National Science Week 2006
On Saturday 18th March, Aylesbury Astronomical Society held an Open Day in Aylesbury to celebrate National Science Week. The day was a great success with nearly 70 visitors through the doors. There were a number of stands covering many aspects of astronomy as well as a Mystery Picture Quiz and talk on the Solar Eclipse.
| The entrance to the Scout Hut was marked by an excellent full size model of a reflecting telescope. Constructed by Steve Edwards (not pictured) from cardboard tubing and a photographic tripod, it drew in 20% of the visitors on the day. Steve has said that he has plans to build the rest of the parts of the telescope and use it for astronomical observing soon. The location offered plenty of parking and the area outside was also used for a short time to demonstrate the safe way in which to observe the solar disk using projection onto a white card. Sunspot activity is currently at a minima and this was certainly evident when only two very small spots were visible through the cloudy conditions. |  | |
 | Along with the stands one of our Trustees, Les Edwards, was giving talks at regular intervals on the phenomena of Solar Eclipses. Each session was well attended by a number of members of the public and also included some Society members who had not seen the talk before. This was all in preparation for the Solar Eclipse that will be visible from Libya/Turkey on Wednesday 29th March. Les, along with other members, are due to be there to witness the event. For those less fortunate the eclipse is visible in and around Aylesbury, but will only eclipse up to around 17% of the disk. | |