Here you'll find brief reports of our meetings in 2001. In these we try to include any web links or other pointers to further information that were provided by the speaker at the meeting. If you were at one of our meetings and would like to correct or expand the report relating to it then please email our webmaster.
|
|
Konrad Malin-Smith of the Croydon Astronomical Society gave a talk entitled "African Eclipse 2001". |
|
Dr Nial Tanvir of the University of Hertfordshire gave a talk about "Gamma Ray Bursts" in which he described the evidence that lead to the theories as to their origins gradually concluding that they were far distant and very energetic events. Their energy output is to supernovae as that of supernovae is to ordinary stars. They are also extremely rapid (in astronomical terms) in their brightening and fading, which means it is difficult to record them using all available spectral bands. Much has been learned from those few which have been observed in detail though. Amateurs who are able to respond rapidly to alerts could well help in making ground-breaking observations. |
|
Book Auction. The Stokes Family very kindly offered a huge selection of astronomical books for the society. It was decided that the best way to use the books was to place some in our library and auction the others. |
|
Universe Day celebrated the Society's 21st year. The event was was marked by an astronomical based meeting open to all with presentations by well known astronomical personalities, planetarium, solar system walk, astro-balloon race and commercial stands. |
|
Dr. Stuart Clark, who is Assistant Editor of Astronomy Now, and who also works part-time for the European Space Agency, gave a talk entitled "Life on other worlds and how to find it" |
|
Greg Smye-Rumsby gave an entertaining talk about the forthcoming transits of Mercury and Venus, and Tony Sizer talked about the relative sizes and densities of the solar system, the galaxies and the universe. |
Dr. Helen Walker, who has worked for many years on the ISO project, gave a talk entitled "Infra-red astronomy" in which she explained that IR is used in many areas of astronomical research, such as determining the composition of the atmospheres of the other planets, seeing through the dust in our own and other galaxies, and as a tool for determining the chemistry of material in interstellar space. She made it clear that the incredible Hubble pictures only gave part of the story, and very different information was gleaned from the IR and sub millimetre wave bands. The difference between IR images of the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy was striking. Andromeda has no hot centre, implying no central black hole!
|
|
Dr. Jonathan Shanklin gave a wide-ranging talk entitled "An Astronomer in Antarctica" in which he described a visit to Antarctica, with reference to the many and varied astronomical, meterological and environmental phenomena that are either peculiar to the region or at least much more common there. |
|
Dr. Monica Grady gave us a very interesting talk entitled "Mars, meteorites and the search for life" in which she explained why she was sure some of the meteorites could only have come from Mars. She also gave us an insight into the uncertainties surrounding the alleged Martian fossils in the Antarctic Martian meteorite ALH84001. She also brought small samples from a Martian meteorite and a carbonaceous chondritic meteorites for us to look at. |
|
Geoff Epps stepped into the limelight at rather short notice, and gave a talk entitled "The early history and subsequent evolution of the planet Mars" in which he described some of the hypotheses about Mars' early history, and the evidence for and against them that has recently been gathered from space probes like Mars Global Surveyor. |
|
Annual General Meeting and Chairman's Address. |
|
Dr. Chris Owen gave a talk entitled "The Solar-Terrestrial Connection" in which he described the interaction of plasma and magnetic fields. His talk was accompanied by illustrations including several animation sequences of images from spacecraft such as Soho and Polar, showing solar prominences, flares and coronal mass ejections and auroral activity in the Earth's ionosphere. He concluded his talk with a brief description of parts of the Cluster II mission. |
|
