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
Christmas meeting – social, member talks, quiz, and more
Thursday 19th December 2024 at 7:30 pm
At the Hurstbourne Tarrant Community Centre
NGC2264 Christmas Tree Cluster by Mike Cranfield
As usual there will be food and drink, a couple of short talks from our members, other activities and time to chat, eat and drink. The society will provide some bread, cheese and a selection of beverages for all. If you’d like to bring along some extras such as mince pies, savouries, drinks etc. to share that would be very welcome.
This is an opportunity for members to give a five- or ten-minute talk on anything astronomy related – what you’ve seen, new things you’ve done, tips and tricks, laptop and phone apps you use.
So far we have:
- What to see in the Christmas Sky
- An astronomical quiz
- An astronomy themed reading
- A five-minute video by Professor Jim Al-Khalili – why is the night sky dark?
- Tracking Santa Claus on Christmas Eve – the view from space
- A “bring and buy” table
- A rolling display of member’s 2024 Astronomy photos
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 | To be confirmed | 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 |