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Late-night meteor watch: Orionids
Late-night meteor watch: Orionids
Tue Oct 21, 2025, 11pm -- late,
Wed Oct 22, 2025, 9:30pm -- late,
Thu Oct 23, 2025, 11pm -- late
Tue Oct 21, 2025, 11pm -- late,
Wed Oct 22, 2025, 9:30pm -- late,
Thu Oct 23, 2025, 11pm -- late
On these dates, starting outside the Fountain pub in Barton Square, Ely, our chairman Alex will lead any interested parties on a watch for Orionid meteors (weather permitting). Wrap up warm!
To increase the likelihood of clear skies, two more sessions will start at the same place on the night before and after the peak on the 22nd, but at 11pm rather than 9:30. The 21st seems more likely to have clearer skies.
For those wanting a more generalised overview of the ins-and-outs of late-night/early-morning meteor watching, please refer to my recently revised article about the August Perseids, Tears of St. Lawrence.
The first night of this has now happened. A lovely clear night with a little low-hanging haze, and amazingly clear, the Pleiades obvious, Aldebaran burning like a beacon and when Jupiter came up it was so bright it was almost shocking. Not very many meteors though: maybe half a dozen in an hour.
The next two nights look... less good. Tonight looks to be a total washout.
Outdoor observing: late-night skywatch
Friday 22nd, Saturday 23rd, Sunday 24th August 2025, 11pm (the first with decent weather)
Barton Square, Ely, near the Fountain pub
Club chairman Alex Simpson will lead a three-night late-night skywatch to appreciate the glories of the summer sky and the Milky Way.
Outdoor observing: Perseid meteor watch
Monday 11th, Tuesday 12th and Wednesday 13th August 2025, 11pm (weather permitting)
Barton Square, Ely, near the Fountain pub
Club chairman Alex Simpson will lead a three-night Perseid-watching exercise, so as to maximise the chances of good weather and seeing at least some meteors.
Although it's summer, please remember to wrap up warmish against the sometimes cold night air, and against any stinging plants or insects. Bare arms, bare legs, shorts: not a good idea!
See Alex's excellent new article on the Perseids, the Tears of St. Lawrence!
CANCELLED
(due to unforeseen circumstances)
"Star-Struck in the Fens (or just plain stuck)"
Alex Simpson, Chairman
Friday, June 13th 2025, 7:30pm
Aedwen Room, Ely Museum, Market Street, Ely
Alex will give a (hopefully) relaxed and informal presentation about the club's future direction, and an overview of some hot topics in current space science and astronomy. The meeting will be conducted in a relatively relaxed, buffet seminar-style manner. All are welcome, so do come, or all the food will go to waste!
This will be our last meeting before our annual summer recess, because the room becomes too hot for any kind of social gathering. This was our regular custom before the onset of Covid-19, which we are now reverting to, as the club is now in the process of full-scale revival.
Love, Alex
Upcoming film: 80s Sci-Fi classic Tron
Saturday 24th May 2025, doors open 7pm, performance commences 7:30pm
Why not come along and enjoy the film from the palatial splendour of our sitemaster's sitting room home cinema setup?
Email nix@esperi.org.uk and let me know if you want to attend. (We hope to have addressed the slight technical hitches that detracted from the enjoyment of the last one.)
As before, Alex will meet all those who want to come and see it outside the great iron gates of the Beet Club in Lynn Road from 7pm onwards. Please email first if you want to attend, so we can have some idea of numbers. We can fit about ten people comfortably into my living room. Any more and we might have to stack people vertically (or turn them away).
Refreshments will be served, but do feel free to bring more to share!
"The idea, the fantasy, the fairy tale"
Soviet Science Fiction
Robert Jones, Toppings Bookshop
Friday May 9th 2025, 7:30pm
Aedwen Room, Ely Museum, Market Street, Ely
From its inception in 1917 until its dissolution in 1991, the Soviet Union privileged science, technology and space exploration as central to human endeavour, whilst simultaneously taking immense pride in Russian achievement in literature and the arts. Perhaps it is not surprising that, despite an unpredictable climate of state censorship, the genre known in the West as Science Fiction flourished in vital and distinctive ways, sometimes reflecting optimism at the triumphs of Soviet scientific advancement, but increasingly raising uncomfortable questions relating to its human and environmental cost. From the educational children's tales of early rocket pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, to Yevgeny Zamyatin's dystopian classic WE (a direct influence upon George Orwell), to the hauntingly inventive novels of the Strugatsky brothers, Robert Jones, of Topping and Company offers an introduction to the varied and fascinating world of Soviet SF.
The Artist and the Astrophysicist
Mike Stephens
Friday, March 14th, 7:30pm
Aedwen Room, Ely Museum, Market Street, Ely
In 1954, mathematician Roger Penrose visited an exhibition of M.C. Escher's work; he was spellbound. He and his father played with some ideas of their own for 'impossible' art. This in turn inspired Escher. Escher's work already included a kind of mathematical research, though he didn't think of it that way. Roger Penrose won the Nobel Prize for physics in 2020 for his work on black holes. His popular science books are filled with his own remarkable drawings & diagrams. This talk is a visual guide to the confluence of art and science and the beauty of the cosmos, inspired by Escher & Penrose.
Dune 2 film night! Sat Nov 30th, 7pm
If anyone wants to see this and hasn't already done so, I (Nick) am thinking of showing this "epic" (or so my sister tells me) on my wall-filling living room projector. (This is Dune 2: I do also have the first film if it turns out most people haven't seen that...)
Unlike in the cinema we can pause, and we even have subtitles, imagine that! So there'll be as many intervals as you like.Â
We can fit about 10 to 12 people comfortably before I run out of room and chairs. We currently have seven attendees, which fills my sofas, but I can drag chairs in too, so we're not full!
All those who might like to come, please email nix@esperi.org.uk by Wednesday 27th November and let me know. I'll send an email out to let people know exactly when and where to come (it's walking distance in Ely). (So I do need to know the email addresses of attendees, even if you talk to Alex to let him know instead.)
On the night, Alex will be there, outside, wearing a high-viz jacket, from 6:30, to guide you to the venue.
Feel free to bring your own refreshments! Coffee (Silver Oak standard!) will be provided, but alcohol I don't have so you'll have to bring it.
Hope to see you there!
This went very well, and a good time was had by all, even if 'all' was only five people! It would have been nice if just a few more of you had decided to join us, but so be it! However, we hope a few more of you might decide to come when we have the next film evening, hopefully in the spring.
We will definitely try to make a science fiction film show a regular part of our calendar!
We are hoping to repeat this event (with a different film) in late May. More info to come.
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