Webb Society 50th anniversary meeting

[Guest]

The Webb society (www.webbdeepsky.com) is holding its 50th anniversary meeting at the IOA in Cambridge on Saturday 3rd June. The main speaker will be the worlds leading visual deep sky observer in Steve Gottlieb, probably the only person to have seen the whole of the NGC catalogue. Details of the program can be found on the socities web site. All welcome, especially the Dob Mob :-)

 

Regards

 

Owen

[AstroNinja]

Since joining the Web Society in 2011, I have always enjoyed the Webb meetings, and am looking forward to this 50th Anniversary one.  Steve Gottlieb is one of the foremost deep Sky observers and as Owen says, probably the only person to have seen the entire NGC catalogue.  

A very entertaining and interesting day and well worth attending for those interested in deep sky observing.

Jon

 

[callump]

This should be a really good meeting - looking forward to it.

/callump

[FenlandPaul]

This was a great day out.  Very interesting speakers with a nice breadth of material; personal highlights for me were Bernhard Hubl's talk on his imaging trips to Chile (I'm in no way an imager, and this talk confirmed I'm unlikely ever to have the attention to detail to be one!!) and Steve Gottlieb's talk on deep sky challenges for larger telescopes.  I'm pretty sure that most of us, with the possible exception of the nice German chap I met who regularly used his 36" dobsonian from the Bavarian Alps, went home with some serious aperture fever.

Exhibitors were few, although the Webb Society's own excellent book stall relieved me of a hefty sum for some great volumes.  Green Witch, the BAA, the SHA and IAS were there as well.  CUP were meant to be there, which I was looking forward to, but apparently the wrong boxes of stock were shipped to the venue (which was less than 2 mile from CUP HQ!) so their stall was never set up; that was a shame for anyone who wanted to purchase Wolfgang Steineke's interesting book on cataloguing nebulae, although of course it's available directly from CUP as well.

This was the 50th anniversary meeting, and the attendees were treated to a rather fine celebratory cake baked by Mrs Argyle - it looked and tasted fantastic.

Overall a lovely day; I didn't manage to meet any new SGLers but I know some others were there too.

Paul

[melsmore]

Yep, thoroughly enjoyed all the talks. Highlights for me were the lecture on Cosmology and the film on the Herschels. I bought a copy of Admiral William H. Smyth "The Bedford Catalogue" to join Webb and Burnham ?

[callump]

Yes, was a very enjoyable day - congrats to the organisers.

/callump

[jkwhinfrey]

Thanks for the kind words everyone ? It was fun from the other side of the sales stand too.

I enjoyed the opportunity to meet lots of new people and sell lots of books to Paul. I also know where the last Bedford Catalogue went now, and you beat the other two people asking about it melsmore! It was a shame about CUP though.

We hope to keep the standard high next year and see you all again.

James

[jambouk]

Annual Meeting 2018

The date is Saturday the 2^nd of June 2018 at our normal venue: the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge. There's no need to book in advance. Member or not, you're all welcome to turn up on the day.

 https://www.webbdeepsky.com/annual-meeting/

[Guest]

The list of speakers for the Webb meeting is now up on the web site, although we are still working on the running order.

 

Owen

[FenlandPaul]

It looks like such an excellent lineup, Owen.  I was very much hoping to come again this year, but realised last week that I am on holiday that Saturday.  Very mixed emotions about that!!

I've been really enjoying the Astrodessin book that Yann contributed to; it's been a challenge working through it (school French has had a thorough dusting off) but it's an excellent work - somehow more poetic in the French as well!

Hope it's a great day.