THE March 26 meeting was Margaret Morris on Observatories.

Margaret started collecting at the age of six, when she was already hooked on skies and stars.

Her presentation was on astronomy, for which she has won international awards for her expertise.

She had travelled all the way from Glasgow to attend the meeting.

Her first frame was devoted to total solar eclipses, of which two occurred in Britain in 1927 and 1999. Next was the panoramic astrolabe, viewing the night sky with the unaided eye, Galileo and Kepler and optics and telescopes.

In a 1682 article in the London Gazette, Edmond Halley predicted the return of a blazing star, his comet. Halley was Charles II’s astronomer, Charles having founded the Royal Society in 1662.

The last two frames of the first session were devoted to observatories. Margaret had worked at the University of Glasgow observatory, and observatories at Vilnius, Prague, Madrid, Pyrenees and others were shown.

Two Argentinean observatories were in contact with Glasgow during the Falklands War, which caused Margaret to described astronomy as the “international peaceful science”.

The second session was social philately, a cross between postal history and thematics, with just letters and covers.

There were also sections on the popularity of astronomy – ship names, UK cork star cancels, Whitaker’s Almanac on Mulreadies, humour and adverts; distant observatories in Australia and the COGH; exchange of data; correspondence about instruments’ and the sighting of a planet and a meteor. A stunning display.

The next meetings is the annual auction on Wednesday, April 23.