Our meeting on the 6th September 2024 saw DDAS stalwarts Arthur Tristram and Dave Maynard present a talk that looked back on 50 years of the DDAS. It was a wonderful trip down memory lane. Arthur's membership of the DDAS goes back to the very early days of the Society. Their talk centred around a 'diary' that Arthur kept concerning the Society. Their talk brought back a lot of fond memories, I joined the DDAS in 1987, so it was good to learn what the Society was doing before I joined.

It was a fascinating talk, to learn about all the events we were involved with, the National Astronomy Weeks (NAW), a British Astronomical Association (BAA) 'Out of Town' meeting, the DDAS 10th Anniversary exhibition at the Derby Museum and so on. I was amazed at how many sponsored bike rides that DDAS members had completed to fund-raise for the Society, and, of course, the story of the establishment and construction of the Flamsteed Observatory.

Then there were the pictures shown during the presentation. Wow, how young we looked! It was somewhat surprising to see oneself in those pictures taken at a DDAS event, knowing that event was quite some years ago, in some cases, decades! All in all Arthur and Dave's talk was a fantastic exploration of the history of the DDAS. As I have mentioned before, it brought back a lot of fond memories.