HAS Young Astronomers Group:
Below are a few photos; there are more further down!
Our Young Astronomers Group was originally founded by our late Secretary Frances Ridgley, and was re-established in 2021. It provides a friendly setting for young people aged 8-16 to find out more about astronomy and make friends with other youngsters with a common interest in the subject.
The group meets at Thames Chase Forest Centre on the last Thursday of the month at 7pm (except in August), and meetings usually last just over an hour. Our activities include:
The group is led by Les Brand, our Outreach Officer, who works part-time as a Support Astronomer and Adult Astronomy Tutor at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, and other colleagues in the Havering Astronomical Society. For further information, please e-mail Liz Watson at
young.astronomers@havastro.co.uk.
YA meetings and activities:
info and photos from selected dates are below
April 2024 - 8 April solar eclipse - talks and related activities
Club members John Sweeney and our Secretary, Liz Watson, talked about their trips to Mexico and Texas, respectively, to see the impressive solar eclipse of 8 April. They had varying degrees of success, due to local weather conditions, but they gave a great summary of what it's like to travel for such events. John and Liz also showed some photos from that eclipse, and from a number of others.
Les Brand helped the YAs to show, with some inflated plastic planets and moons, how and why eclipses occur; and how the Moon is at an appropriate size and distance from the Sun whereby total eclipses can take place. The YAs also demonstrated the effect of the Earth's tidal locking of the Moon, spinning once on its axis in the same time it takes to orbit the Earth, and therefore always showing the same side to us.
Les' Tellarium (above right, and left) helped to show the mechanics of an eclipse.
Photo credits: Liz Watson. Short video demonstrating the Tellarium (left): Les Brand
March 2024 - Black holes: talk and activities
Les Brand gave a talk on black holes, a topic which had been requested by the Young Astronomers, divided into two parts. In the first half, he spoke about the life-cycle of massive stars and how they end their lives in a supernova explosion, producing a very dense neutron star or a black hole, depending on the initial mass of the star. This was followed by a hands-on activity, using balloons wrapped in tin foil, which showed how stars keep their mass despite internal changes within the star, then how they are compressed into a small ball with the same mass.
The second part of the talk was about how black holes were first found, and how they can be detected. Les then spoke about the supermassive black holes at the centre of the elliptical galaxy M87 (in Virgo) and of our galaxy (called Sagittarius A*). The evening ended with the second activity, which used buckets, balls of different sizes and stretchy fabric to explore how “matter tells spacetime how to curve, and curved spacetime tells matter how to move” (Prof John Wheeler). Straws and tiny balls were used to find out how the escape velocity varies with mass of the object.
Photo credits: Les Jones
February 2024 - Possibility of life on exoplanets: talk and activity
We began the meeting with 'Are There Aliens', a video about the possibility of life on other planets; the link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMXgTLopRx0. This was followed by an activity, involving the YAs drawing possible lifeforms on five exoplanets. They had to relate their proposed lifeform to conditions on the planet they had chosen, and came up with a wide range of imaginative possibilities.
After the break Peter Morris gave a talk on the topic. He said that alien life might be simple, like slime on Earth. Even simple organisms change their planet’s atmosphere, producing chemical signals which may indicate the presence of life. K2 18b (a planet orbiting a red dwarf star) has an exotic chemical in its atmosphere called dimethyl sulphide. Is this the first sign of life outside Earth?
Photo credits: #1, 3 and 4 - Les Jones; #2 - Les Brand
Video credit: Royal Observatory Greenwich
January 2024 - Telescopes: talk and hands-on session
Les Brand gave a detailed talk about telescopes and binoculars, with a lot of practical information about acquiring and using them. We also had a hands-on session, looking at a wide range of scopes and binoculars set up in the Education Room and the Barn (we didn't go outside, as it wasn't a clear night).
Les also demonstrated the ZWO Seestar smart telescope, which can be operated via an app (see image #3, Dec 2023 - below - for a photo of the Moon taken with the Seestar). Please see Les' slides, in PDF format; also accessible via the middle, orange button further above, marked 'Telescopes, mounts and how to use them' (and please feel free to look at Peter Morris' guide to telescopes, also quoted on that PDF).
Many thanks to club members who brought in equipment, and who helped out in any way on the evening.
Photos #1-2 by Les Jones; #3-4 by Emma Christmas; #5 by Liz Watson
December 2023 - Quiz, feedback session and observing
The YAs did well in our Christmas/New Year Quiz - a mix of true/false and multi-choice questions. After a break for some festive nibbles, Les Brand held an interactive feedback session, asking the YAs their thoughts on the club, and what their favourite space and astronomy topics are - and their parents, via a questionnaire, what they'd like to get out of the club in 2024. We are grateful to the adults who completed our survey; we also plan to e-mail this more widely round the YA section shortly.
The skies were clear, so we then had an observing session outside (image #3 was taken that evening).
