Tony Cross and Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw at the start of the evening.
 Dennis Buczynski, Martin Mobberley |
 Colin Harrison, Ray Brierley |
| A good time had by all, not only wine was consumed that evening! | |
The Manchester Astronomical Society, and the British Astronomical Association held a special joint meeting in Manchester on Saturday, April 27.
Dennis Buczynski, Martin Mobberley |
Colin Harrison, Ray Brierley |
| A good time had by all, not only wine was consumed that evening! | |
Prof. Tom Millar, Department of Physics, UMIST gave a talk on "The Physics
and Chemistry of Star Formation". Prof. Miller, explained with viewgraphs
and slides how and where stars were being formed. There are many molecules in
space, each one emits radiation at a particular frequency. He empathised the necessity
of making many observations in many different wavelengths, much with radio telescopes
to determine the nature and composition of star forming regions in order to find
out exactly where the stars will form.
Dr. John E. Geake, Department of Physics, UMIST and Adjunct Professor,
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona. Described the "UMIST
Refractometer on Titan" one of a number of instruments that will land (or
more hopefully splash) on the surface of Titan in 2004.
BAA meeting. Chaired by Maurice Gavin, President of the BAA.
With the Minutes given by Dr John Mason.
Presentation of the BAA's Merlin Medal to Dr Henry Soper, by Maurice
Gavin. Dr Soper a member of the Manchester Astronomical Society, has done and
still undertakes many observations of fireball's and bright meteors. He specialises
in taking all sky photographs with his home made equipment. Much of his work
involves obtaining spectra of these meteors. He has obtained many spectra from
thousands of camera hours observing time. Dr Soper is noted as taking the best
spectra of a meteor in the UK, with some 80 lines present. This spectra was
analysed by the Late Harold Ridley.
The Main Lecture, "Global Solar Oscillations", given by Professor
George Isaak, School of Physics and Space Research, University
of Birmingham. A most enthusiastic and illuminating talk with some practical
demonstrations. He explained how he and his team were able to take very small,
accurate measurements of the Solar Oscillations, measurements which were taken
with relatively simple equipment over many years from a number of sites around
the world. Professor Isaak then finished by stating that from the observations
it would appear as if we have all over estimated the age of the Sun, and therefore
all other stars. So perhaps the oldest stars found in some globular clusters
are not older than the Universe (which of course they can not be). So perhaps
the Hubble Constant is not far out after all.
Martin Mobberly gave the current observing notes for May.
He predicted cloud over Manchester for the forthcoming month. I think he may just be right there!
Jonathan Shanklin talked about Comet Hyakatake, 1996/B2. In order to
observe the comet Nick James, Martin Mobberley and Glyn Marsh went to Tenerife.
They were rewarded with fantastic views of the comet which Nick James shared
with us at the meeting, photographs, some taken with a standard 50mm camera
lens showing a huge coma and tail stretching right across the field. I just
sat there with my bottom jaw on my lap! See the TA
Comet page for some of these images.
Kevin Kilburn described the Pole Stars of the Planets, and how he came
to discover what these were. Kevin is a member of the Manchester Astronomical
Society, and Past President.
Michael Maunder discussed Planetary Conjunctions and Appulses. Michael
showed us that you don't need to use expensive automatic cameras to takes photographs
of conjunctions, and gave many examples of his work. He explained his 5-6 rule
for calculating the exposure: Use a film with a film speed near 56 (nearest
is 64 ISO) stop the lens down to f5.6 and expose for 5 to 6 seconds, with this
rule you should be successful every time.
Beware: Photographing conjunctions with erupting volcano's in the foreground may damage you health!
To round the day off there was a Reception at Manchester Town Hall, hosted by
the Deputy Lord Mayor, Councillor Shaw, who was presented with a photograph
of Comet Hyakutake and 2 volumes on the History of the BAA, by Maurice Gavin,
(President of the BAA)
Group Photo: (from left, Kevin Kilburn, Rossie Atwell, Maurice
Gavin, Murad Ghorbal, Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw, Anne Cross, Tony Cross and
Dr Eric Strach)
A great weekend.
Maintained by Michael Oates