On Friday 12th January 2024, the Bristol Astronomical Society hosted the official opening of the “StarChair” and “StarShed”.
The powerful wide field 6” binoculars and StarChair setup were donated by former Chairman Andy Stephens.
Andy travelled down from Cheltenham to do the honours of officially declaring the new observing platform.
The whole system; the shed, base, StarChair and binoculars were installed on our Failand site by our Observatory Director David Bennett, and a team of volunteers. Over the last few months, they have worked hard to get the system in place and working well. We owe a warm thank you to David and his team for this.
After the official opening, Andy Stephens gave a talk about the history of his time at the society and how he came about the binoculars and StarChair. Then David gave a retro slide projector presentation of photo and images in his astronomical catalogue, with some of the younger members of the audience learning about 35mm photographic slides for the first time.
Grand Opening of the Binocular Star Chair