Date 2nd December 2021 TBC : AGM followed by members' talks by:

Dr Anthony Baxter    Chris Woodcock    Tony Broadhurst    Kay Hunting

ESAS ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING FOLLOWED BY MEMBERS’ TALKS:

Dr. Anthony Baxter - “The current state of nuclear fusion as a power source” - Experience related to astrophysics, high-altitude atmospheric physics, nuclear and radiation physics, fluid dynamics and computational physics. Currently give talks on astrophysics and engages in STEM activities with schools.

Chris Woodcock - “Smart Phone Astronomy imaging” - Chris organises the popular Hastings Astronomy Club on Facebook. This will be a “taster” for his talk to ESAS in May next year when he will prove you do not need very expensive camera equipment to capture amazing astronomy images.

Tony Broadhurst - “Tony’s Anomalies / the “X files Mystery!” - You’ve read about the anomalies, so this is your chance to see them!

Kay Hunting - “Sounds of Space and a Lost Dimension?” - You have to be there to hear it!

Thursday 4th November 2021 : ESAS Patron, Professor Chris Lintott : “The Surprising Universe” - TBC

Chris was originally booked for our July 2020 meeting, but this was postponed due to the pandemic. His topic was to have been based around his book “The Crowd and the Cosmos”, but he has now chosen a different subject:-

"The Surprising Universe": Discovery isn't always a case of shouting 'Eureka!' - sometimes our path to understanding the cosmos starts with finding the curious, odd or unusual. In this talk, Chris Lintott (BBC Sky at Night, University of Oxford) will review some of the surprises of the past, from pulsars to planets, consider how we might be surprised by aliens, and in a world where ever-larger surveys of the night sky are coming on stream, consider how to make sure the astronomers of the future continue to be surprised by things that go bang in the night.

Chris Lintott FRAS is a British astrophysicist, author and broadcaster and Patron of ESAS! He is a Professor of Astrophysics in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford. Lintott is involved in a number of popular science projects aimed at bringing astronomy to a wider audience.

Thursday 7th October 2021 : Professor Lucie Green : Talk subject "Solar Orbiter: Europe's mission to the Sun"

Lucie Green’s talk has been postponed from October 2020 to this date, by which time we should be able to offer a ‘live’ meeting at the Bowls Club.

Lucinda "Lucie" May Green is a British science communicator and solar researcher. She is a Professor of Physics and a Royal Society University Research Fellow at Mullard Space Science Laboratory of the University College London.

Synopsis of Talk:

110 times wider than Earth; 15 million degrees at its core; an atmosphere so huge that Earth is actually within it: come and meet the star of our solar system, the Sun! This talk guides you through the Sun and its complex character and describes how the European Space Agency mission Solar Orbiter is helping scientists answer some outstanding questions. For example, how does the Sun create the constant and gusty outflow of plasma known as the solar wind? How do emissions from the Sun change during their journey into the Solar System? And why does the Sun produce spectacular eruptions and explosions in its atmosphere?

Lucie Green will bring some books with her for purchase & signing.

Thursday 2nd September 2021 : Ian Hargraves : Talk subject : "Eyes on the Sky" 

A look at the major developments in observing and the major players in astronomy, from Ancient Greece to 2021.

Weekend date: Saturday 14th August 2021 : BBQ and Perseid Meteor Watch

This event going ahead is weather dependent. Confirmation email will be sent on the Friday before. Important: Members please notify committee if you wish to attend.

The moon will set at 9.30 pm so, weather permitting, it has the potential of being a good event.

Please Note: This event will only be open to current ESAS members and their family or a close friend.

Thursday 1st July 2021 : Melanie Davies : "Giants in Space: Understanding Molecular Clouds" 

Giants in Space: Understanding molecular clouds is suitable for astronomy societies, U3A groups, Explorer Scouts and Girlguiding Rangers, and anyone with a keen mind for all things Space. It explains cosmic recycling - the birth and death of stars - in jargon-free language for all to grasp. It also explores the origin of astrobiology and the cosmic dust cycle.

Beautiful examples of interstellar clouds, including Giant Molecular Clouds and Bok Globules, are presented throughout. Many of these incredible objects are familiar to us through astro photography, which has become accessible to so many of us. This talk explains the science behind these images, and presents research into their shape and structure.

In 2015, while studying part-time for a Masters Degree in Astronomy, Melanie followed her dream and set up Creative Space.

Thursday 3rd June 2021 : James Fradgley : “Orbital Oddities - Strange goings-on with 3 or more bodies”

LaGrange points, resonances, Roche limits, lots of odds and ends (with simulations).

James Fradgley is the chairman of SAGAS.

