00:00Have you ever looked into the night sky, wondered at the stars and the planets?
00:08Why don't you try and share that wonder of the universe with a local society?
00:13With me is Kath Adams, Vice President and Secretary of Wolverhampton Astronomical Society.
00:19Hello, Kath.
00:20Hello, Andrew. How are you?
00:21I'm well.
00:22Good.
00:22Tell me, when was Wolverhampton Astronomical Society formed?
00:26So we were formed in 1951, so this year's a really, really special year for us.
00:31It's our 75th anniversary, so in September we're having a big event at the Science Park in Wolverhampton,
00:37which will be a public event, lots of outreach and activities, talks, so we're really, really excited about that.
00:44It's a really special year for us.
00:45What sort of activities does the society get involved with?
00:49So what we do ourselves at the moment, we obviously have these talk evenings that through the winter happen twice
00:54a month,
00:54and then in the summer once a month, and then we have a little break in, like, July and August.
00:59But as well as that, we also arrange camping weekends.
01:02We call them the WOW camping weekends, and we go out to near Church Stretton,
01:06and that's something that members can pay an additional fee to come along for.
01:10And there's lots of members with telescopes, so people are welcome that don't have telescopes to come
01:14and actually observe under really dark skies, because we do see the Milky Way naked eye there.
01:19So that's one of the really important things that we do, and we support scouts groups, we support rainbows, brownies,
01:25we go and do the space badges.
01:27So we do do lots of things, as well as the standard talk evenings.
01:30That's good.
01:31Now, if people want to come along to the society, do they have to be a science geek?
01:36No, no.
01:37I mean, some people, some societies will have a lot more science geeks, and there's a fair few of us
01:41here.
01:41But, no, we literally welcome everyone.
01:43We have members from teenage years right up into an age, I probably won't say,
01:48because they'll shout at me for giving away their ages.
01:50So, no, we're very open to beginners.
01:52We've had a lot of people start their journey with us.
01:54We've had them come along for one talk as a guest.
01:57They've joined as a member, and they've really got into it.
02:00It can still be seen as a bit highbrow, and that's not what we're about at all.
02:03No, that's really good.
02:04And we go to the pub after our meetings as well.
02:06Oh, well, there we go. That's got to be good.
02:07The leech gates.
02:07I mean, come on.
02:08I find out you see more stars after you've been to the pub.
02:11After my gin and tonics, there's certainly a few more stars.
02:14Actually, I've been involved with astronomy for far too long now.
02:17I should remember, really.
02:19Tell me, what is the most amazing thing or memorable thing you've observed in astronomy?
02:24Oh, for me, so I would say there's probably two.
02:26So, I started my stargazing journey over 50 years ago.
02:30I was a toddler on my dad's shoulders.
02:32So, first of all, seeing the moon and Saturn through his binoculars.
02:36And then probably the second most spectacular thing was seeing the northern lights from Norway.
02:40There is nothing like it in this world to watch a tiny little cloud of aurora just explode across the
02:47sky.
02:47So, if you really want to share the cosmos, get to know something about it,
02:53come along to Wolverhampton Astronomical Society.
02:56And trust me, the sky is no longer the limit.
02:59And trust me, the sky is no longer the limit.
02:59And trust me, the sky is no longer the limit.
02:59And trust me, the sky is no longer the limit.
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