Hampshire Area - Advice for Newbies on their Telescope

[philf]

Hi

Just thought I'd let you know that HantsAstro hold quarterly sessions for people who want to get into astronomy or have stumbled across a telescoe in the attic and want to know how to use it. These sessions are enormously helpful and FREE. They're followed by a (paid for if you want to attend this bit) planetarium show to see whats in the night sky and, weather permitting, a viewing session allowing peole people without a telescope a view to see what they are missing.

The planetarium show is presented by Pete Lawrence and Niniam Boyle from S@N and costs £ 6.

Feedback from one of last years shows was:

"This has been an exceptional opportunity to get good advice and guidance to use a telescope and fuel interest in astronomy. Brilliant evening. Do it again"

"I thought it was all very good - especially the chaps showing us the telescopes! They were great and full of knowledge"

"Excellent night and very interesting"

"Would be great to run this even 4 times a year - to show highlights of each season"

"Excellent evening - thanks"

"There were star constellations that I hadn't even heard of, now I can boast at how I can see Orion"

"I loved it! Wooo!"

Intech, near Winchester, is one of the dark sky sites used by HantsAstro and so the views can be good.

For more info go to http://www.intech-uk.com/folders/planetarium/special_event__telescope_amnesty.cfm or http://www.hantsastro.org/intechintro01.html.

Regards

Phil

[Leegsi]

Me and my family are off there tomorrow.

We are all really looking forward to it.

[philf]

Mmmmm - I thin kI will be too and they can run me through my new toy - see you there

Phil

[eccentric]

Can't believe ive only just found out about this, im so gutted to have missed it! any idea roughly when they may be doing another?

[Leegsi]

I think they are planing an observing session at Butser Ancient Farm: www.hantsastro.org/butserintro01.html

[philf]

The telescope amnesty is a quarterly event so in 3 months time - there are regular observing sessions (next is in about 2 weeks) - we use butser which has a light reading of minus 20 so fairly dark, we use the patio at intech which is also fairly dark and we have a new site in the new forest which, being in the new forest, also has much promise for dark skies.

The planned observing dates are in the "Look Up" magazine if you want to plan ahead.

If you attend an observing session you can use the groups scopes or, if you bring yours along, get one to one help with it. Intech attendance is free as we piggy back their insurance - Butser is free the first time you attend and then £ 4 / session to cover the insurance or, if you like the group, £ 25 / year. As the new forest is a new site I'm not sure whether that will be free to attend or not. As you can see, no membership fee's but pay as you go so if you dont like the group you're ot committed to a large spend and if you only come along once in a blue moon then it doesnt cost a lot. Membership of the society is also free.

Hope this helps

Phil

[Leegsi]

HantsAstro now have a video review on the site from the night: www.hantsastro.org/index.html

[Woodsey65]

Hello! Sorry I haven't been on SGL for ages!!! Been a bit busy as you can see and I hope you enjoyed the video. We love doing the Telescope Amnesty.

We'll be doing them again later in the year. Summer Solar events are currently in progress.

In the meantime, our free sessions at INTECH will be focusing on getting you to improve your knowledge on using a telescope and finding some stuff in the night sky. See the website for more details.

The ClearSkies Panel on the right side of our web pages use a simple traffic light system. As a member we also keep in touch be e-mail.

The weather recently has been a bit rubbish but we try to meet every fortnight at INTECH and once a month at Butser Ancient Farm. We now have extra dates so we can get a better chance to access these sites during clear nights.

The New Forest observing is also being set up too, as our third place of star worship!

It's free to join our Group and we have recently expanded our free eZine to 24 pages. Check it out! We're about to launch a quarterly directory too, so you can find your nearest group or star party in the South... busy, eh?

I'll be on SGL a bit more to help out, now the Group has some really great CoreTeam members to share the load with, and things are settling down a bit.

It's our first birthday next month.

Doesn't time fly when you're having fun!

See you soon.

Dave