BASINGSTOKE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Minutes of meeting held on April 26th 2007
Venue: Cliddesden Primary School

Apologies:
Neil Perry, Helen Mountstephens, Bernie Sullivan

Welcome: 
The Chairman, Dave Shave-Wall welcomed all.

Main Item:
Dr Steve Duncan “433rd Rock from the Sun”
Steve gave a very interesting talk on how he found and identified the asteroid Eros, predicted its orbit and recovered it.  The talk was rather more mathematical than expected but the speaker made a good attempt to explain what he was doing and why.  Some questions followed.

Coffee

Admin: 
It was suggested by the committee that the membership fee should be raised to £15 per annum and that the additional £1 contribution be waived for the foreseeable future.  The visitors’ fee should remain £2 per meeting.  

Bob Trevan has compiled a useful website list and will e-mail it out.

It was also announced that the Beginner’s sessions will become Practical Sessions and be held on the second Thursday of the month from May 10th.

A request for people to speak at any session was also made to the membership.

News;
The Chairman reported a collection of news items gleaned from the web and other sources, the “new Earth” exoplanet, Robotic telescope observations of Gamma Ray Bursters, clouds on Venus by Venus Express, NGC 1672 and caves on Mars. Discussion was included. 

What’s Up?:
Alan Lorrain gave a brief resume of the sights in the night sky for the coming month.
Bob Trevan showed some of his first attempts at image processing on the Trio in Leo and the ISS.

Next Meetings:
May 24th Chairman’s Address

Observing: The weather did not permit any viewing

Close:The meeting closed and members were invited to reconvene at the pub