I spent a lovely couple of hours with Alan Heath, former Saturn Section Director. Alan lives near me and I try to see him every couple of months. He continues to submit observations to various BAA Sections, and will be giving a talk for Nottingham Astronomical Society later this week on planetary observing. Pictured here with his 75mm refractor he uses for daily sun spot observations; it has a solar wedge and a dark filter which screws into a 10mm monocentric eyepiece. We saw a small sun spot group today, and he could see a much fainter group near the centre of the disc but his eyesight is better than mine! The refractor had belonged to Bill Fox and when Alan got it the body of the scope was painted black but he took it back to the brass. When the legs of the tripod are not spread out, the tripod is significantly taller than Alan. The solar finder is an old tin with a nail hole in the sun's side and a membrane with a circular target on at the eyepiece end but is very effective/accurate. I'm trying to persuade Alan to write his memoirs as he has lots of stories of the past which really should be recorded for others to enjoy.