Talk Delivered - Mitchel Troy VPA and Gardening Club

Background

It's something I've often thought about doing, but never had the courage to instigate.  Astronomy is an awesome hobby, and if you are reading this, you probably don't need me to tell you.  In the world of TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and the much maligned Zoom meetings, there is something far superior about standing in front of a group of people, and engaging with them in person, face to face.

Towards the end of last year, I was asked if I would be interested in delivering a talk about the hobby.  The remit was very open, but the audience was to be one of no pre-emptive interest in astronomy to start from.  I agreed and said that I would love the opportunity to come and talk.  It was to be for a group of people in a small village just outside of Monmouth called Mitchel Troy, and the Mitchel Troy VPA and Gardening Club.  It was time to don the thinking cap, and come up with something suitable.

Where to start

On the face of it, some might call it a bit of a daunting task, but let me tell you, it's much easier putting together a talk where the target audience has conceivably no prior knowledge or understanding of the subject.  From my point of view at least, it meant that I could put together a very informative, but low-brow talk.  Don't get me wrong, we could still touch on some fascinating astronomy and science, but this was more about the hobby, how I started and what makes it a great topic to be interested in.  The best way to inspire people I feel, is to start at the beginning.  What got me hooked, and why I spend my time stargazing and imaging.  Then maybe, if I could convey that same initial spark that got me interested, it could spark the same interest for someone else too.

The talk

Skip forward to last night, and the talk itself.  I've created a talk entitled 'Exploring The Cosmos From The Back Garden And Beyond' and the aim of the talk was to demonstrate how accessible astronomy is as a hobby, prove that you do not always need big specialist equipment to take part in it and that actually, if you don't have easy access to a dark area of garden or public space, you can still immerse yourself in the hobby from your armchair in your living room.  It uses a series of my own images in the main, my own descriptions of my own experiences, and to round off, a couple of other images from NASA which are publicly available to download and use free of charge.

The venue and giving the talk

The venue was Mitchel Troy village hall.  It's a great venue with an excellent set up, complete with a mounted projector and screen ready to go.  I just needed to turn up with my laptop and clicker.  That made things incredibly easy for me from the start.  I was soon set up and ready to go.

Given that as already mentioned, the audience comprised of people with no initial interest in the hobby, it was so good to see how many people turned up to listen.  It would have been so easy for people to arrive later to just attend their club meeting, forgoing the talk completely.  It meant so much to me, and safe to say I had a whale of a time.  Everyone listened really diligently and asked some great questions at the end.  Fortunately, I was able to formulate some sort of answer for each of them, which was a relief!

The highlight of the evening for me was being approached by numerous people after the main talk was over, who come to express their thanks and gratitude for coming to talk to them.  But the evening wasn't over yet.  While the membership continued with their meeting indoors, I retreated back outside where I was able to check the sky and found that the clouds that had blanketed the sky on my arrival, had cleared away.  This was a great opportunity to hold a brief stargazing session with the attendees as they were leaving after their meeting had finished.

I set up the telescope in a dark corner around the back of the village hall, and it gave us just enough a view of the sky that I was able to pick out several constellation including Cassiopeia, Cygnus, Andromeda and Lyra to name a few.  During the talk, one of the images I showed was of the Andromeda galaxy, so it was a really nice touch that I was then able to show people the galaxy through the eyepiece.  Following that, we also enjoyed views of the Owl cluster.  A perfect way to end an excellent evening.

Wrapping up

This was a top evening in my book.  I again must thank everyone from Mitchel Troy VPA and Gardening Club for inviting me to their evening meeting and giving me the opportunity to explain why astronomy is such a good hobby to be involved with.  I really hope I have the chance to do it again and the ideas have already started flowing with ideas of new topics I could cover. 

Away from this particular club, I also kind of hope it opens the door on more opportunities to be able to talk to more groups and clubs in the future.  So, if you're willing to take a punt on me, get in touch!  My mind has certainly been racing with ideas of different scenarios to get involved with, but for now, best I keep it in check!

Until the next time, thanks for reading!