by Cath Adams WOW 6: 7th to 17th July 2023 I arrived at Brow Farm Campsite on the evening of Tuesday 11th July, already at camp were Duncan, Steve, Jon … Read more
26th of April 1925 to 22nd of September 2022.
Frank was born in Nagara, Nairobi, Kenya in 1925 to parents Theodoro Augusto and Cecilia Carmelina Pegado Barretto. He was the oldest sibling to Ida, Judith and Willie.
At the age of 12 he moved to Goa, a Portuguese colony in India where he was brought up by his grandmother. During this time he contracted meningitis and it was his grandmother who nursed him back to health. At the age of 18 and looking for work he made the trip to Calcutta.
A Tribute and Remembrance by Phil Barnard.
We were saddened to learn the news, which came somewhat belatedly, that Frank Barretto, who was a well-remembered Life member of Wolverhampton Astronomical Society, had passed away on 22 September 2022.
I had spoken to Frank on the telephone in October 2020, because at the time the Society didn’t have an email contact address for him. He was 95 years of age, but even then he said he would love to give us another talk – providing he had time to complete the necessary research!
by Cath Adams
On 19 November 2022 19 members of the society visited the Herschel Museum in Bath.
The weather was sunny and travelling separately we had arranged to meet at the museum at 2pm, which was closed to the public at that time for us, so that we could have a private tour conducted by two members of staff, Charlotte and Les. Also on hand was Simon Holbeche of Bath Astronomers who knew the museum very well and not only shared information and stories about William Herschel and his telescopes, but answered all our questions. We had a good old look round and were permitted to take photographs but not touch the exhibits.
By Doug Bickley
Whilst astronomers aren’t afraid of the dark it’s lovely sometimes to get together during the day for an event and a chinwag with other members. This partial eclipse, even though the obscuration was only about 15%, seemed a good opportunity, so we arranged a meeting at our observatory. This was combined with induction training and reminders for the observatory pod plus a bit of ground clearance.
The Society presents an annual award to a student at St. Peter’s Collegiate School, chosen for achievements in computer science. The recipient of the 2021 award is Alex Woodham.
By Doug Bickley
Some of you may remember a talk that I gave a while ago about Lord Wrottesley (1798-1867) and the observatory that he built and operated near Wolverhampton. I was approached a couple of years ago by Wolverhampton Archaeology Group to give a presentation to them. Since then lockdown has come and gone and we rearranged the talk. This was fortuitous in some ways because Steve Wootton and I had made a couple of site visits since and I could bring the talk up to date. The observatory, or what is left of it after 180 years, is on private land and I invited the landowners to the talk.
By Richard Harvey
Alongside our internet lectures and Zoom meetings, the society has arranged several observations sessions and outreach events in the past few months. Here’s a quick overview of what’s been going on ‘off-line’ recently.
On 12th August we met once again at Halfpenny Green Vineyard for a meteor watch, on the evening of the peak of the Perseids. This was a most successful event, with quite a crowd turning up. We were blessed with clear skies for once, and over sixty Perseid meteors were seen over three hours. Some were bright fireballs with smoke trails, and one showed a bright green hue. This was a real fun event, as many people got excited as they spotted Perseids streaking across the sky, it was like a cosmic piece of theatre! Using the BAA meteor observing forms I tried to keep track of them all, and some of us also managed to do some deep-sky and planetary observing as well. Quite a few members tried to capture an image, and Doug’s photo shows a Perseid in Aquarius, above Jupiter (there’s an un-cropped version of Doug’s photo on the society’s Flickr page).
By Richard Harvey
With the relaxation of Covid guidelines for outside gatherings for June 2021, we were pleased to be able to safely arrange an outside observation session for the partial solar eclipse which occurred on Thursday 10th June. We once again met at Halfpenny Green Vineyard, and even with a 100% cloud cover forecast, around fourteen members turned up, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Moon’s silhouette obscure part of the Sun. This would be the first partial eclipse viewable from the West Midlands since 2015.
The Society presents an annual award to a student at St. Peter’s Collegiate School, chosen for achieving the requisite standard in IT/ Electronics. The recipient of the 2020 award is … Read more