Photo credits: #1 and 3 - Les Brand; #2 - Magda Wheatley
November 2023 - Asterisms talk and activity
Peter Morris gave a talk about, and held an activity on, Asterisms. The YAs learned the differences between constellations and asterisms, and were shown examples of the latter; with animations to help illustrate some descriptive names. Also, using thick white felt pens, they drew asterisms of their own design, on A3-sized starcharts, depicting the night sky at various seasons (printed from Stellarium, planetarium software), and showed them to the rest of the audience.
Photos #1 by Les Jones; #2-4 by Magda Wheatley
Visit to Bayfordbury Observatory, University of Hertfordshire -
18 November 2023, 6-8pm
[this info also appears on our Events and Activities page, for adult members]
A very successful visit to Bayfordbury Observatory, at the University of Hertfordshire, organised by Les Brand. Thirty three people attended: a mix of Young Astronomers and their parents, plus adult club members.
The evening opened with a talk by Calum about astronomy, covering aspects such as the structure of the universe, star development, and the university's own research. There was then a thrilling planetarium show, presented by Ashley. After this, we went outside, to see the radio and optical telescopes, and had a fascinating time learning how the 50cm Cassegrain and the 24” CDK telescopes are used.
This visit was made possible through the kind donation made by Ian Ridgley and family in memory of Frances Ridgley, late Society founder member and long time Society Secretary.
Our thanks are due to Mily Riley, Bayfordbury Education Officer, and to Calum and Ashley. We are very grateful to Les Brand for organising this visit. See more photos below.
Further information:
Bayfordbury Observatory is the University of Hertfordshire's teaching observatory for astronomy and astrophysics.
Photo credits: #1 - Magda Wheatley; #2 - Les Brand; #3 - Bill Wood; #4-6, 8 - Les Jones; #7 - Peter Morris
October 2023 - Observing
We had an impromptu observing evening, when the skies were unexpectedly clear. The Young Astronomers were able to see the Moon, Jupiter (with its four closest moons) and Saturn through a variety of telescopes and binoculars that we had available - though it was perhaps a bit too light in the early evening, at this time of year, to see many stars.
The Asterisms talk and activity that we had planned for this meeting will now be held in November.
Photos #1-2 by Andrew Lyner; #3 by Peter Morris
September 2023 - Cosmic Distances (no meeting in August) -
With a talk and activities led by Les Brand, we had a great evening, learning about cosmic distances: what units are used, and how distances are measured (including the use of parallax, and ‘standard candles’!). Exciting activities involved the YAs:
Photos #1-3 by Magda Wheatley; #4 by Andrew Lyner
July 2023 - Hands-on session about rockets and propulsion
Below: Making and propelling paper rockets
Below and below right: The 'stomp rocket' proved very popular!
Video credits: Above and centre: Joe Bourne; above right: Shihua Yan
We enjoyed Andrew Lyner's talk about the principles of propulsion, which included a short video showing children – one lying on a skateboard – pushing away from another. Peter Morris and Magda Wheatley then ran the following activities:
Please see the videos above!
Permission has been obtained from those featured here. Many thanks to all who helped, or provided these videos.
Practical, hands-on session about telescopes - June 2023
The Young Astronomers were fascinated to learn all about how telescopes work, and how to use them - and to have a go at astrophotography! A special 'thank you' to club members Andy Bennett and Ian Moss who helped out with advice, demonstrations and supplying their telescopes for the evening. The scopes were set up outside, and the YAs used distant terrestrial objects for pointing and focusing, and also observed the Moon.
Photo credits: 1. Liz Watson; 2. Reena Midha; 3 & 4. Les Brand; 5. Reena Midha.
Results of our book competition
We asked Young Astronomers to draw their favourite planet and say why they like it so much. Our thanks are due to UClan Publishing for offering three copies of 'Matilda Meets the Universe' as prizes. Congratulations to our winners, announced at our June meeting:
Max D’Aiuto, Millie Harvey and Arjun Midha
The judges also awarded a runner-up prize of a book token to Esmé Harvey.
May 2023 - Talk about sundials, and sundial-making activity
Having been asked to bring scissors and a torch, the Young Astronomers learned about the principles, uses and development of sundials, and about the Sun's varying path across the sky through the year. They were shown some models of different types of sundials used through history.
Also, they experimented with a torch, casting shadows around a stick inserted into a base of plasticine, having marked out the hours; and also cut sundials from paper, creating a gnomon (which casts the shadow) from the paper circle.
Many thanks to Andrew Lyner for presenting this talk, and running the activities.
Images below by Andy Bennett
March 2023 - Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram activity
Using some star details, and sticky coloured stars, to plot absolute magnitude against spectral class, the Young Astronomers learned about the H-R diagram. This diagram shows the relationship between a star's temperature and its luminosity, and can be used to chart the life cycle of a star. They built up the chart, and then were shown an actual H-R diagram. We like to think that the two are very close! Judge for yourself from the images (courtesy Les Jones) below:
External resources