2000 August 5th
It has been a few years since the Wessex Astronomical Society had held an all day conference and the location of the Manor of Leeson House Field Studies Centre made a wonderful setting for our Sun & Moon Day. After an initial cloudy start, by lunchtime the sky had cleared we were treated to a day of unbroken sunshine and a clear night to follow for the BBQ and Star Party. Peter Kemp kicked off the proceedings with a great introductory talk on observing the sun in white light, using a Thousand Oaks filter and Meade LX 200. He illuminated his talk with many fine disk drawings showing us how remarkably quickly sun spots change their appearance over a matter of a few tens of hours. Next, Bill Wakefield followed with an entertaining talk covering a wide range of subjects ranging from a give-away offer of a mercury reflecting telesope, to demonstration of a camera obscura (later to be auctioned off and purchased by yours truly). He culminated in a fine talk on observing the sun with a 0.5 angstrom h-alpha filter demonstrated with great views of solar prominences.
After lunch we had a useful hour browsing the
Springer Verlag bookstall, and also the various trade stands on offer.
Venturescope had also come along to demonstrate the fine Coronado telescope,
which was giving amazing views of prominences. This image was captured
on Rob Hatch's camcorder but does not do it justice. Green's photographic
were also present demonstrating their Meade range of telescopes. Peter
Kemp had his LX200 set up for sunspot viewing as did Bill Wakefield demonstrating
h-alpha viewing through a Lyot filter which was specifically grown in Earth
orbit! Talks resumed in the afternoon with more nocturnal activities. Bob
Mizon gave us a great talk on observing the Aurora supplemented with some
fine photos taken during the bright display on April 6th this year.
With the day now waning we turned our attention
the the Moon and Colin Pither rounded off the afternoon session with a
talk on observing the moon, with a fine demonstration of how to observe
and draw various lunar features from craters, domes to TLPs.
We then adjourned to Worth Hill Observatory for
an evening BBQ and Public Star Party. At sunset Bob Mizon gave his customary
talk on observing the summer sky to a throng of about 120 visitors and
we began observing in earnest showing folks the delights of the sky.
Colin did a great job of identifying lunar
features to an audience in the portacabin with a video feed of the
moon which I piped from the observatory. Thanks to Dave Brown, Peter
Kemp and Stephen Adams (17" Dob) amongst others for bringing along their
scopes. I have had many messages of thanks from members of the public to
quote but one: "Your team are so kind and patient with visitors and generous
in the dissemination of their encyclopaedic knowledge". Many thanks to
all WAS members who made our Sun and Moon Day such a success.
