Welcome to Newsletter No. 22.
A lot has happened in the past 6 months, since Newsletter 21, so there’s a lot to catch up on. Sorry for the delay getting to No. 22, but I’ve been rather busy with work and stuff.
Ed
Society news
The past 6 months has been a lot of activity in the Society.
Here is just a highlight of what we’ve done:
The end of the 2005-6 Program and the start of the 2006-7 program with many familiar features such as Public Lectures (more of which later), Open Weeks, talks by Society members, visits to events put on by other Astronomical Societies and a whole lot more.
The 2006-7 program kicked off on the 5th of may with an in-depth historical resume of ‘modern’ Astronomy by Rod Hein from Bradford Astronomical Society. Covering the dates between Hamerabi (around 500 AD) to Edwin Hubble (1900’s) Rod gave an enlightened and at times humorous review of the personalities and their discoveries.
Following on, in June, was Dr Andrew Newsnam of Liverpool John Moores University/Star Centre who talked about the observation of variable stars in the Andromeda Galaxy. Using some novel techniques it may be possible to directly observe planets around some of these stars (the planets are causing the variability in some of these stars).
After the ‘summer break’ the most recent Public lecture was Dr (soon to be Professor) Ian Morison from Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope who detailed the latest developments at the well know Radio telescope in Cheshire.
Again we were treated to a wonderful ‘multi media’ presentation showing how the Lovell telescope and some of the other telescopes at JBRT have and are making quite astonishing discoveries in the investigation of Pulsars and discovery of planets around stars.
The first ‘Astro-Imaging’ competition was won by Lyndon with everyone who took part submitting some interesting images of a wide variety of objects and phenomena. Probably more of the same for the next Competition in November.
In June a number of Society members had the chance to relive their experiences of the March Total Solar Eclipse.
Everyone who ventured abroad got a good view of the Eclipse and some of us are starting to plan our next sojourn to places east for the 2008 or 2009 Total Solar Eclipse which both crosses China - the 2009 eclipse will last more than 6 minutes and crosses over Shanghai!
Debates in the clubroom have started again this year with some interesting topics, such as ‘Evolution’ and more to come.
This years annual Perseid Bar-B-Que was a typical BBQ at the Observatory - WET!. Using a combination of umbrellas and the Observatory as a rain shield a few hardy souls braved the wet conditions to enjoy themselves.
A new feature of this years Program was a ‘book review’ by Paul Cooke.
A few weeks ago Paul primed everyone by providing copies of a book by George Gamov. Gamov’s book describes his ideas about ‘relativity’ by means of a conversation between a ‘speaker’ and his pupil. During this conversation the speaker tries to describe certain fundamental properties, of Relativity, such as Time Dilation and the properties of Black Holes and his pupil is continuously being chided by the speaker, for falling asleep.
This raised quite a lot of discussion amongst the audience about their understanding of these concepts, which to many people, are difficult to grasp because they seem difficult to imagine or describe effectively.
However, it was agreed by the group present that the evening was a success and there may be another similar session later.
On the 10th of September a small contingent of HAPS members went to Beaumont Park for the ‘Friends of Beaumont Park’ event.
Again we were blessed by good weather and the solar telescope was much in use...
Observatory news
The Observatory has seen a lot of activity, over the past few months, in preparation for the ‘official dedication’ of the LX 200 telescope.
The past few months have been a frustrating time, for observing, as there has been precious few moments, either during the day or at night, to have a clear sky to observe the Sun or the Night Sky.
Because of a few ongoing problems a number of enforced modifications have had to be made to the Observatory, however it is still running well.
June 9th 2006 will go down as a very special day for the Society.
Many months ago the Society decided to have an ‘official dedication ceremony’ to celebrate the role played by the Society’s largest benefactor, of recent times, Grahame Mitchell who provided the funds to purchase the LX 200 telescope.
A number of Society members put a lot of effort in getting the Observatory ready for the ‘big day’.
The Big Day itself could not have been better for there was a completely sunny sky and we even had some entertainment in the form of the stunt piloted bi-plane flying overhead for much of the day.
The day, for many people started off early (9am) with the putting up of the big tent in which a display of Society pictures etc. was to be put along with some refreshments, supervised by Steve & Judith.
Steve provided some colourful greener in the form of a hanging basket attached to the Observatory and other members were busy setting up telescopes, the generator and a whole lot more.
The Mayor, Councillor Donald Firth, and his party arrived right on time and stayed for more than 90 minutes, talking to many of the people present.
The Society is grateful for the attendance of Philip Pendred (a former HAPS member now living in France) who regaled the Mayor with details of how the Observatory was put together.
Gain gave the Mayor a conducted tour of the new telescope and with the weather being so good, the opportunity was taken to view the Sun (more about the Sun later).
Mayor, Mayoress and Gain
Refreshments tent
Busy day..
The only downside was that everything had to be put away.
The event does show that with planning this Society and its members can put on a good show we should try to plan something similar for the near future perhaps a Star party? if you have any ideas or comments please let me know.
Over the past few months the weather has not been very good for observing the Sun, however at a recent weekend an opportunity was taken to view the Sun and it appears that the next Solar Cycle may have begun with more sunspots and ‘active regions’ now visible. So if you can get chance to view the Sun in H-alpha do so you may see the Sun like you have never seen it before.
Over the next few months the Observatory will be much in use by members and visitors alike.
The year there a few bright planets on view and Saturn will be the only one easily visible, in the evening sky, for the near future.
