Event Reports


Seminar

The Long View: 400 years of the Telescope

16-17 July 2009 at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
From Hans Lipperhey (1608) to today, with speakers Professor Eileen Reeves, Princeton University, Dr. Marvin Bolt, Adler Planetarium, Chicago, and many others.
For full programme and registration details go to http://www.nmm.ac.uk/researchers/conferences-and-seminars/thelongview

A new IYA (International Year of Astronomy) 2009 planetarium show "We are Astronomers" reveals the global collaboration, technology and dedication required to answer the unresolved questions of the universe. "We are Astronomers" is an exciting, new, 360 degree fulldome digital planetarium show launching 20th May 2009 across the UK. The show is produced by NSC Creative with input from UK astronomers.
To find out where "We are Astronomers" is showing look at http://www.astronomy2009.co.uk/index.php/we-are-astronomers

Contents

7th-9th September 2007 - Herstmonceux Science Centre Astronomy Festival


Left-Right - Gordon Taylor, Peter Gill, Richie Jarvis
Sunday 9th September 2007
Picture taken by Terry Connolly

Eastbourne Astronomical Society were proud to be invited to attend the Herstmonceux Astronomy Festival again this year.  Our stall displayed a variety of Astronomical information, and information about EAS.  

We had several visitors throughout the weekend, some of whom we will hopefully see at our meetings.

This year the Science Centre had a Rocket Scientist using the Geodesic Dome for his lectures on the Sunday, which attracted a lot of visitors to the stand.

Thanks to all who helped man the stand, and all who popped by the say hello.

12th October 2006 - Lunar Occultation

The lunar limb profile shows the northern limb of the Moon as seen from the observing site at Eastbourne on 2006 October 12d 23h 38m GMT.  Although the outline of the Moon's disk is assumed to be circular it is shown as a straight horizontal line (labelled +0")  with known irregularities shown. Thus the apparent track of the star, 49 Aurigae, moving from left to right relative to the Moon is shown as a dotted curved line labelled 0.0".

On that night all other observers failed to see the star because of a large amount of cirrus cloud but one observer, Bob Cripps, was lucky.  He used an 80mm refractor with a magnification of 120 and a stopwatch to
monitor the event and obtained the following observations:-

  Hour Minute Second
Disappearance 23 38 01.4
Reappearance 23 38 04.0

These observations are plotted as small circles just above the "bump" at a position angle of about 357.5 degrees.  These observations will be sent to the International Lunar Occultation Centre in Japan, for analysis.

Here is a photo of the stopwatch showing the times recorded.

Stopwatch: 'Digisport DT-500' sports chronometer borrowed from Hailsham Harriers. It can record 500 events !!
 
Time Signal: Junghans Mega radio-controlled time clock provided by Tony Seabrook.
 
Observing Site: Footpath between Prince William Parade and the seafront promenade adjacent to the east end of Sovereign Centre car park. 100m grid reference : 634007 ; From the OS map, a '25 metre' reference would be 63400/00675. Estimated to be about 70m NW of Gordon's nominal track.
 
Observations: Started watch at disappearance ; 'Lap' recorded at re-appearance ; Stopped watch at 23:41:00 UT on the time clock.
 
Recordings: 'Lap' recorded 2.56 secs after start ; Watch stopped 2m 58.56 secs after start.

Well done, Bob