Members trip to the South Downs Planetarium & Science Centre – 4th August 2024

On Sunday 4th August 2024 several CMHASD members went on a trip the South Downs Planetarium & Science Centre.  Below is an account of the day kindly written by member Gary Hunt with photos taken by members.

 

''With the decision by the membership to arrange an away-trip, long-term CMHASD friend and lecturer, Dr John Mason MBE, made a gracious offer host our visit to the recently renovated South Downs Planetarium.
 
Little did we know that CMHASD would be the FIRST to see the fully renovated centre and planetarium… I think it demonstrates, just how respected CMHASD is by the community. We are all very grateful to John, who was the consummate host and expert lecturer, and made ALL feel valued and welcome!
 
The membership, began the day by meeting for a wonderful lunch at the Cricketers at Duncton near Chichester. The pub has a stunning garden, and we had drinks there until we were called to our exclusive dining room. We were all delighted, to greet Dr. John Mason and his lovely wife Jane, at the pub and share lunch with them.
 
 
During a delicious repast, some of us sampled some good ales, we made our way to the Sir Patrick Moore Building, based in the grounds of Kingsham Farm, High School, where we were all greeted once again by by John.
 
 
 
After a brief introduction to the brand-new entrance and foyer, replenished with a souvenir shop, and display area. This was overseen by a life-size and frighteningly accurate wax-work of Sir Patrick Moore, supplied by Madame Tussauds, his personal desk, chair, brass telescope (his first brought by his mother when a child), typewriter and desk objet d'art… This was supplemented by numerous astronomical telescopes and instruments, and the beginnings or a multimedia projection system in the high-vaulted hall leading to the planetarium. This area was crowned with a three-metre diameter Moon… spectacular, indeed!
 
 
 
 
We were then all ushered into a lecture area and told more about the Centre, by the delightful and very hardworking, Meryl Goulbourne, what a credit she is to the Centre. The news included a recent award gifted by King Charles III. Following this we were escorted to the Planetarium itself for an hour long, tour de force presentation on the mysteries of Dark Matter by John himself.
 
John certainly knew his stuff… But before we got to the main subject, John took us through the amazing simulation of the night sky as it would be later that night in Chichester, then Selsey (Sir Patrick’s home town), and the dark skies park of the South Downs. This was followed by looking at constellations as we headed via the equator until we were observing the Southern Hemisphere (e.g. New Zealand)
 
 
As we then moved onto the mind-boggling issue of Dark Matter, and it’s effect on deep space objects, we were regaled with the latest technical news of how astronomers are trying to prove that Dark Matter exists? I was amazed at just how knowledgeable John is, particularly as he was presenting from memory, and proven by just how dark it was in the planetarium!
 
 
As the presentation ended, it then came to a Q&A session, needless to say that John had made his presentation so complete, that there wasn’t much CMHASD members could ‘try to catch him out on’ 😆! A superb lecture, that the membership was privileged to witness. But that wasn’t all… John then proceeded to answer technical questions about the Planetarium dome, its structure and construction… followed by an high-end engineering standard of knowledge regarding the Viewlex-Minolta S-IIb star projector and its other video adaptions… Even a mention about the (far to comfortable!) club class airliner seating (still with ashtrays in situ)!
 
 
All CMHASD members were very grateful for such an outstanding presentation, and warm hosting by John, Meryl and the staff.
 
There followed refreshments and discussion, for an hour or so thereafter… wonderful company, and a wonderful experience.
 
I have no hesitation in recommending a visit, for newbies or experienced astronomers, alike, or indeed, a revisit to the South Downs Planetarium and Science Centre…. Not only well worth supporting to keep it going, but to highlight a very bright star in heart of Sussex!
 
and finally, I would like to say a very big Thank you to Rita Whiting for organising such a wonderful trip.  It was superb!''

BAA Winchester Weekend 2024

BAA Winchester Weekend

2024 April 12-14

Over the three days 12 CMHASD members were treated to lectures and talks covering a wide variety of astronomical subjects ranging from the BAA Archives to Dark Energy; including two new presentations from  CMHASD members Martin Crow, Steve Floodgate & David Grist.  To see the whole BAA Winchester Programme click on the link https://britastro.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Winchester-Programme.pdf

This years Alfred Curtis Memorial lecture “The Digital Telescope Concept” was presented by Professor Don Pollacco from the University of Warwick.  If you click on the link https://britastro.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Winchester-Bios-Abstracts.pdf  you can read the biographies and abstracts of all the speakers and their talks in the order they were given.

