General Meeting: April 2025

ASSA monthly meetings are held in-person and are open to the general public.

Due to unresolved technical issues which emerged recently, ASSA recommends attendance in person, as we cannot promise a reliable live-streaming, or recording for for future reference.

 

Attend In-Person: This is a free public event. A theatre ticket is NOT required for this meeting. Just roll up.

Finding the Venue: The Braggs LT entrance faces the Barr Smith Lawns and is located at E10 on the map.

Watch Live Online: (no ticket required): YouTube or Facebook. Please Subscribe to the ASSA YouTube channel and turn ON Notifications to be instantly notified of our live broadcasts.

Meeting Agenda:

• Astro- Nostalgia and DIY
• General Meeting
• Announcements & Upcoming Events
• Close at 9:30pm

 

Speakers: Martin Lewicki and Dean Davidson

Abstract: We will be reminiscing about the days when DIY telescopes were often the only option, in particular for a larger scope. Some members may remember the days of:

• mirror grinding and testing, pipe thread mounts,
• finding deep sky objects before Go-To ruined the experience
• actually seeing deep sky objects before light pollution ruined the view (or after 1am when street lights were turned off) and
• when photos of deep sky objects were only black& white, before colour photography “ruined” visual expectations.

They will also be advocating for “having a go” with your own DIY skills (no matter how rudimentary) for enhancing your observing experiences. Come and join us for this nostalgic look back in time and appreciate the skills of those who paved the way to create advances in technology that continue to enhance our experience of enjoying the night sky. Come in person to this meeting, to see examples of their DIY handiwork in the foyer, and have a chat with them over coffee after the meeting.

Bio: About Martin Lewicki : As a young teen, Martin switched from rock collecting to stargazing. Back in the 60's, telescopes were expensive but after experimenting and learning the principles of optics, Martin assembled his first refractor from lenses that were lying around, a 1-inch refractor magnifying about 25x. It was good enough to show the craters on the moon, phases of Venus, Galilean satellites and an incipient ring around Saturn. With the lights of Adelaide turned off every night at 1 am in those times - and young eyes, this 1-incher could see to magnitude 9 and reveal numerous deep sky objects. Then, in the mid-seventies, he joined the diaspora of ATMs (amateur telescope makers) and with the help of John Cole of Precision Optics, finally ground and polished the mirror for a 6-inch f/8 Newtonian reflector. He still uses the telescope today after several modifications and has constructed other equipment such as a tracking platform for wide field film astrophotography.

About Dean Davidson : Dean joined ASSA, sans-telescope, back in 1994 and immediately started grinding a 10” mirror and making a dobsonian scope: mainly due to lack of funds, and of availability of decent sized commercial scopes.

It was through this scope that he first had a (detailed!) view of the Horsehead Nebula, although from a very dark sky site. No go-to of course! After that scope was stolen (long story!), he made a 12” dob which can be transported as a small esky-sized box (he will bring this and a few other things along for a “show and tell”). He has made many accessories over the years, including adjustable chairs, tripods, parallelogram mounts, observing tables, ponset mounts and accessory boxes. His latest project is a 14” binocular telescope, which is now fully computerised (yes, he occasionally joins the dark side!) and can be transported as a VERY LARGE esky-sized box (it fits in the back of his Subaru anyway).

Other projects include a 4” f18 refractor (with a 19th century brass mirror-cell), and multiple restorations.

 

#science #astronomy #space #Adelaide #southaustralia

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