2020 / 21 Members Talk “Astrophotography” by Rob Jones

Last night we had a very interesting ta;lk from a member Rob Jones who described he journey into the world of Astrophotography.

His interest started just 2 years ago with a BBC Sky at Night magazine that had an article of local interest so his talk went back further to the 24th Dec 1965 covering the “Barwell meteorite” and the visit of Sir Patrick Moore to Barwell

The article mentions Percy England who happened to be the father of another member of the club Trevor England who recounted that it was Christmas eve, we were living at 27 The common Barwell with the brand new Vauxhall Viva parked on the drive. he found the hole in the bonnet with what we now know was the piece of meteorite in the engine compartment , which he threw across the road onto waste ground thinking it was concrete debris. Christmas came and it wasn’t until 27th that we became aware that there were quite a few people from Leicester university were about, asking questions and had we seen any pieces of rock….when they offered money for any finds the search was on. Quite a few pieces were found , though not the piece that damaged dads car.. I know… I spent hours on that waste ground! The insurance did refuse to pay citing ” Act of God” . Dad did go to the Parish Vicar , he didn’t get very far, but was asked to put any claim in writing ,so he wrote a letter addressed to Mr God via Barwell Parish Church. Needless to say he didn’t get any reply. He didnt personally see Patrick Moore, though he did hear he was in the village on a number of occasions.

He thinks the Barwell Meteorite is still unique, the latest one is a different variety , it will be interesting to see what they can find out. There is still a Barwell meteorite display in the Leicester Museum and at the Science Museum London. BBC

Robs talk ranged from the local solar system including images of several of the planets and the sun, to deep space objects in the local galaxy, to completely different galaxies.