Just a reminder of what to look forward to in 2021 - group photo
Pauline Phillips, Newbury AS
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Winchester Weekend, Sparsholt, April 2016
Thu, 2020-04-02 17:24
#1
Winchester Weekend, Sparsholt, April 2016
Great memories and I'm already looking forward to next year when hopefully things will be back to normal. I'll really miss it this year though. Such a shame given all the effort that Ann and Alan and others put into arranging it.
Perhaps we should set up a virtual meeting in the bar on Saturday night. I have plenty of beer since my local brewery is making home deliveries and I'm trying to keep it in business.
Good idea, Nick. Sounds like you are buying.
As long as that only involves virtual money that's fine.
What!!! No cider?!!!
I do have some Thatchers too although it is running out.
What!!! No cider?!!!
Perhaps we should all crowd fund a new jacket for Alan for 2021?
It's the least we could do after the stress he's suffered!
My first Winchester Weekend was 1975. I attach the agenda. Dick Chambers talk on Star Atlases stands out in my memory because the atlases he brought along were, to a 17 year old, highly desirable!
Martin
Ahh....those were the days when you had to ensure you had the correct affiliation as FRAS or RN.
Pauline, what a very cruel posting on today of all days. You know how to twist the knife...
About now I would be saying a teary goodbye to my cats whilst my wife packs my Winchester bag. Then off to pick a few others up before heading down to bring some much needed warm Brummie cheer to the locals of the sleepy village of East Ilsley and the Crown and Horns pub in particular. Then off in convoy to Sparsholt to revel in my 43rd Winchester meeting. Instead, what am I doing this weekend? Scouring the dark, grimy back streets of Kingstanding in North Brum to find a dozen black market eggs.
Thanks Pauline - my old mate!
Gary
Never mind Gaz, the variable stars are still there...all the best
Managed to obtain a flux capacitor and flared trousers. Heading to 1975 for weekend.
Program looks fantastic.
Hi Gary! I am finding the supply of eggs in Sheffield to be highly variable. Would you like me to draw a curve when I have made enough observations...?
Very best!
Bill
Eggs'ceedingly decent of you Bill!
Probably just arriving at the college now (14.53 hrs) :-(
Gary
Did I hear someone mention keys?
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
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
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
Ahh. Those were the days. Thanks for sharing Martin.
Gary
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
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