The society have meetings on the third Thursday of each month from September through to April. We do not currently meet in the summer months. All meetings start at 7:45pm.

15th September 2011 Speaker and subject: Dr David Whitehouse (Astronomer, Author and BBC science corresponent) - ‘The Next Fifty Years in Space’. After meeting observing (weather permitting): Moon and (Maybe) Jupiter. The moon is a few days past full, so will rise late and should have some reasonable views of craters and mountains on its eastern side.  Possibly, if it is not too hazy, we will catch an early glimpse of Jupiter.   20th October 2011 Speaker and subject: Dr Hubert Lampeitl (Portsmouth University Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation) - ‘Measuring Cosmological Distances and the Energy Content of the Universe’. (Subject to final confirmation) After meeting observing (weather permitting): Local group galaxies and Jupiter. The moon will not rise until well after our meeting, so the sky will be nice and dark, giving us a good opportunity to look for M31, the Andromeda Galaxy and its companions, all of 2.4 million light-years away. Nearer home, Jupiter and its moons will be higher in the sky than last month, so we’ll get a good view of these. The Orionid meteor shower may give us a few shooting stars later on. .   17th November 2011 Speaker and subject: Jerry Workman (FAS Eric Zucker Award-Winner) - ‘Small Bodies of the Solar System’. After meeting observing (weather permitting): Jupiter, Taurus and shooting stars. Jupiter will be very will placed, so if it was cloudy in October, this will be another great chance to observe. Taurus is now high in the sky, so we can look at the Pleiades and the Hyades clusters. Tonight is also the maximum of the Leonid meteor shower, so we may catch a few of these. .   15th December 2011 XMAS PARTY Speaker and subject: Dr Paul Curtis (AAS member) - Tutorial/demonstration session on ‘Webcam Imaging’. After meeting observing (weather permitting): Jupiter and Orion. Jupiter is now very well placed, plus Orion is getting higher in the sky.  We will have a look for the Orion Nebula, birthplace of stars. .   19th January 2012 Speaker and subject: Professor Nick Evans (Southampton University department of Physics and Astronomy) - ‘String, Branes and Cosmology’. After meeting observing (weather permitting): Winter Milky Way. The Winter Milky Way will now be virtually overhead, so we will look for the numerous star clusters and nebulae in Auriga, Gemini and Monoceros.   16th February 2012 Speaker and subject: Richard Fleet - ‘Sky Phenomina’. After meeting observing (weather permitting): Mars. Late on, Mars will start to rise to a reasonable altitude, so we may get a decent view of the red planet. .   15th March 2012 Speaker and subject: Charles Barclay - ‘Marlborough College Observatory’. (Subject to final confirmation) After meeting observing (weather permitting): Mars and Galaxies. Mars will be both higher in the sky and closer to Earth than last month. so we’ll look at this, plus some distant galaxies in Leo and Ursa Major.   19th April 2012 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Speaker and subject: Alan Dowdell - The Moon Illusion.     After meeting observing (weather permitting): Mars and Saturn. Mars is still reasonably placed, plus the planet Saturn is now moving into view during the evening. The rings have opened up since we saw it last year, and should provide a spectacular sight. .

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