NOTICE

This website / blog for Chester Astronomical Society

is now mothballed. 

It will stay online to serve as an archive for members and other researchers.

As of Spring 2022 the new

Chester Astronomical website is here:

https://www.chesterastronomicalsociety.co.uk

 

Members' Talk 29th September 2021

How to Photograph a Black Hole /

Pro Derek Ward-Thompson, UCLAN

UCLan‘s Professor Derek Ward-Thompson is one of the 347 world-leading scientists who formed the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration. The scientists will share the 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, which is worth three million dollars.  Professor Ward-Thompson said: “This is a great honour for the team to receive this award. It is a truly international collaboration and it was a remarkable achievement. The Breakthrough Trust are to be thanked for their generous acknowledgment.”

To join this online zoom talk, please email the chairman at: david.tillotson@btinternet.com 

 CAS July Meeting

 

The Great Moon Hoax 
Dr Steve Barrett of Liverpool University

This promises to be an interesting discussion of a leading conspiracy theory! Or should that be a hypothesis? LOL!

An online zoom talk for members, please let the chair know that you will attend and he will forward the zoom link: david.tillotson@btinternet.com

 

Lecture - June 30th 

The Stonyhurst College expedition to the total solar eclipse of 1914  

Mr Graham McLoughlin, Preston AS

Abstract

The total solar eclipse of 1914 August 21 had the misfortune of taking place at the beginning of World War I. Its central line crossed an area of eastern Europe that had been thrown into conflict only weeks earlier when Germany declared war against Russia on August 1....  This lecture promises to be a fascinating insight into the struggle of scientists to gather information against the background of a world war was erupting.

An online zoom talk for members, please let the chair know that you will attend and he will forward the zoom link: david.tillotson@btinternet.com

 May 2021

Our Neighbour, the Moon 

Martin Lunn, FRAS 

Earby Astronomical Society 

This will be a Zoom lecture for members only, delivered at 7:30 pm. For the link to join this session, please email the chair, David Tillotson at david.tillotson@btinternet.com 

Photograph by Stephen Bell

APRIL MEETING: The next meeting of CAS will be at 1930 hours on Wednesday, 28th April 2021. As usual (nowadays) the meeting will be held on Zoom.

The speaker is Professor Ian Morison, who has served as Emeritus Professor of  Astronomy (Gresham College) and who continues to work at Jodrell Bank.  His talk will be entitled "Astrophotography with a DSLR or mirrorless camera". Professor Morison has wide experience in observational astronomy and he will show that excellent photographic results do not require you to be situated at the top of a mountain in Chile nor plugged into Hubble !

If you would like to attend the meeting please send an e-mail to the society's Chair david.tillotson@btinternet.com and he will forward an invitation/link shortly before the meeting. Note that all meetings are for members who have now paid their membership fees.

 March Meeting is 31st March at 19:30 hours

Clusters of Galaxies - Light in the Dark Spaces

Prof. Chris Collins

Professor of Cosmology within the Astrophysics Research Institute (ARI) of Liverpool John Moores University. 

My research covers topics in observational cosmology focussing on studies of the evolution of galaxies and clusters of galaxies over cosmic time and their large-scale distribution in space. These interests probe theories of how galaxies develop from seed density perturbations in the very early Universe and also provide constraints on cosmological parameters such as the amount of dark matter and dark energy. 

If you would like to attend the meeting, please send me an e-mail the Chair at this address david.tillotson@btinternet.com  he will then forward to you the "official invitation" and Zoom link in due course.

NOVEMBER MEETING

Our November meeting is scheduled for 1930 hours on Wednesday, 25th November 2020.  As is usual these days, the meeting will be held via Zoom.

We will be addressed by Thomas Harvey of Manchester University on the subject of  "The lost meteorites of Antarctica".  This should be a very interesting talk on the search for these visitors from outer space and what they can teach us about the history of the Solar System.

If you would like to attend the meeting, please send me an e-mail at this address 

david.tillotson@btinternet.com  I will then forward to you the "official invitation" in due course.

