2024/2025 RAS Programme.
Monthly Main Meeting.
Sept 21st 2024 7 pm
St Peter’s Church Hall
This will be a physical meeting in the hall with remote access via ZOOM. Non-members, having enjoyed the talk, donate £5 via online banking:
Reading Astronomical Society: Sort code: 60-17-21: Account No: 54137268
Guest Speaker: Peter Campbell-Burns UK meteor observing network (UKMON)
TThe UK Meteor Network (UKMON) is a UK-wide network of observers collating data on meteor and fireball occurrences. Peter will explain the important scientific objectives and latest data-capturing techniques.
This month’s Outreach meeting will be held on Friday 27th at 1st Wokingham Scout Hut. Weather permitting we will have 2 short talks followed by observing the sky through telescopes. Please bring coats as it may get chilly. See the FridayCLUB page for more details. It would be great to see you there.
Monthly Main Meeting.
Oct 19 2024 7 pm
St Peter’s Church Hall
This will be a physical meeting in the hall with remote access via ZOOM. Non-members, having enjoyed the talk, donate £5 via online banking:
Reading Astronomical Society: Sort code: 60-17-21: Account No: 54137268
Guest Speaker : Dr Lillian Hobbs FRAS – Astronomy Using a Phone or a Tablet
Portable devices now allow us to do astronomy in entirely new ways, unencumbered by expensive or heavy equipment. Dr Hobbs is an amateur astronomer, astrophotographer and author.
This month’s Outreach meeting will be held on Friday 25th at 1st Wokingham Scout Hut. Weather permitting we will have 2 short talks followed by observing the sky through telescopes. Please bring coats as it may get chilly. See the FridayCLUB page for more details. It would be great to see you there.
Monthly Main Meeting.
Nov 16 2024 7pm
St Peter’s Church Hall
This will be a physical meeting in the hall with remote access via ZOOM. Non-members, having enjoyed the talk, donate £5 via online banking:
Reading Astronomical Society: Sort code: 60-17-21: Account No: 54137268
Guest Speaker: – Danny Thomas (Farnham AS and SAGAS Secretary) – 3D Constellations
Danny wrote his own software to take the stellar coordinates of stars from surveys of our galaxy and model the constellations. Using this, he can spin the constellations around and see how they look from a sideways viewpoint and animate how they change over time. He uses the software to tell a story of the well known Northern and Southern hemisphere constellations including names of stars, mythology and moving groups.
This month’s Outreach meeting will be held on Friday 22nd at 1st Wokingham Scout Hut. Weather permitting we will have 2 short talks followed by observing the sky through telescopes. Please bring coats as it may get chilly. See the FridayCLUB page for more details. It would be great to see you there.
Email info@readingastro.org.uk or text 07510444630 for further information.
Please ignore information at gostargazing(dot)com.
Christmas Social Evening.
Dec 14 2024 7 pm
St Peter’s Church Hall
This social evening is not suitable for zoom connection. Resuming this service next month.
RAS Christmas Special
Members will show their latest equipment and software, with quiz, raffle and a Christmas buffet.
This month’s Outreach meeting will be held on Friday 27th at 1st Wokingham Scout Hut. Weather permitting we will have 2 short talks followed by observing the sky through telescopes. Please bring coats as it may get chilly. See the FridayCLUB page for more details. It would be great to see you there.
Email info@readingastro.org.uk or text 07510444630 for further information.
Please ignore information at gostargazing(dot)com.
Monthly Main Meeting.
Jan 18 2025 7 pm
St Peter’s Church Hall
This will be a physical meeting in the hall with remote access via ZOOM. Non-members, having enjoyed the talk, donate £5 via online banking:
Reading Astronomical Society: Sort code: 60-17-21: Account No: 54137268
Guest Speaker – Members Talks
Title of talks – A miscellany of short talks by Reading AS members. Subjects varied and TBS! – If you would like to give a talk please let us know
This month’s Outreach meeting will be held on Friday 24th at 1st Wokingham Scout Hut. Weather permitting we will have 2 short talks followed by observing the sky through telescopes. Please bring coats as it may get chilly. See the FridayCLUB page for more details. It would be great to see you there.
Email info@readingastro.org.uk or text 07510444630 for further information.
Please ignore information at gostargazing(dot)com.
OPEN DAY
National Astronomy Week Open Day
February Sunday 9th 2025
A day for celebration of Astronomy.
12:30 to 17:30
NATIONAL ASTRONOMY WEEK 2025 – details to follow
Monthly Main Meeting.
Feb 15 2025 7 pm
St Peter’s Church Hall
This will be a physical meeting in the hall with remote access via ZOOM. Non-members, having enjoyed the talk, donate £5 via online banking:
Reading Astronomical Society: Sort code: 60-17-21: Account No: 54137268
Society Speaker – Brian Skidmore (RAS ) – The Power of Gravity
The Power Of Gravity – How gravity – despite being by far the weakest of the 4 forces – produces Nature’s most powerful events.
This month’s Outreach meeting will be held on Friday 28th at 1st Wokingham Scout Hut. Weather permitting we will have 2 short talks followed by observing the sky through telescopes. Please bring coats as it may get chilly. See the FridayCLUB page for more details. It would be great to see you there.
