Our Picks

Our guest speaker this week is Keith Townsend from http://www.astronomymatters.co.uk/ to give us his talk Here Comes the Sun.

Keith's childhood interest in astronomy developed into telescope ownership some 25 years ago and imaging became a large part of this around the turn of the century. Hee never made it off the slippery slope and continue to suffer the consequences to this day!

Keith was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2016 and have been delivering talks to a wide range of groups for almost 10 years.

One of his passions is to try to unlock the fascination many people have for the night sky, but don’t realise it.

This months talk is 'Here Comes the Sun': The sun sustains life here on Earth but to astronomers it is a G-type main-sequence star (G2V) informally referred to as a 'yellow dwarf’. Recent missions are massively expanding our knowledge and understanding at an incredible rate, so what's it all about? 

This talk explores some basics, details the latest findings and includes some fascinating images and animations.

This talk is our first after a bit of a hiatus and the first of our new monthly format - we will see how it goes before picking a permeant recurring slot but to begin with, we are going to try the second Wednesday of the month and may try to squeeze in a Sunday session at some point as well.

Hope to see you all Wednesday 🙂

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP47 - Wednesday, 14th July 2021 7:30pm BST - Here Comes the Sun by Keith Townsend
Time: Jul 14, 2021 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 859 8608 9826
Passcode: 142936

We have a special talk this SATURDAY where we will be joined by Adam Block of  https://www.adamblockstudios.com/ to give us a talk looking at more advanced calibration concepts in Pixinsight.

Adam has been at the forefront of Astroimaging for many years, having received his first telescope from his parents at the tender age of seven! His work in astronomy led him to the University of Arizona to study Astronomy and Physics, and soon after graduating, joined Kitt Peak National Observatory to run nightly observing sessions for visitors, and eventually to create the Mount Lemmon Sky Centre at the University - now a firm fixture on the tourist trail in Arizona!

His passion for bringing astronomy to people through his pictures has never diminished - his list of published images and APOD images is extensive, and his articles are published across the spectrum of astronomical journals. He has discovered an asteroid (Williamson - named after Dr Richard Williamson), has a minor planet named after him (172525 AdamBlock) and has had an image of R Aquarii used by CHANDRA Space Observatory as a reference image!

Adam has written and published tutorials in Photoshop - which culminated in the very successful Making every Pixel Count - and of course in Pixinsight.

Adam has developed a whole set of training videos and content for all levels of astroimager - you can see samples and details at http://adamblockstudios.com

In this talk, Adam is taking us through some of the more advanced concepts of calibration in Pixinsight - such as Selective Rejection and Manual Calibration versus the new WBPP script.

If you want to take the next steps in calibrating your images and ensure they are the best quality data possible, then this will be invaluable!

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP46 - Saturday, 8th May 2021 7:30pm BST - Pixinsight - Advanced Calibration Concepts by Adam Block
Time: May 8, 2021 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 937 3857 3334
Passcode: 069681

We have the pleasure of welcoming back Mary McIntyre FRAS of http://www.marymcintyreastronomy.co.uk/ this week to give her talk 'A History of Women in Astronomy'.

Mary is an amateur astronomer and astronomy communicator based in Oxfordshire, UK. She is a keen astrophotographer and astronomy sketcher and is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. She has a busy talks schedule and also writes for Sky at Night Magazine and the Yearbook of Astronomy, is a co-presenter of the Comet Watch radio show and recently joined the Astro Radio team.

”A History of Women in Astronomy” – historically, astronomy has been very male-dominated. Throughout history there have been a number of trail-blazing women, such as Caroline Herschel, who worked to change that. But in addition there were countless less well known women who were doing astronomy, many of them needing to be taught by male relatives and mentors. This talk is a celebration of women who worked in astronomy during different periods of history and some of the challenges they have faced.


I am looking forward to this talk and finding out more about some of these forgotten figures in astronomy history. Hope to see you all there 🙂

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP45 - Sunday, 25th April 2021 7:30pm BST - A History of Women in Astronomy By Mary McIntyre
Time: Apr 25, 2021 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 965 0321 5412
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This week we are very pleased to welcome back Paul Money of http://www.astrospace.co.uk/. Paul is very well known for his extensive talks and as review editor for BBC Sky at Night magazine. He also publishes his yearly 'NightScenes' sky guide - an extremely useful book!

