Talks programme for 2023
Wednesday 18 January, 7.15 for 7.30pm
Nick James presented: ‘Optical tracking of distant spacecraft’
Nick James is Director of the Comet Section of the British Astronomical Association, and also Assistant Editor of The Astronomer Magazine. He has written many articles, and co-authored "Observing Comets", published in 2003 as part of Sir Patrick Moore’s Practical Astronomy series. Nick is an engineer in the space industry, leading a team responsible for implementing highly sensitive and accurate systems for receiving and processing signals from deep-space spacecraft. He is a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) ambassador, and keen to encourage young people to consider science and engineering as a career. He travels extensively to see astronomical phenomena. He is an eclipse chaser, having seen 14 total solar eclipses, and has travelled to see the Northern Lights, comets and other interesting objects under dark skies.
- Club members slot: Liz Watson, with input from Andy Relf, presented ‘Solar Observing and Imaging’
Wednesday 15 February, 7.15 for 7.30pm
Professor Richard Ellis presented
‘Cosmic Dawn: The Quest for the First Galaxies’
Richard Ellis is Professor of Astrophysics at University College London. A Welshman by birth, he has held professorial positions at Durham, Cambridge and Oxford universities, and spent 16 years at the California Institute of Technology where he was Director of the Palomar Observatories. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Australian Academy of Sciences, and was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society for his research achievements in cosmology and galaxy evolution.
Talk outline:
The first billion years after the Big Bang represent the final frontier in assembling a complete picture of cosmic history. During this period early galaxies formed and the universe became bathed in light. Hydrogen clouds in the space in between galaxies transformed from an atomic gas to an ionised medium of detached protons and electrons. How and when did all this occur? Recent progress with the James Webb Space Telescope suggests we may soon witness this dramatic period when the universe emerged from darkness.
The motivation is fundamental: the origin of starlight began the chemical evolution which ultimately led to our own existence.
- Club members slot: Roger Hyman presented (via Zoom) a talk about his imaging
Wednesday 15 March, 7.15 for 7.30pm
Professor Simon Green presented ‘How to stop an asteroid’
Simon Green, Professor of Planetary and Space Science at The Open University, has studied asteroids through ground- and space-based observations since his discovery of the unusual near-Earth asteroid (3200) Phaethon in 1983. He has worked on numerous space missions including Giotto, Cassini, Stardust and Rosetta, and most recently the DART and Hera planetary defence test missions.
Talk outline:
Asteroids, which mostly orbit between Mars and Jupiter, are the remaining fragments of bodies which never coalesced into planets, and retain material that has been relatively unaltered since the earliest stages of the formation of the Solar System. Near-Earth asteroids provide a link between this primordial reservoir and the meteorites we collect on the Earth and are the most accessible Solar System objects for space missions. They may have brought the building blocks of life to the Earth, but they also pose a potential threat to life, being implicated in past mass extinctions.
For the first time in our planet's history, its inhabitants have the potential to prevent such catastrophic events. This talk will focus on the challenges in identification and characterisation of potential Earth impacting asteroids, methods for changing their trajectories to avoid an impact, and results from the first ever impact deflection test mission.
Pictured left: A small display sample of meteorites from the Open University’s School of Physical Sciences collection, which is used for laboratory studies on the origin and evolution of the Solar System
- Club members slot: Ian Moss presented ‘My Journey into Space and Time'
Wednesday 19 April, 7.15 for 7.30pm
Konrad Malin-Smith presented:
‘Supernovae of the First Kind: white dwarf detonations'
Konrad is known with great affection by many as a founder member of the HAS, and a regular speaker to our club. He is a retired senior schoolteacher of chemistry and physics, and was Head of Science for a number of years. He has been a peripatetic lecturer on various astronomical topics to adult education establishments (especially in Havering) and astronomical societies around South England since the early 1970s.
His interests include eclipse-chasing, astrophotography, DIY, classical music, church, golf and snooker. Avoids doing housework; and especially avoids dabbling with computers!
Talk outline: A Supernova 1a is a stellar explosion involving the detonation of a White Dwarf star which has become unstable. The light given off by such an explosion is comparable to the combined light of the remainder of the stable stars in that host galaxy. Because WD stars are effectively the same size, the light given off by such an explosion is consistent and can therefore be calibrated to give an estimate of distance. This can make such supernovae very useful 'standard candles' as distance indicators for galaxies in general.
- The talk was followed by nibbles, to help celebrate our club's anniversary.
Wednesday 17 May, 7.15 for 7.30pm
Dr Emma Curtis-Lake presented 'Smashing the redshift barrier with JWST'
Emma is STFC Webb Fellow at the Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire. Her research is based on studying galaxy formation and evolution in the Early Universe. She primarily uses space-based observatories to search for and characterise galaxies inhabiting the Universe in the first billions of years after the Big Bang. She is a member of the JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) NIRSpec guaranteed time observations (GTO) team. They are observing two patches of sky that have been previously observed with many other observatories, including the Hubble and Spitzer Space telescopes. With the NIRCam GTO team, they are taking imaging and spectroscopy of objects identified with Hubble (and other observatories) and JWST. This is the JADES survey (JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey). Emma is co-lead of the target selection and data analysis sub work packages.
With the data she will investigate the stellar and gas properties of galaxies from cosmic noon to well within the Epoch of Reionisation (the time shortly after the Big Bang throughout which the Hydrogen in the Universe is being reionised by starlight). Emma is studying star formation rates, stellar masses, dust content, presence of active galactic nuclei and chemical enrichment in these early galaxies.