October's Virtual 

CAS Meeting

CAS Members: David Tillotson is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Simon Ebo is a PhD student at UCLAN and will be talking to us about his work studying "Exoplanets".

Tom Rose is a PhD student at Durham University and he will be talking to us about his work studying "Supermassive Black Hole Eclipses"

They are both past members of CAS, and it will be good to hear news from "our alumni".

Time: Oct 28, 2020 at 07:30 PM. Register to attend by sending an email to 

david.tillotson@btinternet.com 

 September Meeting 

Dr. Steve Barrett from Liverpool University has kindly agreed to present a ZOOM lecture. The Burley Hall is still closed to meetings the size of ours.

Dr Barrett last spoke to us in February of this year on the legacy of the Hubble Space Telescope. As Christmas is now on the horizon he will talk on 'The Star of Bethlehem' on Wednesday the 30^th. September, starting at 19:30 Hrs.

As usual David Tillotson will receive requests (david.tillotson@btinternet.com) for an invitation to be included in the audience of that meeting.

Also, October 28^th. Is scheduled as 'Members night', so please, if you have anything to share with the rest of us please get in touch. We can help with the complications of 'screen sharing'. It is highly probable the Hall will still be closed to a meeting of the numbers we usually meet in.

Special Virtual Meeting 29th July 2020

Our next meeting will take place on 29^th July 2020 at 1930 hours. This will be a “virtual meeting”, in as much as it will be held on the Zoom video-conferencing platform.  Please note that you will need to provide your own internet access to attend the meeting as there will be no meeting or video-conferencing facilities at our usual venue, Burley Hall in Waverton.

The July meeting will comprise a lecture entitled “Going over galaxies with a fine-tooth comb” and it will be given by Dr Megan Argo, an astrophysicist and lecturer in astronomy at the University of Central Lancashire.

Megan will be giving an account of recent developments in radio astronomy, covering the transition from large single dishes, able to map the sky only at resolutions of degrees, to arrays of telescopes working together to create images with milliarcsecond resolution (1000th of 1/3600 of a degree). This powerful new capability is opening up new areas of research and enabling us to carry out large-scale studies which were impossible in the past.

Attendance at the lecture is open to all members of the Chester Astronomy Society. If you would like to attend, please contact the facilitator for the evening at : david.tillotson@btinternet.com

Next Meeting Cancelled

Regretfully we have to announce that the next meeting, which was due to be held on Wednesday, 25-Mar-2020, has been cancelled.  The speaker scheduled to talk at that meeting, Professor Chris Collins (Liverpool John Moores University), has informed us that due to the Corona virus outbreak it is considered unwise to go ahead.  We hope to hear from Professor Collins in the future but in the meantime we hope this does not cause you too much disappointment.

We will let you know about future meetings in due course.

Next Meeting: Wednesday 26-Feb-2020

The next meeting will be on Wednesday 29-Jan-2020.

Our guest speaker will be Dr. Steve Barrett, of Liverpool University, who will speak about The Legacy of Hubble.
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Meetings start at 7:30 P.M. at the usual venue, the Burley Memorial Hall, Waverton, CH3 7QN

Next Meeting: Wednesday 29-Jan-2020

The next meeting will be on Wednesday 29-Jan-2020.

The meeting will be the Society's 2020 Annual General meeting. 
There will also be a talk on:  Astronomical Events of 2020.

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Meetings start at 7:30 P.M. at the usual venue, the Burley Memorial Hall, Waverton, CH3 7QN

Next Meeting: Wednesday 27-Nov-2019

The next meeting will be on Wednesday 27-Nov-2019.

Our guest speaker will be Professor Nathan Bastian, of Liverpool John Moores University, who will speak about Globular Clusters.

Meetings start at 7:30 P.M. at the usual venue, the Burley Memorial Hall, Waverton, CH3 7QN

Special Meeting: Friday 8-Nov-2019

 A special meeting will be held on Friday 8-Nov-2019.

