Society monthly meeting recorded on 20250115 at The Briars Mount Martha Observatory.

Meeting introduction was by the President, Dr. Peter Skilton, including explanation of crepuscular and anti-crepuscular rays.

Vice President, Chris Kostokanellis, presented the Astrophotographic challenge for the month, followed by a round up of the Mount Buller public night collaboration with the ASV in early January. Committee member, Dr. Guido Tack, was unexpectedly away, so Chris also presented his slides for Sky for the Month.

This was followed by past President, David Rolfe, speaking about his family’s recent holiday to Hawaii, and the Jeep tour up to the summit of Mauna Kea to see the observatories there.

Then long-term member and chemist, Phil Holt, spoke about the history and usage of his simple, yet very effective, Hubcap All-Sky Camera mounted on his shed at home in Mornington. He brought the truck hubcap in for members to see, including the heating wires underneath it for cold nights.

The main topic was by Prof. Inna Sharf, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, McGill University in Montreal, Canada, who spoke on the topic of “Space Debris Removal: Technologies, Missions and Science.” This public talk was from 28-April-2022 and is courtesy of the Dept. of Physics, McGill University.

A musical closure followed, showing the “Phases and Librations for the Moon for all of 2025 – southern hemisphere view”. The video footage is courtesy of the NASA Scientific Visualisation Studio, and is set to the audio of “Deep Night” by Infraction from the No Copyright Music channel.