Talk outline: JWST can peer further back in time than Hubble could see. The results in the weeks after the first science data was made public were astounding, with candidates inhabiting the Universe around 200 million years after the Big Bang. But the power of JWST is not just in the beautiful, sharp imaging. It is, at its heart, a spectroscopic mission. With spectra we can confirm or reject distant galaxy candidates, assess the elements present in these galaxies, search for the first stars and galaxies to form, and search for black holes across cosmic time!
Emma took us on a tour of the most exciting results from the Universe's early years as revealed by JWST, including discoveries she has had a key role in. It's incredible that we get to probe the history of the Universe, and the discoveries are really just beginning for this incredible observatory.
- Club members slot: Peter Morris and Magda Wheatley, with input from Martin Gill: update on the re-organised club website
Wednesday 21 June, 7.15 for 7.30pm
Jerry Workman presented 'The Moon - Observation and Science'
Jerry discussed observations and science relating to Earth’s closest neighbour, including some comments about the Moon's geology, and about lunar and solar eclipses.
Jerry Workman has given over 1000 talks to various clubs over a 30 year-plus talking career. He has also been the Chairman and Meetings Secretary of a number of Astronomy clubs. For a number of years, he ran an Astronomy evening class at a school near Upminster Bridge. He currently works in a private girls school in Hammersmith, and has held this position for nearly 24 years.
Image (right): mosaic of photos by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
- Club members slot: Steve Foster presented ‘Galactic Archaeology and Milky Way Structure’
Wednesday 19 July, 7.15 for 7.30pm
Dr Louise Devoy presented: ‘Urania’s spiders: the hidden web of women’s involvement in astronomy across the centuries'
Dr Louise Devoy is Senior Curator of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and has worked in various museums for over 15 years. She originally studied Physics with Astrophysics at the University of Leicester, before moving into the history of astronomy with additional studies at Imperial College London. She is fascinated by the complex history of the Royal Observatory, and undertakes research on its architecture, instruments and people to uncover new stories about its significance in astronomy and our wider social history. She is currently working on a range of new displays in preparation for the Observatory’s forthcoming 350th anniversary celebrations.
Talk outline: The stories of female astronomers such as Caroline Herschel, Henrietta Swan Leavitt and Vera Rubin are well-known and rightly celebrated. In this talk, Dr Devoy re-focused our attention onto some of the lesser-known female characters in astronomy whose contributions are only fleetingly mentioned in books, diaries, observation notes and manuscripts. By pulling these invisible threads together, we can build up a picture of how women have contributed to astronomy across the centuries as photographers, illustrators, instrument makers, networkers, journalists and human computers, whose legacies continue to shape the subject today.
- Club member’s slot: Peter Morris presented ‘Asterisms: Drawings in the Sky’
No club meeting in August - Summer break
Sunday 13 August - due to cloudy conditions, the Perseids viewing did not go ahead.
Wednesday 20 September, 7.15 for 7.30pm
Paul Money presented 'The Trials and Tribulations of Voyager'
Outline: This talk, which Paul presented via Zoom, looked at how Voyager came about, and detailed how many things went wrong just before, during and after, launch -- plus what happened once they were in flight, with gremlins seemingly determined to stop or disable both Voyagers. Yet, despite everything, Voyager is an amazing success, and the longest operational spacecraft ever launched.
Paul L Money FRAS, FBIS, is well known for his extensive talks and is the reviews editor of the BBC Sky at Night magazine. He broadcasts occasionally on BBC Radio Lincolnshire, and published a night sky guide called Nightscenes until 2020. He has more recently become a self-published novelist, with five Ghost Mysteries in the James Hansone Ghost Mystery series and several Sci Fi works; and with more in the pipeline.
- Club members’ slot: ‘Images of Summer’ slideshow of members’ images, presented by Peter Morris and Magda Wheatley
Wednesday 18 October, 7.15 for 7.30pm
Paul Whiting presented ‘So, who’s this STEVE then?'
Outline: The talk covered all things aurora: from theory to myth; the science and history; visual observation and radio. It also featured some relatively new forms of aurora, including STEVE – Strong Thermal Emissions Velocity Enhancement. Finally, as a contrast, Paul gave a debrief of the 2023 Ningaloo [Western Australia] Eclipse.
Paul Whiting, FRAS, is one of our regular speakers and an outreach astronomer providing talks, activities and courses to schools, youth and adult groups. A major astronomical interest is travelling the world chasing eclipses and the aurora. Paul is also Treasurer for Orwell AS (Ipswich).
- Followed by our AGM, which all club members were warmly invited to attend
Wednesday 15 November, 7.15 for 7.30pm
Nik Szymanek presented 'Update on Robotic Imaging'.
Talk outline: This talk included lots of brand new images, and also gave a quick processing run-through on how the images are produced.
Nik is an HAS member, and astrophotographer based in North Essex. He has been using CCD cameras to image the deep sky from a back garden observatory since they were first introduced in the early 1990s. He has written a monthly ‘Masterclass’ astroimaging column in Astronomy Now magazine for the last ten years, as well as three books on astronomical imaging; the latest of which is ‘Shooting Stars II’.
- Club member' slot: Cheryl Brice gave a talk on postage stamps with an astronomical/ space exploration theme.
Wednesday 13 December, 7.15 for 7.30pm
Peter Morris and Magda Wheatley presented the annual Christmas Quiz - followed by nibbles.
