Late Summer Observing - 9th Sept 2010

We had 4 hours of clear skies at Vallum farm. It was well attended by a dozen members. Check out Brian Sidney's image in the yahoo group photo section.

Solar Observing Day - 30th Aug 2010

This was a very successfully & sunny day at Tom's new observatory. Some general photos can be seen here:- http://www.flickr.com/photos/55degreesnorth/sets/72157624716908795/

6th June Local Societies Meeting 2009

The meeting notes can be downloaded from here http://www.newcastleastronomical.org.uk/docs/local.doc

The talk given by Professor Stephenson about the history of NAS is available here http://www.newcastleastronomical.org.uk/docs/history.doc

16-Feb-09 Change to programme

There has been a change to the programme. Dr. Muir is not able to make the April meeting and so his lecture, What you see is what you get, will now take place on March 19th 2009. The telescope meeting has been re-scheduled and will now take place on April 23rd 2009.

09-Feb-09 Extra talk

Added a new talk to the meetings page - "From musician to world-class astronomer", a reflection upon William Herschel's contribution to modern astronomy. The talk will take place on 26th February 2009 at 5:30pm in the Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building, Newcastle University.

12-Jan-09 Committee web page

Following a request from members of the society, I've added a page detailing the members of the committee and their current duties.

06-Jan-09 Additional lecture and IYA Mini-Astro lecture series

A couple of additional lectures added:

• 18-Jan-09 "Cosmic Rays and Global Warming", Sir Arnold Wolfendale, WWT Trust, Sunderland (organised by Sunderland A.S.)
• 02-Apr-09 to 07-May-09 "Mini-Astro Series", various speakers, "Centre for Life", Newcastle. (organised as part of IYA events)

26-Nov-08 Christmas Special at Life Centre

The Life Science Centre in Newcastle has a special offer in December that may be of interest to members. Their new show, Chistmas Star, examines the facts surrounding the Christmas Star story - was it a comet or a supernova? A star or a UFO? Myth or miracle?

The Christmas Star Dome Show runs at regular intervals every day from December 1st, and an adults-only special offer is available from 3 pm on Monday 1st, 8th and 15th of December. Firstly, you can see the planetarium show at a discounted price of just £5. Furthermore, sweet mince pies and hot drinks will be offered after the performance, and there will be time to explore the Centre's other exhibitions including Inside DNA. Please note that you must pre-book by calling 0191 243 8223.

Several members of the society have already expressed an interest in this event. If you would like to join in the fun then please book mark this page and check back regularly for any future updates. Better still, why not join the society's mailing list. Click on the newsgroup item in the menu on the left.

14-Nov-08 Minutes 23-Oct-08 added

The minutes of the meeting of 23-Oct-08 have been added to the meetings section.

To keep up-to-date with developments, please bookmark this site and check back regularly.

10-Nov-08 International Year of Astronomy

The International Year of Astronomy will soon be upon us, and Newcastle Astronomical Society is planning a series of exciting and thought-provoking events to tie in with this major world-wide celebration. We're also working with other local societies to ensure that there are plenty of activities for beginners and experienced observers alike.

To keep up-to-date with developments, please bookmark this site and check back regularly.

27-Oct-08 Site Updates

Major changes to this site to incorporate Server Side Includes and to ensure that pages display properly on older browsers.

11-Sep-08 Updates

The calendar for the 2008/2009 Lecture season has been uploaded. Look under the Meetings page.

A new promotional poster available for download from here

An RSS feed from the society's newsgroup, newcastle_astro, is now available from the newsgroup page.

The original contact form has been restored, complete with the latest hacker busting fixes.

07-Jul-08 New Society Newsletter Launched

Committee members Simon Murray and David Hughes have produced a pilot version of a new society newsletter. The society would be grateful if both members and non-members could download the document and let us know what you think of it.

You can download the newsletter here or click on the images on the right.

Comments can be sent to: skinmechanix@infectionmusic.com"

29-Mar-08 Professor John Brown Lecture: Pictures added

I've added some pictures taken during and after the lecture given by Professor Brown, Astronomer Royal for Scotland on March 20th 2008. They're under the Events section.

29-Feb-08 Link to the newsgroup

I have restored the link to the Yahoo newsgroup, newcastle_astro, which appears to have been clobbered during the site revamp last year.

The newsgroup is free to join and forms an invaluable resource for information and advance notice of forthcoming astronomical events. The newsgroup is restricted to members only and is also strongly moderated to prevent abuse by spammers. Anyone posting spam will be life-banned not only from the newsgroup but also from this site too and may well be the centre attraction at the forthcoming midsummer barbeque.

Spammers beware. :)

26-Feb-08 Changes to lecture programme

We are sorry to report that the lecture by David Hyde on 13th March 2008 has been cancelled.

18-Jan-08 Changes to lecture programme

There are two changes to the lecture programme for 2007/2008. These are:

The lecture by Prof J C Brown has been re-scheduled for 20th March 2008.

In it's place, there will be a star party at Vallum Farm on 28th February 2008.

07-Dec-07 Telescope meeting

Last night's Telescope Meeting was very well attended and bodes well for the future. The committee would like to thank all those members who braved the fairly unpleasant weather and especially to those members who brought telescopes and other equipment for the display. The feedback from those who atteneded was very positive and the general feeling was that we should organise more of these events next year.

22-Oct-07 2007/2008 Calendar Changes

Please note the following changes to the lecture schedule.

1) The Joint Meeting with the Institute of Physics will be at 6.30pm on Wednesday 5th December (Not November 15th) and will be given by Professor Colin Pillinger. The subject will be the Beagle 2 mission to Mars.

2) The meeting on 21st February 2008 has been moved to the 14th February 2008. This is the talk by Professor Brown, Astonomer Royal for Scotland.

29-Aug-07 2007/2008 Calendar Uploaded

The promotional poster for 2007/2008 is now available for viewing here. This is a big JPEG file, around 600Kb.

20-Aug-07 2007/2008 Calendar Uploaded

I have uploaded the 2007/2008 Calendar of events to the meetings page. Some of the lectures have yet to be confirmed though these should be available within the next week or so.

16-Aug-07 Major facelift to web pages

The web pages have been given a major facelift. Some of the links may not work and areas of text may require a bit of attention. If you find something that doesn't look right then please let us know.

15-Aug-07 Forum to close

The society's web forum, http://newcastleastro.informe.com, will close at the end of the month. The committee felt that it was not being used properly and that they were unable to control the contents properly. Most of the important sections have gone already and the remaining sections will disappear at the end of the month.

The Yahoo Newsgroup will remain open for the forseeable future.

28th March 2007: Telescope meeting

Some images from the recent telescope meeting, held on Thursday 22nd March 2007.

Graham Fraser and laptop	Alasdair Charles, relaxing
David Hughes with Camera Lens	It's here somewhere, honest...