First I'd like to welcome all the new AIG members whose details have just been processed.

I apologise for the long delays some of you have experienced - we have had printer problems and I was away for 4 weeks.

You will be happy to know that after its first anniversary the Astronomy Interest Group stands on a membership of 95! Not bad going hey? :-)

And our members are not all in KZN either - we even have members in Upington, Danhof, Morgan Bay and Welgemoed; as well as one in Zimbabwe and one in Australia!

So feel free to send a gift subscription to your friends/relatives abroad - as long as they're on e-mail they can still enjoy membership to the AIG.

A colourful new Museum leaflet on Astronomy will soon be available, and (for us locals) the University of Natal Astronomy Society has a full and exciting programme lined up for the rest of the year, which we are free to attend (I'll be sending it to you next week).

I'll also be delivering a presentation on highlights of my overseas trip on Tuesday, 28th September, 6:30PM at the Museum.

Come and hear a first-hand account of the European solar eclipse and see very nice digital images of the event, as well as photos of the Royal Greenwich Observatory and a variety of other astronomy-related exhibits that I came across.

Attached is a lovely image of the giant gas cloud in the constellation of Orion. At 1500 light-years distant, Orion is the closest star forming region to Earth.

Regards