ASHastro - Meetings

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MEETINGS

The meetings for 2012 are now here on their own page

NOTE - clicking on the speaker's photo, where relevant (when you hover the mouse, the border will change colour) will bring up their own website.

2012 : WHAT HAPPENED (or sometimes didn't...)
January 19th ROGER O'BRIEN Roger is an past member of the Society and now an OU lecturer	"QUAOAR and OTHER THINGIES" Quaoar is one of the increasingly discovered trans-Neptunian objects (TNO) in the Kuiper Belt and there are likely to be many more. So Roger will be examining Quaoar and other of these ‘Thingies’ at the meeting and hopefully will tell us exactly how to pronounce “Quaoar”.
February 16th MAT IRVINE Mat is a founder member of the Society, writer, special effects designer and a specialist in model spacecraft.	"SPACE - AS IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN" Magnificent achievement that it was, unfortunately Project Apollo was a dead-end as no-person has been back to the Moon since 1972. But what if President Kennedy had not made the "We will land a Man on the Moon..." speech, in 1961? What if the plans from the 1950s of such scientists as Wernher von Braun had come to fruition instead. Mat looks at what 'space' could have looked like instead?
March 15th JIM WEBB Jim is Chairman of the Society and runs his own laser display company.	"CSI - SPACE" Deciphering and analysing data from space is a bit like forensic science. The clues are all there but someone has to put the lot together to make sense of it all. And the Crime? Well, that's another matter - all will be revealed!
April 19th STUART CLARK Dr Stuart Clark is a past lecturer at Hertfordshire University, and now a full-time writer.	"THE SKY'S DARK LABYRINTH" This talk is based on Stu's trilogy of novels recounting the stories of the life and work of Kepler and Galileo, Newton, Hooke and Halley and thirdly Einstein and Lemaitre.
May 17th ROGER O'BRIEN Yes you have Roger again!	"ALL BODES WELL" Start with occult numerology by the forgotten Titius... Confirm with a new planet... Make a fruitful search in a “gap”... Provide data in the search for another planet... Then it all fell flat - or did it? Bode’s Law had 60 good years and is still controversial.. Roger takes another look.
June 21st JERRY STONE Jerry been presenting space lectures for 40 years, and runs his own company spaceflight-uk	"THE DAY THEY LAUNCHED A WOODPECKER - PART 2" Space exploration and research is full of 'oddities' and if anyone can deal with 'oddities', it's Jerry! He has a whole catalogue of bizarre facts that have occurred over the time of the Space Age. We had, what was in effect 'Part 1', some time ago - so be prepared to suspend disbelief for yet more this time around in Part 2.
July 19th NIK SZYMANEK Nik Szymanek is TfL's most famous astronomer! (The day job is driving tube trains on the District Line...) However is also one of the world's most renowned astro-photographers	"PHOTOGRAPHING THE NIGHT SKY" Nik will be showing a collection of deep sky images using modern photographic techniques. You'll see lots of pretty piccies and the talk is suitable for all levels of knowledge.
August SUMMER BREAK	*No meeting held this month*
September 20th JIM WEBB	"WHAT'S UP DOC..." Jim - taking over from Bo Maxwell's talk which has had to be moved to November. He will be looking at currently happenings in the Solar System.
October 18th MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY	"AGM and SMALL TALK" October is the end of the year for the Society and the AGM is held at this meeting. However this - usually (hopefully) - takes up a short time, and so there is plenty of time for one of our semi-regular 'Small Talks'. This is for anyone in the Society, who perhaps would not want to do a full talk, but can wax lyrical for 10 minutes or so on a favourite subject. As it tends to be topical, exactly what will take place has to wait until nearer the date!
November 15th MAT IRVINE	"MY TIME ON THE SKY AT NIGHT" Instead Mat Irvine gave the talk he original devised for the BIS's Patrick's Picnic earlier in the year. The 'Patrick' is of course Sir Patrick Moore, and the talk was based around Mat's work on The Sky at Night over a good number of years. Bo Maxwell talk on "THE LATEST FROM MARS" will be re-scheduled for 2013.
December 13th (second Thursday) THE SOCIETY and JIM WEBB	"OBSERVING EVENING" Planned as viewing session, but the bad weather that evening (well most of the day, and the days either side), put a halt to that. The second Thursday of December has traditionally been the Christmas Party. For a few years now, this has also been the time of 'The Guiz'. (And in case you are asking, this is obviously a 'Galactic Quiz'.) Devised and run by vice-chairman Mat Irvine, this is a light-hearted quiz, based on all subjects covered by the Society's interests. This meeting however has - oddly? - not be well attended over the last couple of years, so it has reluctantly been decided to put it 'on hold' until further notice.

