Monthly Members’ Night - second Wednesday of each month except January.

Tonight - A presentation, followed by informal chat with tea and coffee.

Tonight’s Talk

The Cutting Edge of Chemical Rockets

Speaker: Charlie Cooper (from Hamilton Astronomical Society)

Get ready for a deep dive into the latest advances in chemical rocketry, with SpaceX's Raptor engine as the star example. We'll break down the extreme engineering challenges behind rocket engines, explore the fundamental physics that drive them, and uncover how cutting-edge manufacturing techniques are reshaping their design. If you’re curious about the future of high-performance rocketry, this talk is for you!

HAS commitee meeting.

An Evening with the Stars, Hosted by the Hamilton Astronomical Society

This is an event hosted by the Hamilton Astronomical Society as a fundraiser for the Prostate Cancer Society and the Prost-FIT groups of Cambridge and Hamilton.

When: Tuesday, March 25th
Where: Hamilton Astronomical Society, Brymer Road, directly adjacent to the Hamilton Zoo.
Time: 7:00 pm

From 7:00 to 7:30 pm, there will be pizza, tea and coffee, and biscuits. This will be followed by a lecture of approximately 1 hour duration: “Surprises of our Solar System”. Post the lecture, there will be an opportunity (weather permitting) to use the Society’s telescopes to view some amazing star formations, with the scopes being manned by HAS astronomers.

Admission and Registration

Cost: $10.00 per adult, $5.00 per child, all proceeds to the Prostate Cancer Society.

We have a limit on attendees, so please register with either Carrie carrie@physiofithub.com, or at cambridge@prostate.org.nz.

Please come along! Bring your friends, partners, or anybody you think might be interested. There will be a very short presentation of the resources available through the Prostate Cancer Society and the Prost- FIT programme for people dealing with prostate cancer.

Hope to see you there!
Please do register - it will help with numbers for catering.

Monthly Members’ Night - second Wednesday of each month except January.

Tonight - A presentation, followed by informal chat with tea and coffee.

Tonight’s Talk

My Journey from Astrophotography to Citizen Science

Speaker: Ian Transom (from Hamilton Astronomical Society)

Tonight, Ian will discuss what he has achieved and learned in astrophotography and as a citizen scientist. Defined on sciencelearn.org.nz, “Citizen scientists are volunteers who contribute to scientific projects, usually by collecting or analysing data. The number of opportunities to be involved as citizen scientists continues to grow, and teachers are increasingly using them to make science education more relevant and engaging and to develop students’ science capabilities.”

Weds 12 March 2025, 7:30 pm.

HAS committee meeting.

An additional night for members to view various objects through the HAS telescopes. Members are also welcome to bring their own telescopes. Whether you are an experienced observer or just getting started, there will be plenty of space to set up your equipment and take in the celestial sights.

On this night we are hoping to observe the following targets:

Planets:

• Saturn

• Venus

• Jupiter

• Mars

• Uranus

• Neptune

DSOs (deep sky objects, outside of our solar system):

• The Great Orion Nebula (nebula in Orion)

• Matariki (the Pleiades) (open star cluster in Taurus)

• The Southern Pleiades (open star cluster in Carina)

• Running Chicken Nebula (nebula in Centaurus)

• Eta Carinae Nebula (nebula in Carina)

• Omega Centauri (globular cluster in Centaurus)

If there is time, and if there are target requests, then we can explore those as well. We have tried to select DSOs which you may not have seen during our public nights.

Please see members email of 21  February for more information.

Rocket Challenge. Please see newsletter for details.

Monthly Members’ Night - second Wednesday of each month except January.

Usually starts at 7:30 pm. Earlier start this month as it is the annual HAS BBQ.

This Month: Our annual HAS BBQ, from 6pm. For details, please see the February members’ newsletter.

The observing evening tonight has been cancelled.

But we should be able to do observing with the telescopes at the public night next week if the weather is clear.

HAS committee meeting.

Monthly Members’ Night - second Wednesday of each month except January.

Tonight - Annual HAS quiz night.

Annual Quiz Night

Details to come.