On Saturday morning CMHASD member & trustee Martin Crow gave his presentation about the ExoClock Project with regard to how citizen scientists are contributing to ESA’s Aerial Space Mission.

On Saturday afternoon some white light solar observing /imaging was possible through the thin cloud.

NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.

Back by popular demand were Eric and Ernie (CMHASD members Steve Floodgate & David Grist) who made an appearance at the BAA members session on Sunday afternoon to promote and drum up support for New Scientist Live at ExCel London at which they and other CMHASD members helped. 

Also David Grist is now a fully paid up member of the British Astronomical Association choir....

As night fell, observing had been planned but with cloud cover on both nights two social evenings were had instead :-)

Thank you to members Diane Clarke & Martin Crow for your help writing this post and to Diane, Martin and Simon Dawes for sharing your photos of the weekend.

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AstroFest 2024

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Many members have been at AstroFest this weekend, but it looks like the cost of living crisis and high prices seem to be having an impact, with many retailers and manufacturers not exhibiting at AstroFest this year. At least there isn't the crush of people from past years and a bit more space to have a coffee and cake or get get some practice in docking to the ISS.

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Autumn Equinox Star Party – Kelling Heath, Norfolk – Oct 2023

Below is a brief summary of the latest trip by CMHASD members to Kelling Heath for the Autumn Equinox Star Party written by Simon Dawes.

''10 Members, 5 pitches, 2 tents, 2 caravans, 1 camper van and a lodge set the scene for a damp and windy long weekend.

If you decided to go to the Autumn Kelling Heath star camp based on the weather forecast, you would never leave Crayford; fortunately us seasoned star campers know better than to believe the forecast.

Wednesday: Cloud, Wind and Rain.

Four of us arrived in the rain, setting-up camp in a brief gap in the weather and headed to Honor’s lodge for a very welcome evening meal.

Thursday: Cloud, Wind and Rain.

Some of us headed out for a walk to the beach stopping for tea and cakes at the village cafe, a cloudy night saved by us zooming into the Barry Kellet lecture.

Friday: Cloudy, Windy, and a clear night.

The short term forecast suggested a clear night, the clouds parted early and we weren't disappointed, we had views through Dominique's a very nicely set-up 3” Refactor, Keith’s 10” Dobsonian, Simon’s 12” Dobsonian, Julian’s 20” Dobsonian, and some very nice 4” Binoculars from a nearby pitch. 

It was too windy for imaging early on but the wind died down and David did a good job imaging using a Samyang 130mm Lens on an HEQ5 mount – possibly overkill – but the results spoke for themselves.

We packed up at about 3:30 am.

The sky at Kelling by Kevin Smith

The Milky Way by Simon Dawes

Images below are by Martin Crow

Below are images by Jim Burchell. All images where taken with a Pentax KP attached to a Skywacher star adventurer.  All the images are single frame images.

Saturday: Dry, partial cloud during the day, mostly cloudy at night

We visited the trade stands, being careful to leave our wallets behind. Julian had some wonderful views of the Sun in his Ha telescope a modified PST.

Sunday: Dry

We packed up and headed home.''

Plus Kevin had a cute little visitor one night to his tent :-)

ExoClock Conference, Thessaloniki, Greece 2023

2023 October 21/22

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece 

3rd ExoClock Annual Meeting 

CMHASD trustees Martin Crow, Simon Dawes and Dr Mike Rushton attended the 3rd Annual Conference of ExoClock in Greece, a project to improve the ephemeris of exo-planet transits for the European Space Agencies, Aerial Mission, due to launch in 2029.

During the conference Martin and Simon were awarded ‘Silver Awards’ for reaching over 100 successful ExoClock observations. Congratulations Martin & Simon!

 

Below are 2 accounts of the trip written by Martin and Simon.

Martin wrote ''When this year’s annual meeting was announced and that it was going to be in Greece, it felt that it was important to attend in person. The previous in person meeting, the first one since lock down, had been held at UCL in London. Because the project is international the annual meetings are a rare opportunity to meet other like-minded observers who we only normally see over Zoom.  

