Next Meeting: Wednesday 26-Apr-2017

The next meeting will be on Wednesday 26-Apr-2017.

Our guest speaker will be Mr. Kevin Kilburn, of The University of Manchester and Manchester Astronomical Society, who will talk about The Forgotten Star Atlas. 

The meeting will be at 7:30 P.M. at the usual venue:  the Burley Memorial Hall, Waverton, CH3 7QN

NASA Astronaut Visit: 22-Mar-17 (Wallsall) and 25-Mar-17 (Leicester)

The following notice may be of interest:

We are hosting former NASA Astronaut Dr. Don Thomas for some events in the U.K. in March 2017. Dr Thomas will also be undertaking a number of school visit during his stay here. We would appreciate any publicity you can give to these events. We are a non-profit, no salary, community interest company.

The first of our 'Astronaut Events' of the year is on March 22nd in Walsall, West Midlands at the Calderfields Golf and Country Club. Further details at the 'Astronaut Event' website.

On Saturday March 25th a whole day of activities are planned at the National Space Centre in Leicester. Further details can be obtained and tickets can be purchased directly through 'Eventbrite'.

The Gala Dinner at only £50.00 per head is great value, drinks reception and a 3-course meal hosted by Astronaut Don Thomas.

Please forward this email to society members and anyone you know with an interest in space exploration, thank you.

Kind regards,
Nick & Bryar Deakin, Kirstie Deakin and Colin Shales.

Professor Albert Zijlstra: The History of the Earth

Our guest speaker on 22-Feb-2017 was professor Albert Zijlstra, of The University of Manchester, who delivered an excellent talk on The History of the Earth.  Professor Zijlstra has kindly provided links to two web sites (blogs) on which he discusses some related topics:

Ice ages:   http://www.volcanocafe.org/ice-age/
Calanais:  http://www.volcanocafe.org/the-stones-of-calanais/   (actually the history of Scotland)

Professor Zijlstra managed to compress the entire history of the earth (about 4.5 thousand million years) into about one and a half hours - a compression ratio of about 25,000,000,000,000 to 1;  you will understand, therefore, that the web sites contain a considerable amount of information that is well worth exploring.