This evening’s meeting was the society’s AGM and our president John Gardner breezed through this formality with his usual speed and good humour. There was some discussion about increasing the annual subscriptions due to the speakers fees and there was general agreement by the members that there should be an increase from next year. Also discussed was the peregrine nestbox that was attached to the tower on Wakefield Cathedral by seven of our own members bringing the project to a successful conclusion. More details will follow on the website. We hope that the single peregrine, which has been using the spire as a perch for many months, can attract a mate. The box can easily be seen on the east side of the tower from the Kirkgate precinct. Thanks go to Sheffield University for all their help and advice and donation of the nestbox.
Following the AGM, one of our own members Francis Hickenbottom very kindly stepped in to replace the advertised speaker, who had to pull out due to ill health. Francis is a keen and very knowledgeable astronomer, and gave us an interesting talk based on his own photographs of the stars and planets taken while on holiday in Wales. It was very much an audience participation evening, where everyone had to work out where the various constellations were, and identify some of the brightest stars in the night sky .