Should you join a local astronomy club?

 Attending my first astronomy society meeting

I have been looking forward to this meeting of my local astronomy society which happens tonight. I have never been to an astronomy society meeting before and this one is special – the 60th anniversary of the society. A four-hour meeting at the University in the city centre (normally they are a couple of hours).

I have been to one or two of their outreach sessions – stargazing events down a local beach where society members arrived with telescopes, enthusiasm and knowledge – imparting joy, wisdom, awe, wonder and excitement to members of the public who turned up. Great fun and informative sessions – great learning opportunities too. Lovely evenings. 😊

 

Anyway, as I start to get ready for tonight - it has set me off thinking - what are the benefits of joining your local astronomy society? 

Now, I must be careful here, as I have only very limited experiences thus far. And as always, a caveat as well. How much you enjoy being part of a society will,  I suspect, probably depend, in no so part, on what kind of person you are and how you react to a ‘meetings/society’ environment. Perhaps its about the adage that sort of goes ‘getting out what you put in’ kind of thing.

I am somewhat ‘individualistic’. After thirty-five years sharing a small space with up to 150 students a day and meetings in the morning, lunchtime, after school and evening most days – I value my own space, me time, peace and quiet! I am very comfortable with my own company because I know I am 'boring and thick' so it doesn't come as a shock! 😆

 Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a loner. I enjoy being with good friends as much as anyone else. But, I am also one of those people who like to ‘learn on their own at first’ before joining groups. A slower way of learning, fraught at times and full of mistakes I know, but I like to try and get some of the basics and a little confidence in something before I engage with others in the subject. Its just a ‘typical me’ thing.  I wonder if other teachers suffer this?

Anyway, as my wonderful wife keeps reminding me, it’s good for my soul to be ‘sociable occasionally’. And, as always, she is of course, right!

So, the value of joining and participating in my local astronomy society?

I already know that this society is a community of like-minded, intelligent, smart astronomy enthusiasts. 

I’ve met a few down the beach; I’ve chatted with a few on the Facebook /messenger group pages. They like discovering things, pushing their knowledge development, and sharing it with others. That’s pretty clear. They seem keen to promote astronomy learning, research, and expertise. So, I am soooo looking forward to learning lots more from individuals and the monthly lecture programme. The one or two people I have met, have been passionate about astronomy, and to me that’s always a good sign. I get huge amounts of awe and wonder every time I go out at night. I suspect that it will get elevated through my interactions with others now. Bound to, and I find this quite exciting.

I pride myself on being a life-long learner; permanently curious! 

I know that to grow further in my knowledge of this amazing branch of science I have to ‘up my game’ now. Learning from others ahead of me in their learning journey is vital. Moreover, it’s fun! Simple quick tips, being kept up to date, pushed to learn or utilise something new. Some new ‘light bulb’ moments incoming, I hope. Some informal advice and mentoring deeply appreciated, if people have the time. Please, is there anyone who uses affinity photo regularly to improve their astro images? Please come and show me how to do masking and colour enhancing. I don't understand it. Its driving me nuts! 😥           Some members already share their projects and successes on the society Facebook page and I find these a great source of inspiration and learning. There are many really talented people out there. Great for us newbies.

How many mistakes have I made so far on my astronomy journey, because I didn’t join a society from the start? 

A poor choice of first astronomy telescope? Not getting to autoguiding more quickly in my astrophotography? All that time wasted trying to learn SIRIL, GraXpert and Affinity Photo the hard way – via YouTube tutorials? Argh! If only I had been a member of the society earlier so that I could have drawn on years of expertise! Lesson learned…painfully!

Networking, collaboration, sharing knowledge, learning from and with others. 

Astronomy is continually evolving and pushing the boundaries of scientific discovery and knowledge.  Through the beach meets, I have already met great advocates for astronomy. This seems to me to be the next logical chapter in my own astronomy learning journey; and at some point, maybe, I will reach a point, where I can then, with the permission of others, start giving back via public engagement events. That’s a little way off yet, but…sometime…..maybe…. I reach a point where I can safely and accurately share my astronomy knowledge and learning journey to those starting out. I’m a teacher – mentally programmed for it!