Paul is going to give us his talk 'Why there are no green stars'. This talk explores how we see and perceive colour and why when we view the stars, there appear to be no green stars out there!

Paul is one of my favourite astro speakers - If you've not seen one of his talks before you are in for a treat, there are few more passionate and energetic astronomy speakers out there! This should be very interesting and entertaining, hope to see you there! 🙂

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP44 - Sunday, 18th April 2021 7:30pm BST - Why There Are No Green Stars By Paul Money
Time: Apr 18, 2021 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 968 0717 5682
Passcode: 153177

It is a great pleasure to welcome back (again!) to SGL Dave Eagle of https://www.star-gazing.co.uk/ to set us some more observing and imaging challenges for Late Spring / Early Summer.

Dave is an amateur Astronomer, Planetarium Operator, Presenter, Author and Tutor, you may have read some of his books or come across one of his talks before.

Dave is going to treat us to an overview of interesting upcoming observing targets and challenges  These sessions are always fun and informative so hope to see you Sunday!

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP43 - Sunday, 11th April 2021 7:30pm BST - Late Spring / Early Summer Observing / Imaging Challenges by Dave Eagle
Time: Apr 11, 2021 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 978 5873 6067
Passcode: 245119

SGL member Dr Julian Onions (@JulianO) joins us this Sunday for his brand new, hot off the press talk 'Crazy Interstellar Rockets'.

Julian has always had an interest in astronomy, and after many years as an amateur studied for a Phd in astrophysics at the University of Nottingham. There he studies computer models of galaxy formation using some of the biggest computers in the world, building model universes using mostly dark matter. He also helps out with undergraduate teaching and various outreach activities.

Julian has put together a new talk 'Crazy Interstellar Rockets' looking at what sort of rockets or spaceships could we use to go to the distant stars. In the talk we will explore some of the crazier designs that have been proposed over the years, most of which have some possibility of working. The future may be nearer than we think!

I'm really looking forward to this and hope to see you all there 🙂

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP42 - Sunday, 28th March 2021 7:30pm BST - Crazy Interstellar Rockets by Dr Julian Onions
Time: Mar 28, 2021 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 983 1052 0323
Passcode: 181616

IMPORTANT - Please note the later 8pm starting time!

This Sunday we are joined by SGL member @jager945 Ivo Jager the developer of Star Tools who is going to give us his talk 'Advanced astrophotographical signal processing with StarTools'. This is starting at the later time of 8pm GMT as Ivo is in Australia so it is super early in the morning for him.

Writing software since age eight, Ivo won his first accolade from the Dutch Institute for Industry and Technology at age ten, for a physics related program for MSX home computers. He holds an MSc degree from the University of Amsterdam and is named as inventor on 11 US and EU mobile computing related patents, ranging from areas such as Artificial Intelligence to User Interfaces and Networking. Ivo has a penchant for signal processing and multi-platform software architectures, and above all, audio/visual and engines. He is the author of the acclaimed StarTools astrophotography image processing suite and has been a speaker at astrophotgraphy related events such as the Australian Astro Imaging Conference.

Star Tools

StarTools implements a groundbreaking new GPU-accelerated signal processing engine for astrophotographical imagery. StarTools' inception was a direct reaction to the disappointing level of signal processing sophistication the author observed in other astrophotographical signal processing software. The ground-up designed, novel signal processing engine tracks your signal's noise component as you process, while effortlessly allowing algorithms to time-shift their signal modifications and consultations. The result is cleaner final images, enhanced detail and inherently streamlined workflow. Today, StarTools is used by thousands of users, schools, observatories and universities around the world.

Ivo is going to give us a brief explanation of how StarTools came about, and how it was designed to fundamentally differ from all other software that came prior. This brief explanation will contrast StarTools inner workings and capabilities with traditional software and workflows. This short exercises is meant to provide context for the subsequent live processing demonstration, which may - to users of older software - appear to defy signal processing convention and best practices.

Ivo is then going to use an Ikarus Observatory data set to demonstrate a live process as well as potentially an other nosier dataset as well.

