Saturday 16th August 2024 from 6:30pm

Picnic & Perseids meteor shower

This event will only be open to current ESAS members and their family or close friends.

Details will be emailed to all current members.

Thursday 3 July at 8pm, Egerton Park Indoor Bowls Club (Doors open at 7:30pm)

Speaker: Andy Lawes

Title: Telescope clinic

This month we will be holding one of our telescope clinics. We will have a few telescopes and mounts to demonstrate, including manual, goto, alt-az and equatorial mounts, as well as smart telescopes. We will demonstrate the basic elements of each type, and the requirements for visual astronomy and astrophotography.

We will explain how to align alt-az and equatorial mounts and will explain the importance of good polar alignment.

If you have a telescope that you need help with, please bring it along.

There may also be one or two short talks by Society members, as well as our usual Society updates, Martin's Sky Diary and the raffle.

Thursday 5 June at 8pm, Egerton Park Indoor Bowls Club (Doors open at 7:30pm)

Speaker: Professor Andrew Coates

Title: Looking for Life on Mars

Professor Andrew Coates gained a BSc in Physics from UMIST in 1978, and MSc (1979) and D.Phil. (1982) in plasma physics from Oxford University. He has been at UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) since 1982, with temporary guest positions at Max Planck Institute for Solar System Physics (Germany), University of Delaware (USA) and the BBC World service (media fellowship). He is now Deputy Director (solar system) at UCL-MSSL. Space mission involvements include the Rosalind Franklin (ExoMars) rover where he leads the PanCam team, Cassini, where he led the electron spectrometer team (part of the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer), Venus Express, Mars Express and Giotto. Scientific interests include the solar wind interaction with planets and comets, planetary surfaces and space instrumentation; he has authored and co-authored over 575 publications, including over 455 refereed. He was a member of STFC Science Board (2019-22). He is a active in space and science outreach via public talks and the media; he was President (2021-23) and vice President (2020-21 & 23-24) of the Society for Popular Astronomy, and delivered lectures at Gresham College (2020-21).

Thursday 1 May at 8pm, Pebsham Community Hub 70 Seabourne Rd, Bexhill-on-Sea TN40 2SW (Doors open at 7:30pm)

Speaker: Jane Green FRAS

Title: "The Dish"

Jane has been featured in, and writes for, various astronomy publications, including the UK's BBC Sky at Night magazine and the USA's Sky & Telescope publication, and has scripted a live television/theatre interview with the second man on the moon, US astronaut Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin.

‘Jane has taken up the challenge of doing for a new generation what Sir Patrick did for us all those years ago.' [DR BRIAN MAY]

‘Many new books on astronomy are now published every year but I am emphatic in saying that Jane Green's is outstanding.' [SIR PATRICK MOORE, CBE, FRS]

‘Tour of the Universe UK Theatre Tour is a first, and a triumph!' [PROFESSOR CHRIS LINTOTT, BBC TV PRESENTER - THE SKY AT NIGHT]

Thursday 3 April at 8pm, Egerton Park Indoor Bowls Club (Doors open at 7:30pm)

Speaker: Greg Smye-RumsbyJane Green FRAS

If Venus had a moon!

Greg is a Greenwich Planetarium Presenter and an old friend of ESAS he is a fantastic presenter, space artist, and broadcaster and always entertains!

Thursday 6 March at Egerton Park Indoor Bowls Club

Speaker: William Joyce

Weird and Wonderful Worlds : A Whistlestop Tour of the Outer Planets

A guided tour around the strange, alien worlds of the outer Solar System with stunning imagery of places and processes which challenge and expand our current understanding.

Many unfamiliar and totally alien worlds have now been explored by robotic spacecraft. This talk will present amazing images and discuss unusual and fascinating facts about each Giant Planet and some bizarre moons, a few of which could even harbour life.

Thursday 6 February at Egerton Park Indoor Bowls Club

Speaker: Dr Robert Massey

A Cluttered and Noisy SkyESAS is holding Its 25th Anniversary Meeting this Month, Doors open 7:30 This Event is completely Free and suitable for all ages and abilities! We have a Grand Prize Draw, with a small telescope, meteorite, Super Astronomical Binoculars, astronomy books and much more!

Our replacement speaker Dr Robert Massey is Deputy Executive Director of the Royal Astronomical Society. Before joining the RAS, his career took him from PhD research in Manchester to teaching in Brighton, as Public Astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. With a lifelong private and public passion for astronomy, he very much wants to avoid a world where satellites ruin our shared heritage of an unsullied night sky. So his talk is entitled ' The threat from Constellation satellites'

Our Patron Prof @Chris Lintott from BBC Sky at Night is not now able to appear due to filming for the BBC. If we are unable to get another speaker Andy Lawes FRAS will give one of his Astro talks! We have a video message from him, and another famous Astrophysicist. We will also have a Art Display by David Hardy who has produced an amazing amount of Space Art since the 50's.

Thursday January 2nd 2025 at Egerton Park Indoor Bowls Club

Speaker: Tony Roberts (Chair Croydon AS)

Astronomical Oddities

A look at the weird, wonderful and just plain wrong in the history of astronomy. We see new discoveries on our news feeds nearly weekly, but are they right? We don't know, yet, and accept that the science says they are right based on our current knowledge. But there are examples from history where the science of the day explained the facts, but we now know that the science was wrong. Tonight we will look at some examples, all done in good faith except one which deliberately set out to deceive.