Wednesday 17 January, 7.15 for 7.30pm

Jamie Carter presented ‘Why smart telescopes will take over the universe'

Outline (presented via Zoom): What is a smart telescope? Inspired by the design of humanity's biggest and best telescopes on remote mountaintops, a new generation of computerised, smartphone-controlled telescopes has arrived. Promising astrophotography as well as observing, but sometimes removing the eyepiece, smart telescopes can come as a shock to experienced amateur astronomers. However, with crowd-sourced observations and an easy-to-use design, they're surely here to stay. Here's what smart telescopes do, how they work and why they will one day dominate the telescope industry. 

MEMBERS' EVENING - talks by John Neal and Les Brand

Wednesday 21 February, 7.15 for 7.30pm

John Neal presented:

'Multimessenger Astronomy: Seeing the universe with wider eyes'

Outline: Observing through the window of light accessible to human eyes provides a partial ‘picture’ of how the universe works. Looking beyond this narrow window into the wider spectrum reveals deeper insights to many astronomical objects and events. The talk briefly reviewed the regions outside the visible, and some of the ground and space-based instruments used to ‘see’ into them. It illustrated how astronomers are increasingly using information from multiple regions of this wider spectrum; in some cases combining it with visual data to reveal a more complete picture. In others the new ‘messengers’ provide important astrophysical knowledge which enhances our understanding of astronomical events and processes.

Wednesday 20 March, 7.15 for 7.30pm

Jack Martin presented: 'The Bi-centenary of Sir William Huggins'

Outline: February 7 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of Sir William Huggins. With his wife Lindsay they became pioneers of the new Astronomy 'Spectroscopy'. Our speaker presented new, previously unseen material from research undertaken over the past 4 years.

Biographical details: Jack Martin has been a keen amateur astronomer for over 50 years, and active in Spectroscopy since 1997.  He studied Astronomy and Planetary Science at The Open University (2010). He co-authored ‘Practical Amateur Spectroscopy’ (2004), and is author of ‘A Spectroscopic Atlas of Bright Stars 2009’ for Springer. Also, he has written articles for the BAA Journal, Astronomy Now, The Webb Deep-Sky Society, and The Society for Popular Astronomy.

Jack has run the Huggins Spectroscopic Observatory UK since 2013. He also undertakes long-term international collaboration studies with a group of Small Telescope Scientists, monitoring h alpha and other lines of Be- Flare-Nova-Symbiotic etc. stars using a Shelyak Lhires III spectrograph.

• Followed by a slideshow of members’ images taken over the previous few months, entitled “In the Bleak Midwinter”, presented by Peter Morris and Magda Wheatley.
  

Wednesday 17 April, 7.15 for 7.30pm

Celebration of the 30th anniversary of HAS

The evening included:

• A pre-recorded talk by Konrad Malin-Smith, Life Honorary Member of the HAS and retired schoolteacher, entitled 'Harvard, Lowell, and the expansion of space'.
• This was followed by a review of the club’s history and highlights over the last 30 years, by Les Jones; reminiscences by club members and contacts, past and present; a special free raffle; exhibition of 30 club members’ astrophotography images, organised by Les Brand.
• Cake and nibbles.
  

Astrophotography exhibition at

Thames Chase  --->

As part of our 30th anniversary celebrations, we have set up an exhibition of 30 stunning images taken by club members.  This can be seen in the walkway at Thames Chase, between the café and the barn.  During our April meeting, in the extended refreshment break, members were able to to view the exhibition.

More info on our Events and Activities page. 

Wednesday 15 May, 7.15 for 7.30pm

Dr Ashley King presented 'To Bennu & Back: what asteroids can tell us about the origins of the Solar System'

Outline: In September 2023, OSIRIS-REx became only the third mission to return samples of an asteroid to Earth. Its target, the carbon-rich asteroid Bennu, holds important clues about the formation of the Solar System and the origins of water and life on Earth. Dr King talked about the first results from the Bennu samples and why sample return missions are crucial for understanding the evolution of planets.

Biographical details: Dr Ashley King is a research fellow at the Natural History Museum, London, where he investigates the origins of the Solar System and formation of planets through the laboratory analysis of meteorites and samples returned by space missions. He's a member of the sample analysis teams for the Hayabusa2 and OSIRIS-REx missions, and the current lead of the UK Fireball Alliance (UKFAll), a collaboration between meteor camera networks that aims to recover freshly fallen meteorites in the UK.

• Club members' slot: Liz Watson and John Sweeney talked about their trips to Texas and Mexico, respectively, to see the solar eclipse of 8 April.

Wednesday 19 June, 7.15 for 7.30pm

Tim Parsons, PhD Student, Astrophysics Group at UCL, presented:

'A Massive Star Menagerie: Touring through the upper reaches of the H-R diagram'

Outline: Most of us who form an interest in the stars soon become familiar with their fundamental classification into the main spectral types based on effective (“surface”) temperature; in descending order: O, B, A, F, G, K, M. We discover that, as their hydrogen fuel is consumed, stars like our Sun will swell to become red giants. We may also be aware that more massive stars approach the end of their lives with truly gigantic proportions in the form of relatively cool red supergiants. So far, so good!

