Our monthy meeting held on 6th April had our treasurer Brian Cottis giving a presentation entitled 'Binocular Moon'. He began by describing the moons path across the night sky, its phases and how differences between the Earths rotation rate and the moons orbit give rise to libration. It is this evident 'East/West' 'North/South' 'wobble' that means it is possible to view a total of 59% of the moons surface (it should be noted of course, that it is possible to only see a maximum of 50% of the surface at one time). We were given a tour of the moons surface where promanent features as seen through binoculars, such as mountain ranges, valleys, fault lines, 'sea floors' and of course craters were named. Many of the Apollo landing sites were also highlighted. Questions from the audience included queries about mountain formation, the ages and size of craters and the origin of their names.
The next meeting to be held as usual at the 'Friends Meeting House' in Granville Road, Clacton on May 4th will have David Peachey, discussing 'Mankinds Future in the Solar System'.