At last I’ve got a chance to talk about who our members are and what we actually get up to.
The group is quite a mix of people, there are various nationalities and a pretty much equal number of men and women. No-one fits many people’s idea of an amateur astronomer, not a single eccentric old bloke who talks gibberish – Patrick Moore was the only astronomer most British people have ever heard of, and a very great enthusiast, but he was far from typical and not like anyone else I’ve ever met.
So, just who are the people in the Vega Baja Astronomy group? There are a healthy number of people who are new to astronomy, often they have had a passing interest during their lives but never had time to really get to know more about it. All of us try to nurture newcomers interest, we try to be aware that it’s easy to put people off by talking about some technical interest of our own, mostly we seem to manage this OK. There is one thing that becomes obvious to most newcomers, everyone is happy to help, to explain and to encourage, but we can never do the reading and learning of the basics for you, it’s a hobby and for anyone to get to grips with it takes a little effort.
Astronomy isn’t just one subject, it covers a huge variety of things. Cosmology, Planetary science, Physics, Spectroscopy and Mathematics, are just a few of the fancy sounding subjects,
As you’d expect, some of us have special interests, Spectroscopy is just one of them. Spectroscopy is breaking up the light from a star (for example) and working out it’s age, what elements it’s using and much more. An amateur can even tell if a star might explode.
Photographing the stars, planets, galaxies etc is a popular interest which digital cameras and computers have changed completely since I was young. An astrophotographer friend of mine takes pictures from his garden that are better than professionals with huge telescopes could have managed a few decades ago. Mind you, although he denies it, he’s one of the best around, and always happy to help anyone.
Most members of the group aren’t specialists, they’re just interested in looking up and trying to understand what is there. We all get a kick out of seeing the night sky, recognising a constellation, spotting a planet or finding the galaxy Andromeda with our binoculars. No one ever forgets seeing Saturn’s rings for the first time, but an amateur astronomer will want to know what they’re made from, why there are gaps in the rings and just what are those strange moons doing!
We all get together every couple of weeks for a chat and a bite to eat at one of our members house. Not too long ago, members went on a group visit to an observatory down in Murcia, a great time was had by everyone.
If you’ve got the impression we are an enthusiastic bunch who will welcome anyone who’s interested, then I’ve done my job properly, all you have to do is contact us. It’s worth remembering that we have a couple of major solar eclipses not long away, you could come and pick our brains on how to get the most from them.

That’s all for this month, happy stargazing.

Charles Oates, Vega Baja Astronomy Group.

● To find out more about observing and astronomy why not join our group, email us at vegabaja.astronomygroup@gmail.com to find out more.