Thursday 6th May 2021 : Professor David Rees : “Artemis - Positive signs for Europe as ESA goes forward to the Moon”

During the next several years, a number of key elements in our “future in space” will become daily news items: Artemis, Orion, the Space Launch System and the Lunar Gateway are each key elements of the Artemis programme.

Artemis is an ambitious series of missions to get us back to the Moon; to enable permanent inhabitation of a Lunar Base; and to provide the essential stepping stones for getting us to Mars. NASA’s Orion spacecraft is built to take humans farther from Earth than we’ve ever gone before. Orion will serve as the exploration vehicle that will carry a 4-person crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel and provide safe re-entry to the Earth’s atmosphere from deep space.

Orion will be launched on NASA’s new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System. The Space
Launch System will be the most powerful rocket system yet designed and built. The Lunar Gateway will be a modest space station in a highly-elliptical orbit about the moon. Artemis and the Lunar Gateway will be developed, serviced, and utilized with an international collaboration led by NASA with Europe, Japan and Canada and commercial partners. Core Gateway components will be launched into lunar orbit on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket as early as May 2024.

The first components launched for the moon will cover habitation and power with others following in 2026. Astronauts will then travel to the moon in the Orion spaceship to dock with the Gateway. Two Astronauts will transfer from the space station to the lunar surface in a SpaceX Starship and remain there for up to a week. It will serve as the staging point for both robotic and crewed exploration of the lunar South Pole. The Gateway is the proposed staging point for NASA's Deep Space Transport concept for onward travel to Mars. The Artemis I Mission, anticipated to be November 2021, will send an unmanned Orion Spacecraft beyond the Moon and return to evaluate all of the many complex systems not yet tested in space, but which are essential for our future in Space.

David’s talk will describe and explain each of these key features and the essential steps to our
return to the Moon and our further travel onward to Mars.

ESA Director General and NASA Administrator have signed a joint agreement to take Europe to the Moon. David will detail the aims of this exciting project and how it will be carried out.

Thursday 1st April 2021 : Dr. Paul Daniels F.R.A.S. : “The Megaconstellation Threat”

As visual and imaging astronomers we’re all experiencing the side-effects of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite constellation launches and once the satellites reach operational orbit. Paul has conducted a very thorough and interesting investigation into these ‘megaconstellations’, the threat they pose to both professional and amateur astronomers and to astronomers in both the optical and radio disciplines, and the hopes for mitigating the negative effects they will have.

Paul is the President, Federation of Astronomical Societies and Vice President (Astronomy), Royal Astronomical Society. Paul says: "I’m keen to spread the word on that issue as we’ll all have to think of ways to avoid having our observing and, in particular, our imaging spoiled."

Special interests: Solar system, orbital dynamics, asteroids and the orbits, structure & evolution of comets. Science education and public outreach.

"I have a formal education in astronomy & astrophysics and continue to be engaged with the intellectual challenges of the science but, for over 30 years, my livelihood has been in IT. I am passionate about teaching astronomy to young people as an exciting and engaging introduction to the STEM subjects".

Paul says: “I’m keen to spread the word on that issue as we’ll all have to think of ways to avoid
having our observing and, in particular, our imaging spoiled.”

Abstract from his article on this subject in the FAS newsletter June 2020:
The plummeting cost of launching small satellites has led to several companies having ambitions
to place tens of thousands of satellites into low Earth orbit with, potentially, as many as 100,000 in
orbit over the next couple of decades. This article discusses three serious threats posed by the
projected growth in these satellites:
(i) The Optical and Radio pollution of the sky with the potential to end almost all professional
ground-based astronomy over the next two decades, seriously hamper amateur astronomers’
contributions to astronomy and their enjoyment of the night sky and contamination of the pristine
natural sky that is the birth right of all the people of the world and which has inspired young and
old for generations.
(ii) The vastly increased number of objects in Earth orbit will lead to a rapid growth in space debris
that could endanger the lives of astronauts, damage existing satellites and, in worst case,
potentially deny humanity access to space for any purpose for decades.
(iii) The lower cost of getting to space makes it, the Moon and asteroids prime targets for the next
era of commercial exploitation and the rush to occupy large volumes of near-Earth space by
powerful companies, backed by powerful military nations, will raise international tensions.

Thursday 4th March 2021 : Mary McIntyre F.R.A.S. : “History of Women in Astronomy”

Historically, astronomy has been very male-dominated. This talk is a celebration of the great women who worked in astronomy during different periods of history, some of the challenges they have faced and their invaluable contributions to this and other sciences. It’s a subject that was far too often played-down or even ignored in the past.

Mary McIntyre, an Oxfordshire based amateur astronomer and astrophotographer who has had a life-long interest in Astronomy.

