u3a Monday occurs in the 4th week of the month. It’s the day I have two u3a sessions; Stargazing in the morning, and History in the afternoon.
For Stargazing, over the last month, I have been keeping an observation calendar, recording whether I did, or didn’t, or couldn’t observe – plus the two nights where I forgot to go out. over 29 nights;
There were 16 nights when I could conserve.
There were 11 nights when I could not observe (mainly cloudy)
There were 6 nights where I did observe
There were 2 nights when I just forgot to go out.
My Hunters chair arrived, and that definitely made observing easier. I had the delights of finding Capella, seeing Leo, Jupiter near Castor & Pollux, the Gemini Twins. Just experiencing the delights of stargazing.
I’ve picked up a task for next month, and that is to observe the Lyrid Meteor Shower. I have seen meteors before, obviously. But I have never deliberately stayed up for a meteor shower. The Lyrids peak on 22 April. By that date, Lyra and its main star, Vega, which in turn is one point in the Summer Triangle, an arrangement I am looking forward to seeing.
History this month was about Pilgrimages. Over the hour and a half I estimate (I didn’t count) that at least 10 people did presentations on various aspects of pilgrimages. I even did my mini presentation where I talked about a number of trips in my life that were, in a way, pilgrimages. I was surprised that the presentation went down quite well.
The task for the the next month is Resistance Groups and their leaders.
It was a very satidfying day.
Bills Posts 