Our guest speaker will be the renowned historian Dr. Allan Chapman FRAS, of Wadham College, Oxford, who will speak about A topic to be announced on the day.

Meetings start at 7:30 P.M. at the usual venue, the Burley Memorial Hall, Waverton, CH3 7QN

SHA Autumn Conference and AGM: 26-Oct-19

The Society for the History of Astronomy is holding its Autumn Conference and AGM at the John Lee Theatre, Birmingham & Midland Institute, Margaret Street, Birmingham, B3 3BS, from 9:30am on Saturday, 26-Oct-19.

The 2019 SHA Autumn Conference will be celebrating the Moon; it will be 50 years ago that man first stepped onto our nearest celestial neighbour.

Event details and a link to buy tickets are here (SHA members £10, Non-members £15).

Programme:

• Gerard Gilligan – Chairman, SHA
  

  Welcome

• SHA Council
  

  2019 AGM

• Dr. Heather Sebire – English Heritage
  

  “Stonehenge, archaeoastronomy and the Moon”

• Dr. Alexandra Loske – writer, curator and art historian
  Dr. Robert Massey – Royal Astronomical Society
  

  “Moon: Art, Science, Culture”

• Dr. Melanie Vandenbrouck – Royal Museums Greenwich
  Dr. Louise Devoy – Royal Observatory, Greenwich.
  

  “The Moon as muse: the ideas and inspiration behind The Moon exhibition, Royal Museums Greenwich”

• Prof. Emeritus Bill Leatherbarrow – University of Sheffield
  

  “Patrick Moore & Our Volcanic Moon”

• Dr. Allan Chapman F.R.A.S. – SHA, University of Oxford
  

  “The Moon, the Telescope, and the Transformation of Astronomy after 1609

Next Meeting: Wednesday 30-Oct-2019

The next meeting will be on Wednesday 30-Oct-2019.

Our guest speaker will be Professor Philippa Browning, of the University of Manchester, who will speak about Solar Flares: The biggest explosions in the Solar System.

Meetings start at 7:30 P.M. at the usual venue, the Burley Memorial Hall, Waverton, CH3 7QN

Next Meeting: Wednesday 25-Sep-2019

The next meeting will be on Wednesday 25-Sep-2019.

Our guest speaker will be Mr. Gary Poyner F.R.A.S, of the B.A.A, who will speak about The Monster in The Crab.

Meetings start at 7:30 P.M. at the usual venue, the Burley Memorial Hall, Waverton, CH3 7QN

FAS’ Convention and AGM: 14-Sep-19

The Federation of Astronomical Societies are holding their annual Convention and AGM at the Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road, Cambridge, from 9:45am on 14^th September: event details and a link to buy tickets are available online at http://fedastro.org.uk/fas/convention/convention-2019 (members of FAS member societies £8, Non-members £10 and £4 for all under-16s). A limited number of tickets will also be available at the door if there are any left from the online sales – check the website the day before to see how many are left.

Programme:

• Dr Mark Clilverd – “Solar storm effects on ground-based infrastructures”British Antarctic Survey, Winner of the RAS 2019 James Dungey Lectureship
• Dr Richard Ghail – “New insights from our closest Earth-sized exoplanet: Venus”
  Royal Holloway College, London
• Jenny Lister – “Astronomy for all: its place in education”
  Primary School Teacher, Winner of the RAS 2018 Patrick Moore Medal for Education
• Dr Floor van Leeuwen – “Details of the HR diagram as revealed by the second Gaia data release”
  Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge
• Prof Carlos Frenk – “Everything from nothing: how our universe was made”Director of the Institute for Computational Cosmology, Durham University,
  Winner of the RAS 2014 Gold Medal for Astronomy

Also:

• Lunchtime tours of the Northumberland and Thorrowgood telescopes
• Lunchtime tours of the Cavendish Museum
• Trade stands
• Lots of free car parking at the IoA
• Free tea/coffee/biscuits throughout the day