Monthly meetings are held at:
Willingdon Memorial Hall
Church Street
Willingdon
BN20 9HR

Willingdon Memorial Hall Map (courtesy of Bing)

These are held every month from September/October to July. We usually have a visiting speaker, but we also have talks by our members, slide shows and demonstrations. Part of the evening is set aside for refreshments and informal discussions.

There is on-road parking available. Doors open at 7.00 pm, and the meetings start at 7.30pm, when members and visitors can browse our growing library of books and magazines concerning all things astronomical and view display panels containing news about the Society and recent astronomical events. Committee members are available for up-to-date information and brief chats both before the meeting and during the refreshments break.

Any meetings programme is inevitably a pot-pourri of speakers and topics, the choice of which depends on many factors, not least the willingness of an individual to give freely of his/her time. The meetings secretary endeavours to arrange a varied programme to cater for all tastes, in which both professional astronomers and amateurs (all experts in their particular fields) travel from far and wide to share their knowledge with us and keep us up to date with recent developments.

10th December 2011 Prof. Christopher J. Conselice ------------------------------ A New View of Galaxy Evolution	7th January 2012 Members Evening ------------------ Dr Harry Ford Observing the Sun ------------------ Dr Leslie Morrison The Abandonment of Leap Seconds	4th February 2012 PUBLIC LECTURE --------------- Iain Nicholson --------------- The Universe
3rd March 2012 Dr. Helen Walker ----------------- Infrared Astronomy: Seeing the Invisible	31st March 2012 Dr. David A. Rothery --------------------- Mercury - New Views of the Sun's Innermost Planet	5th May 2012 TBC
2nd June 2012 TBC	30th June 2012 Roger Dymock --------------- Asteroids and Beyond – A Personal Journey

Prof. Christopher J. Conselice - A New View of Galaxy Evolution

Christopher Conselice looks back at galaxies in the early universe and, thanks to technological advances such as the Hubble Space Telescope, can compare their evolution with the development of galaxies in the local universe today.

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Chris's research is centred on understanding the history of galaxy formation and evolution. He uses multiple techniques and measurements including galaxy luminosities, masses and morphologies to trace this evolution using telescopes as diverse as Keck, Palomar, Chandra, Hubble and Spitzer. Specifically, he is leading a near infrared survey of distant galaxies using the Palomar telescope and is a founding member of the All-wavelength Extended Groth-strip International Survey (AEGIS). He also is leading programs to understand the dark matter evolution of galaxies and the origin of dwarf galaxies.

Members Evening

Dr Harry Ford - Observing the Sun
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This lecture will last about 30 minutes and provide useful information on Solar Observations.

Dr Leslie Morrison - The Abandonment of Leap Seconds
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This lecture will last about 15-20 minutes.

PUBLIC LECTURE: Iain Nicholson - The Universe

Using a wealth of remarkable images, this lecture will take a step-by-step journey from our home planet, the Earth, to the outermost reaches of the known Universe. Starting with the Solar System – the Sun and the planets, moons, asteroids and comets which revolve around it – we shall then look at stars of many kinds, some vastly larger and more brilliant than our Sun, others far smaller and dimmer. We shall explore their life cycles, from their birth within vast clouds of gas and dust to their diverse fates. Along the way, we will encounter shrunken white dwarf stars, supernovae (cataclysmic stellar explosions) neutron stars and black holes. We shall also look at the search for planets orbiting around other stars, and at the question of whether some of these planets might be capable of supporting life.

Moving on outwards, we shall explore the size and nature of our Galaxy (the Milky Way Galaxy) – the vast system of stars to which the Sun belongs - and will look at galaxies which exist in their billions far beyond the confines of the Milky Way, some of which are so far away that their light has taken 13 billion years to reach us. We shall look at evidence which shows that the entire Universe is expanding, and will trace out its evolution, from its origin some 13.7 billion years ago in a hot 'Big Bang' to the far future, when its ultimate fate may be determined by mysterious cosmic ingredients called dark matter and dark energy.

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Iain Nicolson is a writer, lecturer and occasional broadcaster in the fields of astronomy and space science, and a consultant to the magazine Astronomy Now. He lectures widely to national and local societies and organizations, gives talks aboard cruise ships and, over the years, has been a frequent contributor to BBC Television's "The Sky at Night". Author or co-author of more than twenty books, he has also contributed chapters and entries to a wide variety of books and encyclopaedias, and has written hundreds of magazine articles. His most recent book, Dark Side of the Universe, was published in April 2007 by Canopus Publishing Limited (in the UK), and by Johns Hopkins University Press (in the USA). Other recent publications include Unfolding Our Universe (Cambridge University Press, 2000), Stars and Supernovas (BBC Books, July 2001), and contributions to the major Dorling Kindersley encyclopaedias, Universe (2005), Science (2009) and Space (2010).

