BASINGSTOKE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Minutes of meeting held on 27th October 2005, at Cliddesden Primary School
 
Apologies 
Sarah Masters and Bob Trevan
 
Chairman’s Welcome
John Stapleton extended a welcome to all present and reminded members that Annual Subscriptions are due.
John said this meeting was the first of our Club Nights of the new season.
These nights will be dedicated to observation of the sky when conditions allow, and will usually follow the beginner’s section and Starwatch.
 
Matters Outstanding
We have received confirmation via e-mail from Sam George, Secretary of the Federation of Astronomical Societies, to the secretary, that we are members of this organisation, and will appear in the next handbook. The Public Liability Insurance now covers us and may be used for any meeting at any location. 
We have not yet received a handbook, this is in the process of being up-dated and as soon as they are ready for distribution, we will be sent a copy.  
 
Beginner’s Section
This short presentation was given by John Stapleton and covered the rocky inner planets of the Solar System.
 
Bren’s latest Toy
Brendan Shaw gave a very interesting presentation all about how his new diffracting grating is used for obtaining spectrographs from stars, galaxies, nebulae and the like. 
 
Starwatch
Dave Shave-Wall treated members to another session of what to see in the night sky in the coming month.
 
Eclipse 
During the coffee break a continuous slide show of the recent annular eclipse was shown, as seen by Alan Lorrain in Madrid.
 
Next Meeting 
(Held on the playing field of Cliddesden Primary School unless otherwise stated)
Friday 11th November.  Our monthly observing session when, weather permitting, we will concentrate on Mars and the Moon.
Thursday 24th November. Scott Wilcox will give a talk on ‘How to build your own Observatory’
 
 An observing session lasted until about 11pm.
 Close