Main Meetings

Each month, the society has a guest speaker, who will talk about their specialised subject, followed by a "what's up" describing the sky that month and sometimes an additional 5-minute talk from a society member on something they have been doing recently. Free refreshments are available during the interval. During the year we will also be arranging observing evenings at appropriate times and places.

Note: if you have something that you would like to talk about in the 5-minute slot, please contact a committee member.

Meeting Details:

The meetings are held on the first Friday of each month from September to June and start at 7.30pm. Our 2019/2020 program is as follows:

Date	Topic
6^th September 2019	Spectroscopy — Analysing Light from the Stars - Dr David Boyd (Newbury AS & BAA)
4^th October 2019	The Colour of Science: Hyperspectral Imaging for Astronomy - Dr Hugh Mortimer (RAL Space)
1^st November 2019	How We'll Live on Mars - Colin Stuart (Science & Astronomy author)
6^th December 2019	OJ 287 — The Mysterious Binary Black Hole - Prof Mark Kidger (European Space Agency)
14^th December 2019	Christmas Dinner: Astronomy & the Bottle; How the Alcohol Trade Funded Victorian Astronomical Research - Dr Allan Chapman (University of Oxford)
3^rd January 2020	Music of the Spheres - Members' Evening
7^th February 2020	A Bit of a Marathon - Alan Lorrain (BAA President & Basingstoke AS)
6^th March 2020	Installation & First Light from a 350GHz Heterodyne Receiver at the Mexican Large Millimetre Telescope - Dr Nart Daghestani (RAL Space)
27^th March 2020	Astrophysics at the Highest Energies - Prof Tony Bell (University of Oxford) [Note this meeting is at the end of March!]
3^rd - 5^th April 2020	BAA Winchester Weekend
1^st May 2020	Observing Venus - Dr Paul Abel (Leicester University)
5^th June 2020	The Gaia Revolution - Dr George Seabrook (Mullard Space Science Laboratory) & 39th AGM
27^th June 2020	Society Summer Outing

The meetings are held at the West Berkshire Mencap Centre in Newbury, off Enbourne Road: RG14 6AT. Parking is available at the hall itself: Click here for an interactive map.

The people in charge of the hall have asked us NOT to park in the streets near the hall, but to use the official car park only. If the residents feel we are intruding we could be asked to stop using the hall for our meetings. There is a possibility of overflow parking in the field to the west of the car park.

We also offer an ICS Calendar file of all the meetings (main & beginners) of the session to add to your phone or email client — click here to download.