Here you'll find brief reports of our meetings in 2002. 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.
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At our Christmas meeting, Orpington met the Croydon Astronomical Society in a head-to-head quiz hosted by BBC Blue Peter Astronomer, Anton Vamplew. Both teams were asked for the their team-names. Croydon, all dressed the same in black - were the "All Blacks". Orpington had decided on a more prophetic name of "Clueless", and wore pixie-hats...
The teams put on a great show through expertise and mental dexterity. However by the half way point it was clear that Orpington was no match for the wits of Croydon. When all said and done both teams played excellently and fun was had by all. Croydon have also expressed an interest in a return match! |
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Our observing officer Jeff Harries gave us a short talk on the benefits of being able to recognise particular double stars, and using tem as sign posts in the sky. Then Paul Whitmarsh demonstrated AVI2bmp and AstroStack as tools for enhancing astronomical images caught using a webcam. He also showed us an animation prepared using Cartes du Ciel of Saturn's transit of M1, due on January 4th, 2003. After the coffee break Tony Sizer gave a short and informative talk on how astronomers can answer the inevitable questions about the Star of Bethlehem, and finally Brian Mellors demonstrated his Meade GPS telescope's set-up and go-to functions. |
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Fay Dowker gave us an intriguing talk entitled "Unifying the Universe" which ranged from Newton and classical physics via General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics towards Quantum Gravity, showing how each modelled the universe in a particular way, and failed in certain situations. The talk ended with quite a lively question-and-answer session. |
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Murray Barber from Wadhurst Astronomical Society gave us an interesting and very informative talk entitled "V2 - First Dangerous Step into Space". He illustrated it with many slides and a video showing several V2 test launches from Peenemünde. He also brought along a few V2 artefacts for us to examine. |
 Gilbert Satterthwaite appeared in the BBC TV programme "What the Tudors Did For Us", explaining the "Digges" telescope to the programme's presenter Adam Hart-Davis. Another device developed by Thomas Digges, the theodolite, was demonstrated by Dr. Allan Chapman. |
The Society's President Gilbert Satterthwaite gave us an update on the "Digges" telescope. He worked on the possible optics for this scope with his friend, the late Colin Ronan. There has been some media interest in the telescope recently.
The Society's Chairman Greg Smye-Rumsby then gave a short talk on some of the image enhancement that can be performed using tools like Photoshop. He emphasised the point was to reveal information that the images already contained, and used some of the images taken by Society members to illustrate his talk. |
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Dr Ian Crawford from the University College gave us a talk on "The Scientific Case for Human Spaceflight". He outlined the highlights of the human exploration of space, with particular reference to the Moon landings. He explained why it was possible to extract much more scientific value from those manned missions than could have been extracted from purely robotic exploration, and then explained how the sam e principle applied to current missions like the International Space Station, and proposed future missions such as bases on the Moon and landings on Mars. |
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Brijen Hathi from the Open University gave us a talk on the "Cassini Huygens mission". He described in some detail the instruments on the Huygens lander, and showed some recent Hubble images of Titan. Earlier guesses that the probe might land in an ocean dictated that some of the surface science instruments be capable of analysing its constituents, expected to be mostly ethane and ethanol. Hubble's new images suggest that there are oceans on Titan, but that they're a long way from the place the probe is expected to land. They appear to show some high solid ground at that location, so the probe may have a hard landing after its slow decent through Titan's atmosphere. |
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Dr. John Mason dashed up from Chichester to give us an enthusiastic and informative talk entitled "Destination Mars", profusely illustrating it with slides, and including a few animated explanations. He covered most of the successful fly-bys, orbiters and landers, and also mentioned some of the mishaps that have befallen some of the les successful missions. |
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Our Members Evening included lavishly illustrated talks by Mike McRoberts and Paul Whitmarsh about their CCD cameras. Sue Peters and Mirriam Harries discussed the use of binoculars for observing, and comet Ikeya-Zhang also put in an appearance through thin high cloud and the tree tops. Jeff Harries recounted some of the more challenging observations made during recent society observing evenings, and also acted as Master of Ceremonies for the evening. |
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After the Annual General Meeting business was concluded, our chairman Greg Smye-Rumsby demonstrated the Society's website. |
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Robin Scagell stepped in at short notice and gave a talk about "Astrophotography". This he illustrated with many slides, and a fascinating array cameras, lenses and of bits of equipment, from the simple Scotch (barn door) drive to a Super Polaris mount with electric drives in both axes. Members will have drawn inspiration from this talk, so expect to see more results in the gallery soon. |
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