"I am passionate about astronomy outreach and I’ve been giving talks on Astronomy and Astrophotography since 2015 to a mixture of camera clubs, astronomy societies, local schools and Scouts groups, as well as running astronomy sketching workshops. I love sharing my knowledge and experience."

Thursday 4th February 2021 : William Joyce : "A Selection of Deep Sky Objects"

Thursday 7th January 2021 : Andrew Hindmarch : “The Saturn V Programme” 

Andrew Hindmarch is a keen amateur astronomer who is passionate about sharing his knowledge at outreach projects.  He is a committee member of the Edenbridge & District Astronomers, a small but enthusiastic bunch of people.  

We hear much about the astronauts who went to the moon and what they found when they arrived, but we don’t hear that much about the vehicle that got them there.
 
Following the announcement by President John F Kennedy in 1961 to land a man on the moon within a decade, the Saturn V rocket became the means to fulfill that challenge. Using his highly detailed model, Andrew will explain more about the rocket, how it was designed and operated, plus some of the problems the rocket encountered during its lifetime. The use of ZOOM software for this talk will allow Andrew to show you details of the rocket via the camera on the laptop.
 
Sleek, slender and astonishingly powerful, the Saturn V was visually arresting. Yet this creation of the US space effort severely taxed the NASA engineers who envisaged it, and the five contractors who built its major components.
 
The design and engineering of the Saturn V required the generation of enormous forces along with the application of exquisite finesse to control them. At launch it weighed as much as a naval destroyer and the five engines of the first stage generated combined power as great as the UK’s peak electricity consumption. Each pump ran at 5,500rpm generating 53,000 bhp, pumping 2.5 tonnes of fuel per second.
 
The second and third stage burned liquid hydrogen which was so cold that it was also the only liquid that could lubricate the engines.
 
Not only was the combined power of the eleven engines fitted to the three stages enough to accelerate the Apollo spacecraft – a payload as heavy as an articulated truck – towards the moon at 11km per second, it also had to carry all the technology to actually navigate the rocket and the three astronauts safely to their destination.
 
Much of the technology developed during the Apollo missions still forms the basis of rocket launches to this day.

* An online meeting

Thursday 3rd December 2020 : Stephen Wilkins : “Update on James Webb and Associated Science”

Stephen is currently a Reader in Astronomy in the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS). He is an STFC Public Engagement Fellow and currently serves as a Director of Outreach and Public Engagement for MPS. His research focusses on the formation and evolution of the first galaxies in the Universe.
* An online meeting

Thursday 5th November 2020 : AGM followed by Members' Talks

The AGM is expected to be quite short as a lot of it will need to be conducted beforehand by email but there will be some online voting (this has been already tested to work).

AGM start time 7.45pm sharp - ESAS members only

Talks start at 8.15pm - Open to ESAS members & invited guests

Lester Selmes : “How to make a constellation” A light hearted talk with no more information so that it gets people guessing!

Peter Bolwell : "Querying Dark Matter”

Mark Jarvis : “Lockdown Astrophotography” Showing and talking about some of his favorite images taken during this difficult summer.

* An online meeting

Thursday 1st October 2020 : Pete Williamson FRAS : “Whirlpools in Space”

"Whirlpools in Space"

The talk looks at the work of the Parsons Family situated at Birr in Ireland, looking at the development of the world’s largest telescope of its time and the breakthrough in telescope engineering and optics. 

We also take time to look at the breakthroughs in astronomy made by William Parsons, the Third Earl of Ross; the ground-breaking work carried out at the eyepiece of this telescope known as The Leviathan.

After leaving Ireland we look at other large telescopes of their day and how observations made with these telescopes compare with the drawings made by William Parsons.

To finish we look at a project that I undertook in Birr Ireland alongside the Leviathan Telescope and what else Birr has to offer.”
* An online meeting

Wednesday 2nd September 2020: Danny Thomas: “Modelling the Constellations in 3D”

"Modelling the Constellations in 3D” covers a challenge that I set myself to model constellations so that they could be displayed from the sides without changing the scale.

A few years ago I did a programming course related to computer generated art. To test my knowledge I wrote some code to model the constellations using galactic coordinates from publicly available data. Unlike a planetarium program, that in essence projects the stars onto a screen, I wanted to be able to move the viewpoint so I could understand the relative position of the stars in the direction stretching away from our solar system.

Once the code was working, I looked at various constellations and started to learn more about their history, future, mythology and some interesting facts that I would not have come across otherwise. Telling this side of the story gives the talk a broad appeal to an audience of mixed knowledge and interests.

The talk is in two parts, a brief presentation about the way the program works to orient the audience and then a live demonstration of the program. I will use about a dozen different examples of well know constellations where I found an interesting story to tell.

* An online meeting