Simon (who is also a regular contributor to ExoClock) and Mike (who is interested in the project and has done some transits with his EvScope) also come along. 

We flew out on the Thursday which give us a free day to explore Thessaloniki before the weekend meeting. Our hotel was well placed in the middle of Thessaloniki although it was on a busy road junction.  

I knew nothing of the place before we went. It is steeped in history and in cats. Yes cats. They were everywhere. 

The Museum of Archaeology showed off the amazing finds of stuff made in and around Thessaloniki generally between 2000 and 2400 years ago. Delicate pottery and intricate gold jewellery, which had only survived because they were grave goods, were on display. The workmanship was incredible.  

We also visited the White Tower (Middle Ages), the Rotunda (Roman) still with its domed roof and some of the massive city walls. 

The weather was warm and there were plenty of restaurants to choose from. We took advice from the locals and kept away from the main tourist drags. The food was good, not expensive, and the portions were large. What not to like – providing you are not a vegan or veggie – there was a lot of meat. 

The location of the meeting was just a 15-minute walk from the hotel. 

The Saturday meeting kicked off with an Introduction given by Anastasia Kokori from UCL and various talks followed about the science surrounding the Ariel space telescope, the evolution of hot Jupiter's and the possible use of machine learning with charting exoplanets. 

After lunch there were more talks about Ariel and ExoClock. Following on from afternoon tea were more talks relating to the ExoClock project. Some were better than others. 

On Sunday the day started off with talks from students taking part in ExoClock and using its data. 

There were then two short talks given by amateur astronomers. One of them was me. The brief was to talk about our experience of being involved with the ExoClock project. I described when I had first got started and the positive and supportive aspects of the software and project in general. I finished by putting it all into context, that is to say, how it allows me as an amateur astronomer to contribute to an area that is a frontier of astronomical research. Awesome. 

After the coffee break there were some very interesting talks/discussions about the focus groups and, also, education outreach in schools. 

Finally, after lunch, there was more on the working groups some of which, I have to say, that I struggled to follow. Plus, it had been a long day!! 

What I liked about the talks was that they were not too long, mostly 20-minutes. This is a good length and kept my attention, any longer and I would be drifting off. I found most of the topics interesting with fresh information on top of what I already knew. 

All in all, a very worthwhile trip.'' 

Simon wrote ''We arrived on Thursday evening, and after dinner at a traditional Greek Taverna (ταβέρνα in Greek) we headed back to the hotel for Tea, in time to ‘zoom in’ to the societies lecture by Paul Money on the Vikings on Mars.

The following day was dedicated to sightseeing, Thessaloniki Archaeological Museum, The Arch of Galerius, The Rotunda (also commissioned by Galerius in the 4th Century AD), The Water Front and the White Tower and finally the Roman wall. One day really wasn’t enough for the sights and sites and we only scratched the surface of what Thessaloniki has to offer.

The conference was over 2 days, most lectures being 30 minute in length and ranging from the easy to follow to the latest mathematical, statistical and AI techniques associated with the Aerial and related Space Missions. Including, in one of the talks, a description of 24hrs of wasted Hubble time due to inaccurate exo-planet transit timings, really bringing home the impact amateur astronomers can have in this field by improving these ephemeris. There were also many talks on how MSc students were using exoclock data (hopefully crediting the observers) to understand better the characteristics of these planetary systems.

Martin and I were both awarded ‘Silver Awards’ for reaching over 100 successful observations (which is approximately 1000 hours of observing and maybe 300 hours in processing when you also take into account the failures due to weather or equipment issues) by the Principle Investigator (Giovanna Tinetti) and the leader of the Exo-Clock programme (Anastasia Kokori).

We headed home on Monday morning.''

For more information about the conference click here https://www.exoclock.space/annual_meetings

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CMHASD at the BAA Winchester Weekend 14-16th of April 2023.

CMHASD at the BAA Winchester Weekend 2023

Written by member Honor Wheeler

The weekend started off with the majority of us meeting up at a pub for Friday lunch, although the M25 did its best to make that as difficult as possible but thankfully we all made it in the end. Then an A31 closure sent us all on a long, picturesque diversion before finally checking in at the Sparsholt College campus.

