Society monthly meeting recorded on 20260318 at The Briars Mount Martha Observatory.

Meeting introduction was by the President, Dr. Peter Skilton.

Then the Astrophotographic challenge this month was presented by Vice-President, Chris Kostokanellis. Committee member, Dr. Guido Tack, then presented the Sky for the Month.

Past Vice-President, Paul Albers, then presented about Defibrillation for Astronomers, given that a portable defibrillator is located at the front entrance next door at the Briars Ecohouse.

The main topic was a public lecture held on 5-Feb-2014 about “The Lives of Stars”, presented by Emeritus Professor Carolin Crawford, courtesy of Gresham College in London.

An educational science video then followed: “Yes, Apollo Flew Through the Van Allen Belts Going to the Moon” , presented by space historian, Amy Shira Teitel, courtesy of her The Vintage Space channel.

A musical closure followed, being a violin cover of the John Williams’ tune of Rey’s Theme from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, performed by Polaris Dawn Mission Specialist, Sarah Gillis, and youth orchestras around the world simultaneously, and beamed to Earth by the Space X Starlink satellites on 2024-Sep-13. The video is courtesy of SpaceX, polarisprogram.com and Space Intelligence channel. The orchestras included the El Sistema program in Venezuela, The Boston String Academy in USA, NEOJIBA in Brazil, Dream Orchestra in Sweden, Brass for Africa in Uganda, and BLUME Haiti.