Astronomical visits/events
Over the past few months a number of Star Parties and other local Astronomical events have been attended by members of HAPS.
These have included trips to the following:
a) StarFest at Adderstone Field hosted by Scarborough & Rydale Astronomical Society. This was, as is traditional, held on August bank Holiday weekend. Four Society members attended (Marcus, Paul, Robert and Alex) and fuelled by Alex’s Bar B-Que mountain of food we had a great time.
The weather was a bit patchy but we did get chance to see the Sun, through a Coronado PST and successfully gave the Meade ETX 125 PE a thorough work out going in search of a selection of open clusters, globular clusters, planetary nebulae and galaxies.
Paul, Alex and Marcus enjoying a few tins
A newly developed area of the Forest with amenities such as cycle hire and a café
Dalby Visitors centre
The equipment we took with us, from left to right 25x100 binoculars, Coronado PST and Meade ETX 125 PE
b) Astromind 2006 this was hosted by Cleveland & Darlington AS. As ever the question master was a former champion from C&DAS, here seen with the winner, also a member from C&DAS.
Astromind winner
Marcus was equal on points, with the winner but lost out on mastermind style count-back of ‘passes’ - bad luck Marcus better chance next year!!!
Astromind Contestants
So what of Mastermind 2007 - well it is coming back to HAPS - we have agreed to host it in 2007 at a venue yet to be decided but a number of options have already been thought about.
c) Kielder Forest Sky Camp 2006 - this took place over the weekend of 21st and 22nd October at the Campsite deep in Kielder Forest, west of Bellingham in Northumberland.
As usual the weather was a bit mixed with heavy showers interspersed with brighter interludes.
Over the two nights about 3 hours of observation was possible with the sighting of a number of open clusters of the autumn night sky.
In addition, because the weekend coincided with a New Moon AND the maximum of the Orionid meteor shower, it was possible to see some shooting stars.
At this time of year another meteor shower, the TAURIDS, is also active (see night sky notes).
The Taurid shower has slow moving bright meteors whereas the Orionids are fast and it was very easy to spot a Taurid about 5 to 10 brilliant shooting stars, all brighter than Sirius were seen including one that was spitted to ‘break up’ at the end of its flight.
Whilst we were there we ventured up to the site for the soon to be constructed Kielder Forest Observatory.
Some ‘plans’ were on show in the Visitors centre, by Kielder Castle and we made use of the most excellent food available at the ‘Dukes Pantry’ cooked breakfasts/bacon and sausage Stotties, with cakes aplenty for lunch and a great evening meal at the ‘Anglers Arms’ pub only a short walk away from the campsite.
Kielder Observatory view
Kielder Observatory plans.
This is an architect’s plan of the finished Observatory (entirely constructed from wood) there are 125 million trees in Kielder!!
Kielder trade stands under cover
Here is a view of the campsite on the Saturday when there was about 75 tents, caravans, trailers, and log cabins in use.
Thankfully this year there was nothing like as much rain as in the ‘big flood’ of KSC 2004!
WHAT’S NEXT?
The next few months will be a busy period for HAPS.
We have a number of Open Weeks, Public Lectures, the Christmas Dinner (info in a moment), as well as more than 10 visits by community groups already booked between now and Christmas.
Open Weeks as follows:
1) 13th to 18th November 2006
2) 11th to 16th December 2006
3) 22nd to 27th January 2007
4) 19th to 24th February 2006
Public Lectures as follows:
1) Friday 1st December 2006 Stars R Us by Dr martin McCoustra from Nottingham University
2) Friday 5th January 2007 - The mystery of misplaced Supernova by Dr Phil James from Liverpool JM University
3) Friday 2nd February 2007 Dr Liane Benning from Leeds University talking about the Mars 2011 ‘Geobiology’ mission
NOW CONFIRMED!!!
Debates Friday 8th December ‘Potentially Hazardous Asteroids’
Christmas Observatory Night Friday 22nd December MEET at Observatory for 8pm (weather permitting)
The 2006 HAPS Christmas Dinner will take place at the SANDS HOUSE PUBLIC HOUSE, BLACKMOORFOOT ROAD, at 7.30pm for 8pm, on SUNDAY 17TH DECEMBER 2006.
Here is a summary of the menu (costs £20.50 - names and deposits to Paul asap):
Here is the Menu for the evening:
Starters:
Smoked Trout on a Potato Cake with Horseradish
Warm five spiced duck with pear salad and soy dressing
Deep fried goats cheese with roast beetroot salad - this was HUGE last year but also very tasty!
Black Pudding and Apple tartlet with a smoked bacon and leek salad
Mains:
Roast Turkey or Roast Topside of Beef with all the trimmings
Venison Wellington with a Borderlaise sauce
Pheasant supreme on a potato rosti with mushroom and shallot red wine sauce
Halibut steak with baby veg in a parcel
Roast vegetable & mozzarella Mille Feuille with a red pepper coulis
Deserts
Xmas pudd with rum sauce
Sticky toffee pudding
Lemon Tarte with winter berries
White chocolate and strawberry merringue
Afters
Coffee & Christmas cake
Cost £20.50 pp
Next Newsletter
The next Newsletter will, hopefully be published sometime around January 2007. This should include reports on the Observatory Open Weeks, an update on Public Lectures and news of events coming up in the Spring of 2007.
As always contributions are welcome, in any format please send them to me by e-mail or snail mail
Latest News Mel Westwood won the ‘Autumn photographic competition’ with a picture of his ‘garden observatory’
