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GAS AGM - 3 July 2008

By James Wilhelm

This session's AGM had more to offer of interest to members than ever before.

Before the break - AGM business

The first order of business was accepting the minutes of the last AGM.

John Evans, the GAS President, then gave the President's report. It was John's first year as president. This year's summer barbeque will be held at Paul Daniels' place on Sunday 6 July. A survey was carried out of GAS members' interests, skills and what they expect from the Society. This showed a wide range of experience and interest among members. In the last year several successful training sessions were held at Holmbury by Chris Hopper and John Evans. Ted Dodman also presented an introductory astronomy course for beginners which was well received. All training was very popular among members. A trip was held to the Southdowns Planetarium which was well attended. The GAS summer outing was a skittles evening on 19 June. John mentioned that an SSTL cleanroom visit will be arranged in the coming year.

Holmbury renovations are in full swing. An Observatory Management Team has been formed to move forward Observatory work.

Meetings will be held at the Guildford Institute for the foreseeable future. Membership has increased to 105 from 78 this time last year. GAS has also been involved in a considerable number of outreach programs in the past year.

On the publications and website side, Peter Dean is doing a good job on Skywatcher. The website needs more content and the hope is that this will improve in the coming year.

Matthew has acquired new material at Astrofest and from other sources for the library. Please have a look at the next meeting.

Two articles about GAS have appeared in Astronomy Now in the last few months.

The President then concluded his report by thanking members and the committee for their enthusiasm in the past year.

Bob Peake (Health and Safety) then gave an update on Health and Safety at the Holmbury Observatory. He reminded us that it is everyone's responsibility to be safe and be aware of the environment at Holmbury.

Ted Dodman (Treasurer) then gave the Treasurer's report. The Society's finances are in a good state. Membership fees will remain at their current levels. It has been agreed by members that GAS will continue is subscription to FAS and SAGAS.

John Axtell (Secretary) then gave the Secretary's report. He gave a summary of the speakers and topics for the next session (2008-2009). With two exceptions, all speaker slots have been filled for the next session. The next speaker will be Owen Brazell and his topic is "Observing Supernova Remnants". John also mentioned the tour of SSTL in the coming year. John is liasing with Stuart Eves of SSTL to arrange the tour and the cleanroom visit.

Next year is the International Year of Astronomy. John mentioned several potential outreach programs in cooperation with other Astronomical Societies.

In conclusion, John Axtell thanked John Evans for his work during his first year as President.

Next on the agenda was changes to the constitution. These were agreed to by an overwhelming majority of the membership.

Last item on the agenda before the break was election of committee members for the 2008-2009 session. Nine committee members were re-elected and three members were newly elected to the committee.

Break

The usual coffee, tea, biscuits and chocolate. John Axtell took photos of all committee members. These photos will be shown during the break at each meeting for the benefit of new members.

After the break

Two speakers gave short talks.

Stuart Rusby - "Astrophotography using a DSLR camera"

Astrophotography using a DSLR has the following advantages:

• Easy to use.
• Relatively inexpensive second hand lenses available.
• Can be used for non-astronomical photos by the rest of the family.

It does have the following disadvantages:

• Reduced sensitivity compared to 'proper' digital astrophotography equipment.
• Bayer colour filter cannot be removed.

A DSLR can be used for H-alpha with the correct filter.

The following is needed:

• Low noise, light weight camera like Canon 350D, 400D or 450D
• Good mount and guiding system.
• Good telescope.
• Good software - Stuart suggest using MaxDSLR, ImagesPlus and Photoshop.

Stuart uses a Borg 101mm refractor with 70mm guide scope. He calibrates for white balance by using a white wall in diffuse sunlight.

Filters are available that will fit to a DSLR.

Stuart discussed the advantages of using a high ISO number (1600).

He then showed some really nice pictures he took. He made several high quality prints of his pictures available for sale, the funds raised going as a donation to GAS. Thanks, Stuart!

Finally, Stuart suggested a book by Jerry Lodriguss - "A Guide to Astrophotography with Digital SLR Cameras". This is available from www.astropix.com.

Peter Chance - "My Astroshed - and its remote operation"

Peter has a telescope/camera combination in his observatory in his garden, which he operates remotely from his study. He noted the convenience of the combination of CCD imaging and remote control.

Peter's observatory consists of:

• A wooden shed with roll-off roof.
• A one tonne concrete block to which the telescope mount is bolted.
• A Takahashi Sky-90 for imaging with a Sky-60 as the guide scope.
• Remote control facility for the mount, telescope and camera - all connected via USB to a hub in the shed.

When Peter sets up for an observing session, he takes his laptop the shed and plugs it into the USB hub, giving him instant control of all systems. He then plugs the laptop into a network connection to make it accessible from the study for remote control.

Peter's observing position in his study is really nice. It consists of a computer with two screens. One screen shows the remote login to the laptop in the shed (using Windows Remote Desktop). Peter uses Maxim to control everything in the shed. Maxim is displayed on the remote login screen, showing camera, telescope and drive status and will sound an alarm should certain parameters go out of range (mechanical fault or stars fading from view). On the second screen, Peter runs Astroplanner, an observing planning tool. Peter also uses TheSky6, which shows what the telescope should see in its field of view.

To round it off, Peter showed us some nice pictures he took with this setup.

To conclude a busy AGM, John Axtell gave his usual "What's-up" roundup of the night sky for the next month, as well as upcoming astronomical meetings.