2012 : WHAT HAPPENED

(or sometimes didn't...)

January 19th

ROGER O'BRIEN

Roger O'Brien

Roger is an past member of the Society and now an OU lecturer

"QUAOAR and OTHER THINGIES"

Quaoar is one of the increasingly discovered trans-Neptunian objects (TNO) in the Kuiper Belt and there are likely to be many more. So Roger will be examining Quaoar and other of these ‘Thingies’ at the meeting and hopefully will tell us exactly how to pronounce “Quaoar”.

February 16th

MAT IRVINE

Mat is a founder member of the Society, writer, special effects designer and a specialist in model spacecraft.

"SPACE - AS IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN"

Magnificent achievement that it was, unfortunately Project Apollo was a dead-end as no-person has been back to the Moon since 1972. But what if President Kennedy had not made the "We will land a Man on the Moon..." speech, in 1961? What if the plans from the 1950s of such scientists as Wernher von Braun had come to fruition instead. Mat looks at what 'space' could have looked like instead?

March 15th

JIM WEBB

Jim is Chairman of the Society and runs his own laser display company.

"CSI - SPACE"

Deciphering and analysing data from space is a bit like forensic science. The clues are all there but someone has to put the lot together to make sense of it all.

And the Crime? Well, that's another matter - all will be revealed!

April 19th

STUART CLARK

Dr Stuart Clark is a past lecturer at Hertfordshire University, and now a full-time writer.

"THE SKY'S DARK LABYRINTH"

This talk is based on Stu's trilogy of novels recounting the stories of the life and work of Kepler and Galileo, Newton, Hooke and Halley and thirdly Einstein and Lemaitre.

May 17th

ROGER O'BRIEN

Roger O'B

Yes you have Roger again!

"ALL BODES WELL"

Start with occult numerology by the forgotten Titius...
Confirm with a new planet...
Make a fruitful search in a “gap”...
Provide data in the search for another planet...

Then it all fell flat - or did it?

Bode’s Law had 60 good years and is still controversial.. Roger takes another look.

June 21st

JERRY STONE

Jerry been presenting space lectures for 40 years, and runs his own company spaceflight-uk

"THE DAY THEY LAUNCHED A WOODPECKER - PART 2"

Space exploration and research is full of 'oddities' and if anyone can deal with 'oddities', it's Jerry!

He has a whole catalogue of bizarre facts that have occurred over the time of the Space Age.

We had, what was in effect 'Part 1', some time ago - so be prepared to suspend disbelief for yet more this time around in Part 2.

July 19th

NIK SZYMANEK

Nik Szymanek is TfL's most famous astronomer! (The day job is driving tube trains on the District Line...) However is also one of the world's most renowned astro-photographers

"PHOTOGRAPHING THE NIGHT SKY"

Nik will be showing a collection of deep sky images using modern photographic techniques.

You'll see lots of pretty piccies and the talk is suitable for all levels of knowledge.

August

SUMMER BREAK

Summer Break

No meeting held this month

September 20th

JIM WEBB

"WHAT'S UP DOC..."

Jim - taking over from Bo Maxwell's talk which has had to be moved to November.

He will be looking at currently happenings in the Solar System.

October 18th

MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY

Viewing

"AGM and SMALL TALK"

October is the end of the year for the Society and the AGM is held at this meeting. However this - usually (hopefully) - takes up a short time, and so there is plenty of time for one of our semi-regular 'Small Talks'.

This is for anyone in the Society, who perhaps would not want to do a full talk, but can wax lyrical for 10 minutes or so on a favourite subject.

As it tends to be topical, exactly what will take place has to wait until nearer the date!

November 15th

MAT IRVINE

Pat-Mat

"MY TIME ON THE SKY AT NIGHT"

Instead Mat Irvine gave the talk he original devised for the BIS's Patrick's Picnic earlier in the year. The 'Patrick' is of course Sir Patrick Moore, and the talk was based around Mat's work on The Sky at Night over a good number of years.

Bo Maxwell talk on "THE LATEST FROM MARS" will be re-scheduled for 2013.

December 13th (second Thursday)

THE SOCIETY and JIM WEBB

Viewing

"OBSERVING EVENING"

Planned as viewing session, but the bad weather that evening (well most of the day, and the days either side), put a halt to that.

The second Thursday of December has traditionally been the Christmas Party. For a few years now, this has also been the time of 'The Guiz'. (And in case you are asking, this is obviously a 'Galactic Quiz'.) Devised and run by vice-chairman Mat Irvine, this is a light-hearted quiz, based on all subjects covered by the Society's interests. This meeting however has - oddly? - not be well attended over the last couple of years, so it has reluctantly been decided to put it 'on hold' until further notice.