April 24th 2008 - Dave Shave Wall  - Mars

For his Chairman's address this year Dave spoke to the society about Mars. He spoke about the missions fly past, orbit and land on the red planet - and the varying degrees of success they have had through to the geography of the surface, weather systems and geology.

Is there life on Mars? Not now, but it is highly likely there was some form of simple organisms in the past. No need for the Thunderchild any more though.

As Dave has now served his 2 years as chairman he is bound to step down this year. During his chairmanship the membership has grown from 30 something to 60 (which was one of his targets).  I think we would all agree this has been and enjoyable and successful period for the society and for that we are grateful for the time and effort he has put in. We can all appreciate the work required to carry out a role like this over and above a day job coupled with home life.

March 27th 2008 - Matthew Hepburn  - Another look at the ice ages

A highly entertaining evening where Matthew put forward some very interesting theories on the history of ice ages on Earth.

Using maps to study the geography of the planet he demonstrated that there has been no glaciation in Siberia and in some places no glaciation as high as the 75th parallel. This has led him to believe that the north pole was somewhere in Hudson Bay at the last ice age
A study of the Milankovitch cycles ties in with the fact that the Earth's axis moves due to precession - a cycle of roughly 26000 years. Matthew further speculated that the Earth is in fact two planets - the inner liquid core acting with it's own precession rate which allows for explanation of his theories. Further, this also explains the inversion of the magnetic field periodically (as the inner core flips) and allows the calculations for the conservation of angular momentum to work.

An interesting theory and very well presented.
 

ISS
Bob Trevan has been on the trail of the ISS again. With more experience and a new focussing technique the pictures are improving all the time. The latest batch below are quite spectacular. Careful examination will show you shots before and after the new supply vessel (ATV) docked and the ones with the light background are daylight shots tracked using information provided by CalSky

FREE PAIR OF BINS
Thought that might get your attention. A pair of bins has been donated to the club by www.uk-telescopes.co.uk  - please support them by comparing prices if you are in the market for any telescopic equipment that they stock. They supply telescopes and telescope accessories for beginners and advanced astronomers and are official suppliers of Konus, Celestron, Meade and Sky Watcher telescopes and accessories. You can order online for same day despatch.

I'll leave it to the chairman to decide how to dispose of the bins provided - I'm sure he'll come up with something appropriate

Click here far the SAGAS summer meeting flyer (PDF Format). This meeting will be hosted by Basingstoke Astronomical Society at Cliddesden School

In 2009 the world will celebrate the International Year of Astronomy to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Galileo's use of a telescope to study the night sky. 2009 is also the anniversary of many other important dates in the history of science, such as the publishing of Kepler's Astronomia Nova, Huygens' Systema Saturnium, and the first moon landing. For this celebration astronomers around the world will be inviting people like you, and your friends and family, to look up in wonder at the night sky, and to seek out answers to some of life's biggest questions

Coming up soon at BAS

  Click here to see a copy of the BAS syllabus for 2007/8

2008
Saturday Apr 19th	SAGAS quarterly meetings held at South Downs Planetarium, Chichester
Thursday Apr 24th	BAS Monthly meeting - Cliddesden @ 19:00 (map)   7.00  Meet and Greet 7.30  Chairman’s Address - Dave Shave-Wall 8,30  Coffee 9.00  Admin/News 9.15  What’s up? 9.25  Observe if clear 9.45  TBA 10.00 Pub