The first lecture on the Friday night, after a delicious dinner of course, was titled 'Superluminous Supernovae: Fantastic bursts and where to find them' by Dr Matt Nichol, Queen's University Belfast which was an fascinating talk on Supernovae past and present. This was followed by a trip to the campus pub for some or returning to the common room for a chance of some relaxation for others.

The Crayford Crew

A busy lecture Saturday followed starting with 'Pete & Paul's 2023 Astronomical Challenges' followed by 'OJ287 - a Black Hole Worthy of Amateur Study' by Gary Poyner BAA, 'the Electromagnetic Spectrum' by Paul Hearn BAA, a talk from Dr Alex Cameron on the 'JWST Observing Galaxies in the Very Early Universe' looking even further back in time to 13.1 Billion years and seeing one of the highest Redshifted Galaxies to date.

Before the afternoon lectures recommenced, a little Solar observing was achieved with some observations of complex groups of Prominences and Sunspots. 

The Sun by Honor Wheeler

The afternoon session was presented by the BAA Mercury and Venus section starting with a look at the 'Sodium Ion Tail of Mercury' by Chris Hooker and how to image this elusive 'Comet like' tail followed by 'Observing Venus in IR and UV' in a variety of short talks by other members of the section.

Some members took the opportunity to explore the college grounds which are extensive and enjoyed some great views of the countryside seeing Deer, Buzzards and a rather stunning bird of prey known as a Red Kite.

Saturday evening and we enjoyed the Alfred Curtis Lecture, 'Exploring the Ice Giants of our Solar System' by Prof. Patrick Irwin (University of Oxford) another interesting lecture which left us with the hope that maybe we'll be visiting these enigmatic Planets sooner rather than later. 

A few members then made the most of clear skies and carried out observations of Venus and its conjunction with the Hyades before retiring to the pub or the common room for discussions about the day's lectures.

The Hyades & Venus by Jim Burchell

On Sunday the day began with an intriguing lecture 'How Astronomers Can Save The World' by Stuart Eves (SJE Space) but I don't think we were quite convinced that painting an Asteroid with White Paint would save the world from an impending impact (Steve was just kidding!!)

Dr Jen Gupta followed with a lively discussion on seeing 'The Invisible Universe' and looking at how we see through the dust obscuring distant, new stars.

'Let There Be Light' followed with an extensive tour of our local star the Sun by Dr Matthew Malek.

After lunch came the Members session and the opportunity to hear about projects, imaging and observations undertaken by members but which also included a rather different lecture which brought a lighter side to the proceedings. 

Steve Floodgate & Dave Grist gave us a Stella (Artois) Performance…I mean Lecture on the complex Crayford Astronomical Society's 'The Book'. You had to be there but safe to say the Members session was one everyone will remember until the end of time…! And maybe there will be a Pub at the end of time too…?

And thus the weekend was over leaving us all heavy with the knowledge gleaned from eminent Doctors, Professors and experts in their field and also filled with an amount of excellent food we just couldn't say no too.

In the end 15 members of the society managed to attend the weekend, with 2 other members who unfortunately had to cancel due to personal reasons. 

Overall a thoroughly enjoyable and informative weekend with lots of information to mull over and I'm sure leading to numerous further discussions to be had until next year's BAA Winchester weekend 2024.

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The BAA Winchester Programme 2023 is a downloadable and printable as a PDF here:  https://britastro.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Winchester-programme-card-2023.pdf

Thankyou to Honor, Jim and Simon for sharing your photos of the weekend.

CMHASD at the BAA Christmas Meeting – 2022 Dec 10

Nine CMHASD members attended the BAA Christmas meeting on the 10th December 2022, held at the Institute of Physics.

A recording of the meeting is available to watch here on the BAA YouTube channel.

Below are the times of the talks in the recording. Please be aware the sound is a little quiet at times so you will need to turn up the sound up. Talks particular of interest to our Society are in bold; as they have CMHASD member 'participation' :-)

 

Start – David Arditti, BAA President – Welcome, notices and awards - Here you will see CMHASD trustees Martin Crow and Simon Dawes collect their BAA Sir Patrick Moore award for their contributions to the ExoClock Project.

