At the start of the month we were delighted to welcome back one of our very favourite guest speakers – Nick Howes, who drove an incredibly long way to come and give us a passionate talk “The Legacy of Apollo”. Nick’s lavishly-illustrated talk took us through the glory of the Apollo missions, from the birth of the Apollo program to the final footsteps left on the Moon, and asked: what next? When will we go back? And why haven’t we been back already? It was a fascinating talk, which everyone in the large audience enjoyed.

After the talk Nick showed our members some pieces of actual Apollo hardware, including some very special items which had flown in space on Apollo missions. Nick also brought lots of meteorites with him and many members bought their own personal “piece of space” before Nick joined us across the road in the local pub for a well-deserved drink and bite to eat, before setting off on a long drive back down south again.

It was a fantastic night, and we all hugely appreciated Nick’s visit.

Before Nick’s talk, the meeting began with a round-up of recent astronomy and space news. There were reports of the recent beautiful display of the northern lights which was visible from Cumbria and was observed by several EAS members…

The meeting also heard about the striking “parade of planets” which has been on view in the eastern sky before dawn. Over the past few weeks, Venus, Jupiter and Mars have been coming together in the east, shining like stars in the hours before dawn, and several EAS members have been photographing them…

The next astronomical event we will be observing (or TRYING to observe!) is Comet CATALINA, a comet which has been delighting observers in the southern hemisphere for a while now but has not been visible this far north. However, that will change in a couple of weeks time, when Catalina pokes its head over the eastern horizon before dawn, and then well start to look for it. Here’s where it will be at the end of the month, and in early December, an hour or so before sunrise…

Finally for this update, we have a MOONWATCH scheduled for next weekend. Because the Brewery Arts Centre will be holding its annual and hugely popular “Mountain Festival” we can’t use their garden that evening, so we’ll be using an alternative observing venue. Keep checking this blog, and the “Meetings ad events” page, for updates and details.