Hope you managed to catch the BBC Stargazing live shows in January. With Major Tim Peake’s stay on ISS already a month old, the emphasis was very much on the work he is doing, astronaut training, and the future direction of manned space flight... [Read more about Stargazing Live]
Well, err, mmm, very little to report really, just about every Sunday night has been rained off, clouded out or blown away. But don't despair... [Read more about Observatory Nights]
Dr Alan Chapman
(Oxford University)
This was Dr Chapman’s personal homage to Patrick, not his life story as such, but an attempt to compare his likeness with other great science communicators, publishers and educators of the last 300 years. [Read more about Astromeet 2015 Lecture 4: The Life of Sir Patrick Moore]
Dr Melvin Hoare
(Leeds University)
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project is an international effort to build the world’s largest radio telescope, with eventually over a square kilometre (one million square metres) of collecting area. The scale of the SKA represents a huge leap forward in research and development towards building and delivering a unique instrument and preparations are now well under way. [Read more about Astromeet 2015 Lecture 3: Developments in Radio Astronomy]
Dr Richard Massey
(Durham University)
Dr Massey’s subject matter was something we have visited several times over the years, what is stuff made of. Chemists would say elements; atoms molecules etc, Physicists would say; muons, quarks, bosons, up and down particles etc. Ask an astronomer and he would suggest 4% baryonic or ordinary matter, 23% dark matter and 73% dark energy! [Read more about Astromeet 2015 Lecture 2: What's the (Dark) Matter?]
Prof Tom Marsh
(Warwick University)
In the first of four summaries from Leeds Astromeet 2015, Mark tells us about Prof. Tom Marsh's talk, subtitled "Delving the depths of white dwarfs, neutron stars and black-holes".
Tom and his team specialise in the high-speed data acquisition and analysis techniques needed to track them. His major project of the last few years has been the use of ULTRACAM, a high-speed CCD camera, but is now working on a successor instrument, bigger and better, with more channels called HiPERCAM. [Read more about Astromeet 2015 Lecture 1: Astronomy at High-Speed]
Mark waxes lyrical (or dreams poetically) over the 2015 Society Christmas Dinner:
"A long time ago (about a year actually) in a galaxy far, far away, (truth be told it was really quite close, like this one) a party of intrepid rebels ventured forth to eat and be merry..."
The November meeting proved most educational and entertaining. After our usual look at the comings and goings in the heavens, society news and business etc, our attention turned to the more exotic and intoxicating.
Andi had prepared a presentation on Comets, to commemorate the 1st year anniversary of Philea landing on comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P). In particular Andi thought it would be informative and fun to make a comet in the classroom using ingredients that are now known to be found in comets. He had furnished everyone with a bucket, a bag, gloves and then the ingredients; among which... [Read more about 'Comet Ye' causes a stir]
For the final day of October you would be forgiven in thinking that summer had made an unscheduled return, such were the balmy conditions which coincided with both Goth weekend and the ‘Creatures of the Night’ event held at the Danby Moors Centre... [Read more about Danby Moors Centre Star Party]
The society Christmas meal has now been booked. The venue is the Hare and Hounds in Hawsker, on Saturday December 5th for 19:30h Details of the menu are on our website.
As of going to press, 10 people have booked for the meal. The menu choices have been passed on, so if anyone wishes to come along Tuesday 1st is the cut off date.
Travelling arrangements will be finalised at the December meeting (on the 1st) including picking up points and times. Andi and Mark usually act as the Taxi service, although we may book a taxi. [Read more about Christmas Meal 2015: Last Call]
| Sun | Rise | Set |
|---|---|---|
| Actual | 05:48 | 20:14 |
| Civil Twilight | 05:09 | 20:53 |
| Nautical Twilight | 04:19 | 21:43 |
| Astronomical Twilight | 03:17 | 22:45 |
| Moon | Rise | Set |
|---|---|---|
| 02:59 | 08:36 |
