At the AGM last night we received no nominations for 3 essential committee posts. It is very important these are filled as soon as possible in order to maintain the future viability of the society. Descriptions of the posts are available in the committee contacts links page at https://cotswoldas.org.uk/about/committee but they are not that onerous in regard to time requirements; there is ample opportunity for the post holder to make of it what they will, based on personal skills or ideas on how to make improvements.
The vacant positions are:
Events Organiser
Membership Secretary
Articles Editor
As our coordinator emailed to all members: “It is not practical for the remaining committee members to take on those roles as well and we cannot effectively run the society without them. If we do not fill them soon, we may not have a society for very much longer. The roles are not especially demanding and we may well be able to adapt the roles to suit. Please help us out here and offer help where possible and as soon as possible.“
The society annual financial report is now available for members to view and raise any questions in advance of the AGM this Saturday. Please email any questions to coord@cotswoldas.org.uk so any queries can be addressed in advance of the meeting.
All members who intend to vote on these at the AGM next Saturday 10th April are requested to view them in advance. Each photo is numbered for ease of reference. Only attendees of the zoom meeting will be able to cast a vote on the night.
Each year, CPRE asks the nation to help measure light pollution in their area by getting starry-eyed with us and counting visible stars. Ready to help out and have fun?
We have just received the very sad news that Tony Ireland has passed away. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer just four months ago. Tony was well cared for at home throughout his illness, with the help of Sue Ryder.
Tony was a founding member of the Society and contributed a great deal. He will be very sorely missed.
No funeral details are available as yet, but under the current circumstances we would not be able to be represented. Anyone wishing to send donations should do so to Sue Ryder for the support they gave him and Hilary throughout.
This is a particularly sad time, having lost two of our long-standing members in such a short period. Eddie Carpenter passed away only very recently. Jackie, his widow, has informed us that the funeral will take place next Tuesday, 26th October, at 11.30 am. Although we will not be able to attend due to Covid restrictions, she asks that we keep him in our thoughts at that time.
Neil Havard (Coordinator)
The following article by Tony was published in Mercury Volume 34 Issue 3, Sept / Oct 2016
THE MAGNIFICENT TEN !
The photo above was taken by me at a reunion of founding members of the CAS gathered at John Fletchers home in Tuffley on July 3rd 2016. The gathering was the idea of Trevor Talbot, second from the right who approached John Fletcher (kneeling) and the rest, as they say, is history. John is to be congratulated in organising this happy event, though whether he has yet eaten or drunk all the food and wine we brought is another matter ! The weather was kind to us so that we could explore John’s, always neat, garden and admire his birds in their deluxe aviary, plus of course The Tortoise. But it was indoors as we all renewed acquaintances from many many years ago that the greatest pleasure was obtained. Yes we had changed a bit, put on weight a bit, even grown beards but the original spirit of comradeship, humour and pleasure in remembering old times made for a very enjoyable couple of hours.
In the photo you can see a who’s who of the CAS as follows (left to right) and the dates they joined..
Graham Messenger 1988
Fred Watkins* Founder Member 1982 (Fred is Member No 1 as he was the first to pay his Subs !!)
Derek Maskell 1990
John Fletcher * 1984
John Rock 1988
Dick Warden* 1982 and creator of the CAS first mooted in 1981.
Andy Packer 1984
Bernard Abrams 1982
Trevor Talbot 1986
Tony Ireland * 1982
*Life Members
For the record in our first year to 31 March 1983 we had 15 members and a money surplus of £18. (We now have a surplus at the last count of over £4000. Not many Societies can boast that ! )
Subsequently our membership grew as follows:
31 March 1984 18,
1985 20,
1986 31,
1987 28,
1988 40,
1989 41, and
1990 39.
As the wine flowed we reminisced on weekends at the BAA annual binge at Winchester with its ghastly dinosaur stews, John’s huge pork pies, late night drinking sessions, our appearance on BBC Radio 4 at the time of Halley’s Comet, our TV appearance with Heather Couper when Mount Tuffley was opened, meetings held in private houses even taking doors off hinges to accommodate everyone, romantic encounters which led to marriage of members (!), etc etc.
Looking back from today’s gatherings and with a membership well exceeding 120 it is hard to balance this with those far away days. But if it hadn’t been a chance meeting between myself and Dick Warden back in 1981 when he relieved me of over 200 copies of SKY AND TELESCOPE then his idea of forming a Society would not have borne fruition. And we can all congratulate ourselves in realising that the first planet the Society viewed through Dick’s C8 was MERCURY !!!!!
It is with great sadness that I have to report that Eddie Carpenter has passed away overnight. He had informed us that he was terminally ill with cancer a short while ago. While his death may have been expected, it is still a very sad loss to the Society and he will be sorely missed.
Eddie giving one of his ‘magic lantern’ slide shows at the society in July 2016
Eddie has been a very long-standing member of our Society and always provided us with his monthly astronomical anniversaries. He also gave us a number of lively talks on a wide variety of topics and even set us some observational challenges. I still remember him challenging us to observe Sirius B not too long ago.
He was a keen observational astronomer as well as being very knowledgeable about historical characters and developments in astronomy over a long period. He was a real character with a lively and friendly nature and was always most enthusiastic about astronomy. He also had a notable collection of old astronomical volumes and talked to us about some of them at our last Zoom meeting.
Eddie was also a prominent member of the British Astronomical Association.
We will greatly miss Eddie’s lively input to our Society, while retaining fond memories of his many years with us. Our sincere condolences go to Jackie, his wife.
