Winchester Weekend, Sparsholt, April 2016

[Alan Dowdell]

Just think of the non returnable fees we paid to organise two comets for Nick, a suspect  variable star for Gary, a high moon  for Bill , Venus for Paul .Along  with clear skies and warm weather (possible sun spot as  well).

To do this again for 2021 I hope we don’t have cut the budget and return to Martin’s simpler program  of events.

Alan

[Martin Mobberley]

At the 1975 Winchester Weekend the evening skies were clear and there were queues of people waiting to look through telescopes. There was even a short queue for my 60mm Dixons Prinz refractor! The longest queues were for a long 4-inch refractor on an EQ mount, brought along on someone’s roof rack, Henry Hatfield’s 3.5-inch Questar, and the college’s 10-inch AE Newtonian inside a dome. All these instruments were pointed at the same object…Saturn. I attach the ‘Sky Notes’ sheet stapled to my 1975 WW agenda. Also, some time ago a BAA member, Pete Shimmon, sent me (via his brother) 4 pics he had taken at King Alfred’s College during WWs in the 1970s. I recognise Henry Hatfield and Howard Miles but am not sure about anyone else. Two of the pics were taken in the canteen…. All the pics are attached.

Martin 

[Gary Poyner]

Ahh.  Those were the days.   Thanks for sharing Martin.

Gary

[Gary Poyner]

I wouldn’t be against a simpler Winchester, but I don’t think you could do it now.  When I first started attending in the 1970’s amateur astronomy was much simpler (and some would argue, much more fun).  There was a more ‘hands on’ approach, where someone might take a cardboard tube and a greasy shaving mirror and end up with a visual observation of some astronomical object, or perhaps construct an observatory from old pallets etc. (I helped a friend do this.  The observatory lasted years!).  The majority of conversations at Winchester (before the bar) were about what we saw through our instruments, and we didn’t need computers to locate these objects in the clear skies we sometimes had at the old King Alfred’s college.  Yes indeed, those were the days! 🙂

Although I enjoy attending astronomical meetings they can and do get very ‘samey’.  All high tech, expensive kit, satellites and professional astronomers etc.  But perhaps that’s for another discussion.

Gary

[Alan Dowdell]

Martin’s  photos. The first is Geof Buss? Wasn’t  he involved  with the Lunar section . The next looks like Pete Seiden. Could be other figure in the group photo could be Mr Vince .

I built a camera mount like that in those days.Thats what you did. Buying was not really possible. 

.

We reintroduced the sky notes a few years back but it slipped  of the programme.

Thanks 

Alan 

[Martin Mobberley]

Geoff Buss seems like a very good fit Alan. I certainly remember now that he did look like that when he replaced Phil Ringsdore as BAA Lunar Sec Circulars Editor in 1973. I recall talking to him at an Ipswich Lunar Sec meeting around that time. In my mind he looked a bit older than he looks there, but then he would to a 15 year old! I can see the Seiden resemblance too. Can’t recall what Mr Vince looked like. My first thought was maybe Howard was talking to H.Robert Mills…the Stonehenge enthusiast?

Martin

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