Report by Geoff Regan
On the 20th March we celebrated 5 years at Pex Hill and to mark this event we had an open day and evening at Pex Hill. Over 200 members of the public turned up over the whole day. There were enterained with views through members telescopes of the Sun and slide shows in the classroom. Dave Galvin, showed weather satellite images on the society 486 computer. Steve Southern, used a computer projection system to show members of the public what to look out for in the night sky, and Eric Jones gave a talk on the August 11th Eclipse.
LAS member Dave Forshaw used his C5 Celestron with a 1000 Oaks Sun filter to show the Sun. Dave also did a talk which he titled The Restless Sky. Tony Williams did a talk and slide show about his recent visit to COAA in Portugal, my personal favourite image was M46 which is an open cluster in Puppis. This open cluster contains a planetary Nebula near its Northern Edge.
Juan Rivero demonstrates Solar Observations
Dave Owen showed members of the public the 16 inch Roberson reflector. Juan Rivero brought his 6 inch F6 Reflector on a Vixen mount with a Sky sensor. Chris Spyrou also brought his 8-inch Meade LX200 which he used with a Mylar filter to observe the Sun. Colm Jackson also brought along his computer and showed off his very impressive Space Art. Rob Johnson set up his Starlight Express CCD Camera and showed members of the public how CCD imaging is done.
In the evening we were let down by the weather and unfortunately we were not able to use the telescopes, but thankfully it did not rain and the barbecue went really well for those of us who cooked the food properly. Because of the weather the evening schedule relied heavy on talks and slide shows.
Chris Spyrou’s 8-inch Meade LX200
On a personal note I would like to thank all LAS members who helped on the day and give a special thanks to my wife Beverly without who’s understanding I would not be able to do these events.
©LAS/Geoff Regan
All images © David Galvin
Many Thanks to everyone for helped to make it an enjoyable day.
Geoff Regan, LAS Director of the Observatory