A good turnout for this meeting with 13 members present. We are open to anyone interested in Astronomy and are very friendly and welcoming to astronomers of all ages.

Jay talked us through the Parker probe, a solar orbiting mission that is passing through the sun’s outer layers. After sling shotting itself around Venus a few times to decelerate and bring perigee closer and closer to the sun it has already done some great science, found some new comets, measured some interesting facts about the magnetic fields on the Suns surface, seen some effects that were previously only being theorized about and generally managed to ask more questions than it has answered! Lots of great pictures (both actual and artists impressions – cover picture Credit: ASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben)

As usual we finished with tea/coffee and biscuits and lots of general natter about Astronomy related things.

This was Jay’s 211th talk to MAG. A truly monumental total. Jay claimed it will be his last talk to us, so a huge thanks go out to him for all 211 talks!