     Delving further however, we begin to see references to some strange and exotic objects inhabiting the upper reaches of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram; in particular, the mysterious “upper left” where stars of the highest temperatures and extreme luminosities reside. How do these stars come to be so hot and so large at the same time? What, exactly, is a Wolf-Rayet star? A “slash ‘/’” star? A Blue Supergiant? A Luminous Blue Variable? A Yellow Hypergiant?

      We took a tour around the fascinating world of these and other massive stars, where lives are short, but often dramatic, and seek to understand the critical role these rare objects play in the enrichment of the interstellar medium and the evolution of galaxies.

Biographical details: Tim Parsons is a 3rd Year PhD student in the Astrophysics Group at University College London, studying the structure of stellar winds of massive stars, having returned to study after a professional career in the City. He also works as a Postgraduate Teaching Assistant at UCL Observatory in Mill Hill. He is a trustee and Council member of the British Astronomical Association, as well as a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and of the British Interplanetary Society.

• Club members slot: Sarah O’Shea talked about her trip to Iceland in February, entitled ‘Chasing the Northern Lights’.

Wednesday 17 July, 7.15 for 7.30pm

Paul Money presented 'New Images of the Universe’

Outline: This talk looked at 10 amazing images, with lots of other images to help tell their story. Images from planetary missions, ground based observatories and HST plus several from the James Webb Space Telescope were included.

Biographical details: Paul Money is a Fellow of the RAS and BIS, and has been giving talks to societies since 1982 on a wide range of astronomical subjects. He was one of three Northern Lights Flights astronomers from 2004 to 2013, and until recently was the Reviews Editor for the BBC 'Sky at Night' magazine for 17 years.

• Club members slot: Cheryl Brice presented ‘Making a Dobsonian mount’.
  

* No club meeting in August - Summer break *

Our Perseids Watch Party was held at Thames Chase on

Sunday 11 August, from 8.30pm

(Members only)

Wednesday 18 September, 7.15 for 7.30pm

Dr Lee Macdonald presented:

'Refugees, star clusters and relativity: astronomy at Greenwich Observatory during the First World War'

Outline: Based on original research in the Royal Greenwich Observatory archives, this talk told the story of how the Royal Observatory at Greenwich not only kept running during the First World War, but continued doing important astronomical research while contributing to the war effort. The story culminated with the Royal Observatory’s essential – and perhaps under-appreciated – contribution to the 1919 solar eclipse observations that confirmed Einstein's general theory of relativity.

Biographical details: Between 2020 and 2022, Dr Lee Macdonald held a research fellowship with Royal Museums Greenwich, which he used to research and write a book about the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in the 1881-1939 period. It is hoped that the book will appear in 2025. From 2016 to 2020, he worked as Research Facilitator at the History of Science Museum, University of Oxford, running the Museum’s library and archives. He is the author of Kew Observatory and the Evolution of Victorian Science, 1840-1910, published in 2018 by University of Pittsburgh Press. A long-time amateur astronomer, he has also written How to Observe the Sun Safely (Second Edition, Springer, 2012).

• Club members slot: Magda ran through her talk to the Young Astronomers in February about the possibility of life on exoplanets.

Wednesday 16 October, 7.15 for 7.30pm

Professor John Zarnecki,

Emeritus Professor of Space Science at The Open University, presented:

'Titan: past, present and future'

Outline: Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is truly a unique place. It is the only moon in the Solar System with an atmosphere and it additionally possesses surface bodies of liquids, in the form of lakes and seas of hydrocarbons. Prof Zarnecki will review the history of telescopic observations of Titan, past spacecraft missions to Titan and future plans for more ambitious space missions.

Biographical details: John Zarnecki is Emeritus Professor of Space Science at the Open University. He had a career of over 35 years in Space Research mostly in academia, but with 3 years in the aerospace industry. His involvement included such high profile missions as the Hubble Space Telescope, the Giotto mission to Halley’s Comet and the Cassini/Huygens mission to the Saturnian system. He was President of the Royal Astronomical Society (2016-18) and has served on a variety of national and international bodies.

• Followed by the AGM, which all members were warmly invited to attend. 
  

Wednesday 20 November, 7.15 for 7.30pm

Nik Szymanek presented:

'The New Astronomy - A Centaurus A Case Study'

Outline: Nik will cover all the new astroimaging tools and techniques used by modern imagers. Whilst more specific to one target, he will show all the new pretty pictures at the end.

Biographical details: 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 members slot: Peter Morris presented: ‘Dark Sky areas I have known and loved’
  

Wednesday 11 December, 7.15 for 7.30pm

Peter Morris and Magda Wheatley presented the annual Christmas Quiz, with a break halfway through for festive nibbles.