Ken Baker on 01905 357253.

 

Steve Davies then gave his presentation on astronomy.  He explained that he first got interested at about ten years old and joined the Association for Astronomy Education at about the time he started teaching and was then asked to teach a night class.  He was fortunate to have access to the observatory at Marlborough which is the biggest amateur telescope.

He went on to explain what's to look at and why one needs to sit for ages, letting the eyes adapt and the picture change.  Amateur astronomers will take far more note of the brightness of stars, etc, then the scientists.  Steve went on to talk about double and treble stars, deep sky and galaxies and nebulae.  All of this was backed up by some fantastic photographs, many of them by Steve using his own equipment.  

He also explained how he plans what he wants to see, using software, which helps to determine the best time of year, time of night, etc.  He has targets for the year, including the Messier Challenge and Lunar 100, 100 of the most interesting objects on the moon.

Lastly, Steve drew attention to his latest toy, a large telescope that he had brought along, explaining that it takes about half an hour to set up, using northings, latitude, longitude, date, time, etc, and that it can be programmed to see different things.

 

Hein van der Steen concluded the evening, by thanking Steve for such an interesting talk.