0h 27m – Tim Parsons – A Massive Star Menagerie: touring through the upper reaches of the H-R Diagram

1h 25m – Simon Kidd – Asteroid Occultations….an observer’s view

2h 8m – Nick James – Sky Notes - Here you will see CMHASD member Honor Wheeler's Moon image displayed during Nick's talk and a photo of a model of Jupiter that was used at the News Scientist Live exhibition 2022.  CMHASD member Janice McClean, who is the BAA Events Manager and several other CMHASD members helped run the BAA stand at the exhibition over the 3 days.

 

After the meeting for those who wished to partake - members were invited the BAA Christmas social, taking place in the Hubble Room at The Astronomer pub near Liverpool Street Station.  Several CMHASD members took up the invite :-D  I wonder who was one of the members?

Below are more photos of the day taken by CMHASD Chairperson John Archer & CMHASD Trustee John Howarth.  Thank you for sharing your photos with us.

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Winchester 2022

BAA Winchester Weekend

2022 Apr 8 - 2022 Apr 10

A grand total of 16 members from CMHASD attended the weekend and a good time was had by all.  There was observing on both nights too and a superb presentation to the BAA by 2 CMHASD members.

Below is some information about the weekend from the BAA website, followed by a slideshow of the first submission of photos taken by members as well as Marc Gray & Pauline Philips of the BAA.

 

Programme of the weekend

Friday April 8

15.00 – 18.00 Reception – book in at Westley Court
19.00 Dinner
20.15 Welcome and Introduction – Alan Dowdell
Multi-messenger Astronomy – Dr Matthew Malek (University of Sheffield)
21.30 Observing if clear or adjourn to the bar

Saturday April 9

07.30 – 09.00 Breakfast
09.15 Pete and Paul’s Astronomical Challenges 2022 – Dr Paul Abel & Pete Lawrence (BAA)
10.00 Measuring Comets – Nick James (BAA Comet Section Director)
10.30 Observing Mercury – Chris Hooker (BAA Mercury Coordinator)
11.15 Coffee/Tea break
11.45 BAA Archives: Past, Present and Future – John Chuter (BAA Archivist)
12.30 Break – time to visit sales stands
13.00 Lunch
14.15 Lunar Section meeting (Organiser: Dr Tony Cook, BAA Lunar Section Director)
14:15 Overview of the BAA Lunar Section’s Activities – Dr Tony Cook (Lunar Section Acting Director)
14:30 Lunar Impact Flashes and How to Observe Them – Dr Tony Cook
15:00 Lunar Geology – Old Lunar Questions Revisited? – Barry Fitz Gerald (Lunar Circulars Editor)
15:30 Tea break
16:00 Lunar Occultations from a Personal Perspective – Tim Haymes (Lunar Occultations Coordinator)
16:30 New Space Missions and the Prospect for Future Low Cost Lunar Exploration – Nick James
17:00 Question Panel Session
17:15 End
18.00 Dinner
19.30 The Alfred Curtis Lecture
Exploring the Universe with the James Webb Space Telescope
Dr Stephen Wilkins (Sussex University)
21.00 Observing if clear or adjourn to the bar

Sunday April 10

07.30 – 09.00 Breakfast
09.15 Can you successfully 3D print a Spectrograph? – Tony Rodda (BAA)
10.00 Observing the aurorae of the giant planets with the James Webb Space Telescope
Dr Henrik Melin (Leicester University)
10.45 Coffee/Tea break
11.30 Monsters in the dark: the formation of the first stars in the Universe
Dr Paul Clark (Cardiff University)
12.30 Break – please return room keys to the reception desk
13.00 Lunch
14.15 Members’ session
Your opportunity to talk briefly about what you’ve been doing during the past year
16.00 Coffee/Tea and Goodbyes

We will not be able to live stream or record the lectures.

Organiser: Ann Davies

Venue

Sparsholt College, Westley Lane, Sparsholt, Hampshire, S021 2NF

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Kelling Heath Autumn Equinox Star Party 2020

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7 members of the society attended the Kelling Heath Autumn Equinox Star Party, some booking camping pitches and others static caravans. The weather was overcast with showers with long dry spells and whilst the astronomical observations were very limited between clouds it was still a great event which I'd recommend any keen observers try to book.

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The Moon Rochester

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Gary organised a trip to Rochester Cathedral to view the huge 3D moon that is touring the UK and to hear a lecture on the moon. 

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