Until 1995, he was Principal Lecturer in Astronomy at the University of Hertfordshire, with responsibility for undergraduate degree courses in Astronomy and Astrophysics. A Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and a Member of the International Astronomical Union, he has served on the Council of the British Astronomical Association and is a past President of the Society for Popular Astronomy. In 1995, he received the Eric Zucker Award of the Federation of Astronomical Societies (UK) and, in 2011, was awarded a Fellowship of the University of Hertfordshire, for his contributions to the public understanding of astronomy.

Dr. Helen Walker - Infrared Astronomy: Seeing the Invisible

We see visible light with our eyes and we see wavelengths from blue to red as the rainbow, but this is a very small part of the whole spectrum. When we move beyond the reddest light we can see into the infrared using electronic detectors and a whole new universe opens up, a universe that was previously invisible.

Since the atmosphere absorbs a lot of the infrared light, we launch satellites to work above it and get a clearer view. Nearby clouds of gas and dust which are dark patches against the stellar background in the visible are revealed as sites where new stars are forming, glowing brightly in the infrared. Blank patches of sky are filled with galaxies at the edge of the universe, shining in the infrared because millions of young stars are heating the gas and dust which formed them.

Over the last 30 years our view of the universe has been changed by seeing the invisible using infrared astronomy satellites. This talk will outline some of the discoveries made by infrared satellites such as IRAS, ISO, SPITZER, and HERSCHEL.

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Dr Helen Walker has worked with infrared astronomy satellites for 30 years and is currently Test Team Leader for the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) which will fly on the James Webb Space Telescope.

Helen works in the Satellite Operations Group at RAL, helping scientists plan their science observations on the Mars Express satellite, under contract to the European Space Agency. About two years ago she took over the role of RAL group's Mars Express Project Scientist in recognition of the level of understanding about the satellite operations she had achieved. Recently she was asked to take over leading the Test Team for MIRI, the mid-infrared instrument being built by a European Consortium for the James Webb Space Telescope (Hubble's successor).

Dr. David A. Rothery - Mercury: New Views of the Sun's Innermost Planet

Mercury is the terrestrial (Earth-like) planet about which we know least, and the more we learn the more mysterious it becomes. In this fully-illustrated presentation Dave Rothery, who heads the European Space Agency's Mercury Surface & Composition Working Group, will show that behind a superficial façade of similarity to our own Moon, Mercury's origin close to the Sun and subsequent evolution have given it a complex volcanic and tectonic history, and a dynamic exosphere. Despite having an enormous iron-core where its magnetic field is generated, Mercury's rocky surface is perplexing deficient in iron.

Dr Rothery will show how three fly-bys by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft and spectra obtained by telescopes are have provided tantalising glimpses of the riches to come when MESSENGER achieves orbit in 2011, paving the way for the Europe-Japan BepiColombo orbiters in 2020.

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David has been a Senior Lecturer in the Open University Department of Earth Sciences since 1994, and before that was a Lecturer here. During 1999-2004 he was Director of Teaching and Geosciences Programme Director. He has also been Leader of the IAVCEI Commission on Remote Sensing, and in 2005 he was appointed to the PPARC Solar System Advisory Panel and the BepiColombo Oversight Committee.

In May 2006 he was appointed UK Lead Scientist on MIXS (Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer), which is the only UK Principal Investigator instrument on BepiColombo, the European Space Agency mission to Mercury to be launched in 2014. He chairs ESA's Mercury Surface and Composition Working Group. He am also a member of the Science Advisory Panel for C1XS , the X-ray spectrometer on Chandrayaan-1 (launched 22 Oct 2008). In 2006-7 he served on the ESSC/ESF Ad Hoc Group on Definition of a science-driven European scenario for space exploration.

His research interests centre on the study of volcanic activity by means of remote sensing, and volcanology and geoscience in general on other planets.

Roger Dymock - Asteroids and Beyond: A Personal Journey

Awaiting details of the lecture.

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Roger Dymock lives in Hampshire, England. He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. His published work includes Journal of the BAA: "The Observapod — a GRP observatory"; Minor Planet Bulletin, No. 32 2005: "Lightcurve of 423 Diotima"; Sky at Night magazine: "How to track an asteroid"; and Journal of the BAA: "A method for determining the V magnitude of asteroids from CCD images" (jointly with Dr Richard Miles). His most recent book "Asteroids and Dwarf Planets and How to Observe Them" was published this year by Springer-Verlag.