CDAA

Welcome to the Clacton and District Astronomical Association web site. We are a small informal group, meeting on the first Thursday of the month. CDAA is the only Astronomical Society serving the Tendring and Colchester districts.

Monthly Meetings

These meetings are held at "Friends Meeting House", Granville Road, Clacton-on-Sea at 7.30 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month (except August). The meetings conclude at 9.45 p.m. Find our Meeting Hall

In addition to the main events, there are also Monthly 'Night Sky' , 'Astro-News' presentations, Seasonal Constellations and a regular raffle.

We are a friendly bunch of amateurs where new members and visitors are always warmly welcomed. Annual membership is currently £15 adults, £8 juniors (under 18 years of age). This covers admission to all of the monthly meetings

Please note that although visitors are very welcome, they are charged an entry fee of £2.00

Find out more...

Our club secretary David Pugh, should be able to answer most queries about the Association itself, whereas I, Bob Leon can answer questions relating to the web site.

• Download Programme Pamphlet

  • Word 2007 format
  • Word 97 format
  • Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format

Special Guest Speaker: Nik Szymanek

Celestial Imaging

Nik is a regular visitor to our society. He is well known for his astronomical photos Local Newspaper Report and many have been printed in major Astronomical Journals. In this talk he will present some of his latest work.

Using a GOTO Telescope
Personal Experiences by David Pugh

Our Chairman David Pugh will be giving a fully illustrated talk about his classic Meade LX200 10" telescope Local Newspaper Report and the associated equipment that he uses . David decided to give this talk when he realised that none of the members had seen his telescope bought 15 years ago, and might be interested. It is not a talk about using goto telescopes generally but simply his personal experiences in using the LX200 from his garden without the aid of a permanent set-up such as an observatory or run-off shed and the difficulties this creates.

Dark Matter - Proof at Last? by Mike Haynes

For over 70 years astronomers have believed that the Universe has much more matter than can be detected using conventional techniques and that it is not made of the same types of atoms, molecules and other particles that we see in the rest of the Universe.Local Newspaper Report This talk will look at the mounting evidence for the existence of this elusive and mysterious matter and current ideas on what it is made of.