Meetings
Our meeting venue
Our meetings are held at the Hurstbourne Tarrant Community Centre.
The centre sits under dark skies (though unfortunately not always cloudless!) in an area of outstanding natural beauty. Built in 2014/15 the centre has high quality modern facilities and good off-road parking.
Parking at the centre is separated from where we will be observing, an important safety consideration. We have wireless broadband which facilitates remote meeting and enables us to invite a wider range of speakers. In addition, the venue gives us an excellent base from which to run our outreach activities.
About our meetings
The society meets at 7:30pm on the third Thursday of each month from September through to April at:
Hurstbourne Tarrant Community Centre, Church Street, Hurstbourne Tarrant, Nr. Andover, Hampshire, SP11 0AX. (See the map below) (what3words: https://w3w.co/approve.sunset.polices)
We offer coffee, tea and biscuits (for which we invite a small contribution at your discretion), and a friendly welcome (which is completely free!). The centre has car parking and toilet facilities (including disabled) and is fully wheelchair accessible.
Children are very welcome but must be accompanied by an adult. Non-members and occasional visitors are also very welcome, there is a charge of £4 per visit for non-members, but the first visit is free.
Typically, our meetings have the following format:
- An introduction from the chairman including a round up of interesting events for the coming month.
- A talk, usually from an external speaker: we have a varied program to cater for a wide spectrum of interests.
- A general discussion: we are a friendly and welcoming group keen to share views, tips and experiences. Whatever your interest, be it observing, astrophotography, astrophysics etc etc, there will be members on hand to chat to.
- And, if the skies are clear, we get outside to observe the heavens – don’t worry if you don’t have a telescope to bring along, many of us don’t, there’s always telescopes to have a look through. But, if you want some pointers to using your telescope, this is a great opportunity to get some “hands on” help.
Next regular monthly meeting
Scientific Imaging: More than just pretty pictures …
by Gavin James
Thursday 24th April 2025 at 7:30 pm
At the Hurstbourne Tarrant Community Centre
For our April meeting we start with the Annual General Meeting of the Society including reports from the Chairman and Treasurer as well as election of Society Officers.
We will then be pleased to welcome our guest speaker, Gavin James.
Imagine if you could weigh Jupiter or observe the differential rotation of the Sun, all from your back garden! In this talk we will discover how to use regular astro-imaging equipment to gather real scientific data. We will look at the tools needed to process the data and we will find out how to use Excel for so much more than the monthly accounts!
Gavin James is the Director of the Blackett Observatory and teacher of Astronomy at Marlborough College. He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and has been looking to the skies since his childhood. He is an expert astrophotographer and in the past has been shortlisted for the International Astronomy Photographer of the Year Award. His back garden observatory is open and gathering data every time there is a clear sky!
Meeting schedule
All meetings held at Hustbourne Tarrant Community Centre
| Date | Title | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| 21 September 2023 | The Planet Mercury | Chris Hooker |
| 19th October 2023 | From Smart Phone to Smart Dome | Gavin James |
| 16th November 2023 | Supernovae Research | Dr Or Graur |
| 21st December 2023 | Christmas Meeting | Member talks |
| 18th January 2024 | A New Look at an Old Moon | Barry FitzGerald |
| 15th February 2024 | Women in Astronomy - Part 2 | Mary McIntyre |
| 21st March 2024 | A Universe of Infinities | Colin Stuart |
| 18th April 2024 | An Update on the James Webb Telescope (AGM afterwards) | Sophie Allan |
| 13th June 2024 | Sunspots and Auroras | Terry Tucker & Andy Watson |
| 10th August 2024 | StarBQ | Details emailed to members |
| 19th September 2024 | Galaxies | Dr Or Graur |
| 25th September 2024 | Blackett Observatory Trip | Gavin James |
| 17th October 2024 | Live Stacking, the new Visual Astronomy | Lawrence Saville |
| 7th November 2024 | Night Sky Photography with mobile phones and digital cameras | Phil Piper et al. |
| 21st November 2024 | How did we get to know the age of the Universe? | Terry Tucker |
| 19th December 2024 | Members' talks | Various |
| 16th January 2025 | How special is the solar system | Colin Stuart |
| 20th February 2025 | Vera Rubin Observatory | Dave Shave Wall |
| 20th March 2025 | Quasars and Spectroscopy | Jen Gupta |
| 24th April 2025 | Scientific Imaging | Gavin James |
| 18th September 2025 | Namibia | Mark Radice |
| 16th October 2025 | Astronomical Oddities | Tony Roberts |
| 20th November 2025 | The life and work of William Huggins | Hugh Allen |
| 18th December 2025 | Members' talks | Various |
| 15th January 2026 | Cosmology & Particle Physics | Dr Andy Watson |
| 19th February 2026 | Mars: sixty years of space exploration | Dr Mike Leggett FRAS FBIS |
| 19th March 2026 | TBA | TBA |
| 16th April 2026 | Annual General Meeting | TBA |