Email info@readingastro.org.uk or text 07510444630 for further information.
Please ignore information at gostargazing(dot)com.
Monthly Main Meeting.
Mar 15 2025 7 pm
St Peter’s Church Hall
Guest Speaker – Neil Phillipson (Science communicator) – Mankind’s Next Big Leap
This will be a physical meeting in the hall with remote access via ZOOM. Non-members, having enjoyed the talk, donate £5 via online banking:
Reading Astronomical Society: Sort code: 60-17-21: Account No: 54137268
Title of talk– Mankind’s Next Big Leap
“Neil explains the incredible achievements of the post-Moon era – showing how the vast body of work the scientific community has done since the Moon landings has led us to the moment when we shall, at last, become a space-faring civilisation, ready to explore and colonise the Solar System and beyond – bringing vast benefits to Earth and transforming society for the better. He presents a bold vision of a better future – one in which innovation and progress flourish while war, poverty, illness and hunger are finally relegated to history”
This month’s Outreach meeting will be held on Friday 28th at 1st Wokingham Scout Hut. Weather permitting we will have 2 short talks followed by observing the sky through telescopes. Please bring coats as it may get chilly. See the FridayCLUB page for more details. It would be great to see you there.
Placeholder for outreach
Email info@readingastro.org.uk or text 07510444630 for further information.
Please ignore information at gostargazing(dot)com.
Monthly Main Meeting.
Apr 12th 2025 7 pm – Note 2nd Friday, due to Easter
St Peter’s Church Hall
This will be a physical meeting in the hall with remote access via ZOOM. Non-members, having enjoyed the talk, donate £5 via online banking:
Reading Astronomical Society: Sort code: 60-17-21: Account No: 54137268
Guest Speaker – Danny Owen (University of Surrey) – NOVEL DESIGNS FOR SPACE MISSIONS
Title of talk – NOVEL DESIGNS FOR SPACE MISSIONS
Just as sat-nav did away with the need to argue over the best route home, scientists from the Surrey Space Centre have developed a new method to find the optimal routes for future space missions without the need to waste fuel.
This month’s Outreach meeting will be held on Friday 25th at 1st Wokingham Scout Hut. Weather permitting we will have 2 short talks followed by observing the sky through telescopes. Please bring coats as it may get chilly. See the FridayCLUB page for more details. It would be great to see you there.
Email info@readingastro.org.uk or text 07510444630 for further information.
Please ignore information at gostargazing(dot)com.
Monthly Main Meeting.
May 17 2025 7 pm
St Peter’s Church Hall
This will be a physical meeting in the hall with remote access via ZOOM. Non-members, having enjoyed the talk, donate £5 via online banking:
Reading Astronomical Society: Sort code: 60-17-21: Account No: 54137268
Guest Speaker Hugh Allen
Sir William Huggins, the Victorian Pioneer of Astronomical Spectroscopy. The talk is a celebration of William’s life and work, and also of the contribution of his wife and scientific collaborator Margaret Huggins. By using extracts from William and Margaret’s scientific papers and correspondence, and illustrated with some of the speaker’s own astronomical spectra,
Hugh is an industrial chemist with a lifelong interest in amateur astronomy. He is Chairman of the Wells & Mendip Astronomers and a member of the Herschel Society, and is a regular speaker keen to share a passion for astronomical spectroscopy.
This month’s Outreach meeting will be held on Friday 23rd at 1st Wokingham Scout Hut. Weather permitting we will have 2 short talks followed by observing the sky through telescopes. Please bring coats as it may get chilly. See the FridayCLUB page for more details. It would be great to see you there.
Email info@readingastro.org.uk or text 07510444630 for further information.
Please ignore information at gostargazing(dot)com.
Monthly Main Meeting and AGM
Jun 21 2025 7 pm
St Peter’s Church Hall
Last year’s entry repeated probably
This will be a physical meeting in the hall with remote access via ZOOM. Non-members, having enjoyed the talk, donate £5 via online banking:
Reading Astronomical Society: Sort code: 60-17-21: Account No: 54137268
RAS Speaker – Kenelm England – Astronomical Centenaries for 2025
Kenelm England (FRAS), an amateur astronomer with an interest in astronomical history, a longtime member of the Reading AS.
Title of Talk – Anniversaries in “2025”. Kenelm England (Reading AS and historian)Kenelm’s annual look at notable astronomical and scientific anniversaries in years ending “25”Plus 54th Annual General Meeting
This month’s Outreach meeting will be held on Friday 28th at 1st Wokingham Scout Hut. Weather permitting we will have 2 short talks followed by observing the sky through telescopes. Please bring coats as it may get chilly. See the FridayCLUB page for more details. It would be great to see you therePlaceholder for outreach
A Sunday 22 or 29th June 2025
1200-1800
EAST READING FESTIVAL Palmer Park
Reading Astronomical Society stand.
Exhibition and solar observing.
We will be attending this annual local event with our telescopes suitably filtered for safe observing of sunspots and other activity on our local star.