Rugby & District AS sent in a write up of their Dark Sky Discovery night on the 21st October (below). There have been many DSD events taking place across the country and keep your eyes open for others.
As astronomers based in Britain we are used to a bit of adversity in our events, but in Church Lawford we had to contend with cloudy skies and the closure of the main road into the village where we hold our meetings-and despite the closure having been in place for the day no diversionary routes were signposted, meaning members and guests arrived over the course of two hours.
Despite this we had nearly a dozen new faces along to find out about the association and it’s activities. Some had come from adult education courses run by Jo Jarvis, our chair, and others from Sarah Meek and David Morris’ leafleting of the village, the leaflets being paid for by a grant from the Federation Of Astronomical Societies.
We had some displays showing the basic and advanced equipment available, slideshows of astronomical images and most importantly the tea, coffee and donuts.
Chris Longthorn kicked off the talks with Sky Notes and images from the members, then Jo Jarvis gave her introduction to stellar evolution ‘The Life Of A Star’, followed by David Morris with a talk he wasn’t planning to give; a quick look at the history of astroimaging, some of which involved needlepoint, then Roger Jackson wrapped things up with the trials and tribulations of photographing the Northern Lights with a bit of dog sledging thrown in.
After the main talks visitors were free to talk to the speakers and ask questions about what R&DAS get up to and astronomy in general. We signed up two new members on the night with more promising to come back. We hope to arrange some clear skies and unblocked roads in the near future.