About us

This page was last amended on 15th November, 2008

Carolian Astronomy Society in Kidderminster

Who we are and what we do ...

The Carolian Astronomy Society (CAS) is based in Kidderminster, Worcestershire UK. Membership is open to any individuals who support and wish to further the Objectives of the Society. We are a relatively new Society and welcome new members, particularly the less experienced and newcomers to our fascinating hobby.

We meet in the Science Theatre at King Charles I School, Comberton Road, Kidderminster on the second Wednesday of the month throughout the year with a short break during the Summer. We have a mixture of outside speakers and speakers from within the Society. We also have practical observation evenings and a couple of purely social events during the year.

Our web site ...

The objective of our web site is to provide timely and relevant astronomical and CAS information to our Members and to any visitors that find us and are interested in astronomy.

The web site was launched in August 2007 and is expanded and updated on a regular basis. The astronomical information is aimed at eventually covering, in one place, a wide-ranging collection of topics of a level appropriate to the majority of our members. This means that absolute beginners might find some of it a bit hard going, and those looking for really in-depth specialist information are unlikely to find it here.

Developing this web site is a labour of love, and it will undoubtedly take many months or even years for it to become anywhere near complete. So add us to your favourites and come back and have another look at us from time to time.

Our history ...

The Carolian Astronomy Society came into being as a result of King Charles I School running a GCSE course in Astronomy, open to the general public, adults as well as young people, as part of its obligations to the community as a Specialist Science College. The course was very well supported and fourteen of the class obtained passes in the examination.

It was felt that it would be a pity if this group broke up and went their separate ways once the course had finished, so we set up and became the nucleus of the Carolian Astronomy Society. It still has close informal ties to, but is independent of, the School, but its name was chosen (derived from the Latin form of the name "Charles") to reflect its origins.

The continuing close links to the School gives us access to many of the resources of the School, including astronomical telescopes, binoculars and a solarscope, as well as state of the art computers and audiovisual equipment used by our speakers.

The Society is also a member of the Federation of Astronomical Societies.

The Objectives of the Society are to ...

	support the continuing provision of the GCSE Astronomy course at the School by offering free Associate Membership to bona fide students, as described in the Rules of the Society, of that course;
	provide a continuing educational resource for astronomy and the discovery of the night sky for the benefit of the local community;
	provide theoretical and practical sessions for the mutual benefit and enjoyment of all Members;
	promote and raise awareness of amateur astronomy to the general public;
	circulate information to Members on astronomical matters by the publication of newsletters, booklets, the Internet etc.; and
	support local efforts to reduce light pollution.

For comments or queries about this web site or the Carolian Astronomy Society in general, please email us at the email address shown above.

All times quoted on this web site are in Universal Time (UT) unless specifically stated otherwise. They are only "best estimates" and no responsibility can be accepted for errors. And all star charts published on this web site were generated using Skywatch/TheSky, © Tasco Inc/Software Bisque, Inc. All rights reserved. www.bisque.com