AstronomyNZ

The Phoenix Society’s Spring Astrocamp was a very successful weekend of talks, observing and socialising over Labour Weekend. About 30 people joined us over the weekend, with many old friends and new members making it along.
On Friday night there was a Special General Meeting of the Society where the new constitution was debated and agreed upon. The Astrocamp programme started on Saturday at the clubrooms with a presentation by Ian Cooper and Steve Chadwick of their forthcoming book on southern night sky objects. Ian and Steve took us through a picture tour of highlights to observe in the southern night sky, and this gave everyone plenty of motivation to observe and look for the objects. Hopefully the book will be finished by Stardate as many people (including myself) would like a copy. Other interesting talks covered Jupiter (Richard Hall) and new planets (Kay Leather), and Murray Forbes talked about the new observatory he has completed in Lower Hutt.
Astronomy didn’t feature in Sunday night’s programme, as it involved everyone getting together at the Buckhorn bar in Carterton for dinner and the Rugby World Cup Final.

Observing

The weather was good on Saturday night. Spotting Venus and the fainter Mercury in the evening sky was a nice way to start the evening. Jupiter near opposition proved to be a popular target later in the evening, and people were looking for the galaxies, star clusters, and nebulas mentioned in Ian and Steve’s presentation. The weather clouded over after 11 pm and dew started to become a problem, so most observers headed home for the night.

Photo highlights from the weekend

Daryl Ramsey took everyone through an interesting and practical workshop on how to use and get the most out of a Go To Telescope, and showed everyone how the tracking and different mountings work.

Steve Chadwick and Simon Hills set up the Foxton Beach Astronomical Society's solar telescope, which allowed features on the sun to be shown to everyone; this was extremely popular with people wanting a look at the sun again on Sunday.

It’s not a ghost in the photo! It’s Ian Cooper shielded by a blanket having a close-up look at the sun, making sure the telescope is in focus and explaining what features were visible and what to look for.

Richard ran a Henge tour for the Camp attendees and the public, and finally everyone managed to get together for a group photo at the clubrooms.