I don’t know whether my local astronomy society does this or not but a school’s outreach programme would always seem worthwhile supporting, although I accept it is probably very difficult to do in the current educational climate in the UK. Nigh on impossible I suspect! But, perhaps, in the future, that may be where my interest lies. I miss the witty banter of teenagers! Making complex astronomical thinking simpler and more accessible; sparking the imagination of young people who might become our future space scientists, astronomers and astronauts? Who knows – maybe in time. I’ve lots to learn before then!

One of the things I have always been fascinated in is citizen science type projects and I often wonder whether amateur astronomy societies around the country do that kind of thing? Collecting and sharing astronomy data with university departments? Is that a done thing?

I am also hoping that I can get opportunities to see and check out telescopes and accessories, their performances, advantages and disadvantages – a perusal of what members use regularly and why. 

As I have already discovered – ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’ but ‘knowing that you don’t know what you don’t know’ is a valuable first step! Society members insights and experiences in equipment choices and techniques will be valuable to my future learning and development in this hobby! Given that my favourite astronomy shops Rother Valley Optics and The Widescreen Centre are several hours road trip away – internet scrolling really isn’t that helpful! Perhaps there is also an opportunity to sell and buy second hand equipment from society members. At least I will know the person and have some support on hand as I get to grips with the new equipment! Mind you – I’ll have to get it past the family financial director first – SWMBO’d

And finally, I have set myself a target for this year. To occasionally go stargazing with someone else. 

It isn’t that I am lonely or anti-social but I know that occasionally sharing experiences with another like-minded enthusiast is actually a good, fun thing to do with the added advantage of safety in numbers – especially in new, remote and isolated dark sky sites on Dartmoor!

So here we are. Very excited. Really looking forward to the evening. Possible next chapter in my astronomy/astrophotography learning journey, on the horizon. I think I have summarised the potential benefits of joining your local astronomy society. I’ll let you know in a postscript how tonight goes, but I already know the answer – I will love it! I miss learning with others! And it will be good for my social interaction skills development - after all - all my social skills come from working with teenagers!  I'm not always sure that's a good thing! 😂

The day after the night before 

There was some confusion about start times for the evening - a Facebook post saying 5.30pm. An email saying 7.30pm. And so I was two hours early; the time passing pleasantly chatting to another soul who had also arrived early. The foyer of the University building has smart, comfortable seating areas and plenty of vending machines! 

Strange being back in a university room setting with rows of desks and two large screens each side of the room but exciting too. I'm a permanently curious geeky type - so new learning opportunities always grab my attention. 

The first presentation - a potted history of the society over its sixty years. Lots of achievements during this time. A rich history of public engagement within the city and its schools; a mobile planetarium visiting schools during the 1990's. Part of the 'Dark Skies' campaign movement; a monthly 'astronomy' column in the local paper. A monthly contribution to local radio. Library displays, a monthly newsletter. Not all of this happens now. I rightly or wrongly get the sense that the society membership is older; fewer younger members coming in and taking on roles. A surprise - Sir Patrick Moore was the society's patron from 1963 to 2012 and visited the city many times to do talks and outreach. This society has had and continues to have an impressive impact on promoting astronomy across the city. I came away with the impression that the society has achieved much over its sixty years due to the dedication of many of its members.  And there was clearly much expertise across the thirty or so people within the room last night. 

After feasting on a 60th birthday cake during a break there followed another lecture presentation of two parts - a monthly update of whats happening astronomically in our skies above. A description of Orion and its many deep sky objects; a potted history of the 'Space Race' from the early 60's to 2020. Some fascinating insights. 

I found it a thoroughly enjoyable and thought provoking evening. And I will certainly be attending next months meeting when there will be a focus on bringing along your own equipment, asking questions and learning how to set up your equipment to safely view the partial solar eclipse coming up at the end of this month. Someone will also be talking about their new Seestar 50 telescope - should be a fascinating evening!