January ’23 Monthly Meeting – Observing and Imaging Mercury and Venus with David Arditti

For January’s monthly meeting we are thrilled to welcome the President of the British Astronomical Association – David Arditti.

David Arditti is a composer of contemporary classical music. Observer and imager from light-polluted Outer London. His main current interest is imaging the Moon and planets in high-resolution, but he also dabble in solar, cometary and asteroid work, and takes deep-sky images as well. He gives talks, mostly around practical amateur astronomy, but also sometimes on historical and cosmological subjects. He has been on the Board of Trustees and Council of the BAA at various times since 2005.

David is a keen telescope and observatory enthusiast. His main telescopes are a Celestron C-14, a C-11 fitted with a Hyperstar imaging system, and a 245mm Newtonian. He also uses several smaller telescopes as well, including a Lunt LS60 double-stacked H alpha telescope, and a 100mm refractor that he does much public outreach work with, taking it in a trolley around London on buses and tube trains. The other telescopes are housed in three observatory sheds he has constructed.