AT ITS recent AGM, the society was able to report another successful year with membership maintained at just over 100.
Members come from most parts of East Sussex between Lewes and Hastings and inland as far as Crowborough and Wadhurst.
2009 is an International Year of Astronomy, endorsed by UNESCO, and aims to increase awareness of its contribution to science and c
ulture and, more immediately, to encourage people just to go out and look at the night sky.
In particular, it celebrates the 400th anniversary of Galileo and English-man Thomas Harriot first turning their telescopes to the heavens.
What they saw revolutionised man's view of his place in the universe.
The society's next meeting at Willingdon Memorial Hall will be at 7.30pm on Saturday November 14th and willBE this year's David Godfrey Lecture.
This commemorates the society's longest serving member and this year the speaker will be Dr. John Mason, principal lecturer at the South Downs Planetarium at Chichester.
His subject will be Meteor Showers, a branch of astronomy that David Godfrey was particularly interested in.
For further information about the society, call the membership secretary, Bob Cripps, tel. 732067, write to 11, Eldon Road, Eastbourne or visit the society's website at www.EastbourneAS.org.uk.
