Annual Meeting 2024
We held our meeting on Saturday the 15th of June 2024 at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge. Members can expect the usual meeting report in a future issue of the DSO, but we'd like to thank everyone who came along, and all who helped out.
Speakers
We hope you all enjoyed the talks, and on behalf of the Webb Deep-Sky Society I would like to thank all our speakers.
The day started with a talk by Jim Latham who's Exploring the Limits of Visual Galaxy Observation
in a project that requires quite some dedication. He explained the origin of his love of astronomical observing as a child, his drift away, and his return on retirement with the expectation of trying his hand at astrophotography. It didn't work out the way he expected, as this project to better understand an observer's limits shows.
Paul Howat explained how he found the cloudy skies of his Pembrokeshire home problematic. So we learned in Camper van astrophotography in Portugal
how he decided to take his astrophotography to better skies for the winter season with fabulous results.
Tatyana Reid asked us What do you want to observe?
, which can be a pivotal question in the observing career of an astronomer. Tatyana provided insights to her personal thoughts in the course of searching for faint nebulae, complete with those sketches that observers never dream they'll make public.
Mike Leggett lead us through a comprehensive journey from the observations of Smyth to the demise of the BAA Star Colour Section in his talk on Star Colours from W H Smyth to E I Essam
. Perhaps star colours are gaining prominence again?
Finally it was time for our professional keynote talk will be given by Prof Jan Forbrich on The Orion Radio All-Stars - What radio astronomy tells us about star formation
. He explained how new radio facilities are causing a renaissance in stellar radio astronomy, with its ability to see through obscuring dust combined with the precision provided by interferometry, and the interesting results that are emerging.