We really look forwards to learning more about Star Tools and what it can do 🙂

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP41 - Sunday, 21st March 2021 8pm BST - Advanced astrophotographical signal processing with StarTools by Ivo Jager
Time: Mar 21, 2021 08:00 PM London

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Meeting ID: 949 5127 9173
Passcode: 991371

It is a great pleasure to welcome back (again!) to SGL Dave Eagle of https://www.star-gazing.co.uk/ to set us some more observing challenges for Late Winter / Early Spring and a look forward to Comet Leonard.

Dave is an amateur Astronomer, Planetarium Operator, Presenter, Author and Tutor, you may have read some of his books or come across one of his talks before.

Dave is going to treat us to an overview of interesting upcoming observing targets and challenges 

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP37 - Sunday, 14th February 2021 7:30pm GMT - Late Winter / Early Spring Observing Challenges by Dave Eagle
Time: Feb 14, 2021 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 965 6384 8128
Passcode: 871804

Our guest speaker this week is Keith Townsend from http://www.astronomymatters.co.uk/ to give us his talk Charles Messier - Marathon Man by Keith Townsend.

Keith's childhood interest in astronomy developed into telescope ownership some 25 years ago and imaging became a large part of this around the turn of the century. Hee never made it off the slippery slope and continue to suffer the consequences to this day!

Keith was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2016 and have been delivering talks to a wide range of groups for almost 10 years.

One of his passions is to try to unlock the fascination many people have for the night sky, but don’t realise it.

This weeks talk is 'Charles Messier - Marathon Man by Keith Townsend'. Messier is a name that must be known to pretty much every northern hemisphere astronomer, if not the world over, but how much do we know about the man himself?

Part one of this talk looks at the historical aspects of his life and achievements; what influenced and drove him to seek out and catalogue the celestial objects he did.

Working with relatively crude equipment by todays standard, he set about establishing a list that has obsessed many visual astronomers for decades.

Part two considers the 'Messier Marathon’ itself, with regard to the best time in 2021 to attempt it - the schedule for the night in question and the pitfalls that await us.

I'm very much looking forward to this talk - it sounds very interesting 🙂

See you all Sunday!

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP36 - Sunday, 7th February 2021 7:30pm GMT - Charles Messier - Marathon Man by Keith Townsend
Time: Feb 7, 2021 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 920 0675 8598
Passcode: 012211

Our guest speaker this week is Dr Dirk Froebrich from https://hoys.space/ to talk to us about the HOYS citizen science project. HOYS – Hunting Outbursting Young Stars, is a citizen science project run by Dr Dirk Froebrich of the University of Kent and co-lead Dr Aleks Scholz from the University of St Andrews.

After completing his degree in Physics at the Universität Leipzig in Germany, Dr Dirk Froebrich went on to study for his PhD at the Universität Jena. From Germany, he moved to a researcher position at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and was appointed Lecturer in Astronomy/Astrophysics at the University of Kent in 2009.

His main research areas are young protostars and their outflows, structure and properties of molecular clouds and the formation and evolution of star clusters.

The talk will give a brief overview of how stars and planets are forming and how this relates to the science goals of HOYS. Dirk will show some recent results from the project and explain how you can participate - in an extended Q&A session.

This should be an interesting talk for us amateur astronomers to learn about a project we can get involved in and help 🙂

See you all Sunday!

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP35 - Sunday, 31st January 2021 7:30pm GMT - The HOYS-CAPS Citizen Science Project by Dr Dirk Froebrich
Time: Jan 31, 2021 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 971 6018 4346
Passcode: 532566

This week we are joined by our guest speaker Mike Frost (http://www.mikefrost.info/) to give us his talk 'The Green Flash'.

Mike is the director of the BAA Historical Section, his day job is in system engineering but astronomy has always been a major part of his live. He is a past-chairman of Coventry and Warwickshire Astronomical Society, a member of the B.A.A. since 1995, a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and a founder member of the Society for the History of Astronomy. Mike's major interest is the history of astronomy including the history and mythology of sky phenomena, eclipses and transits, especially transits of Venus.

 

This week Mike will be talking about 'The Green Flash'.

The Green Flash or Green Ray is a fleeting and beautiful phenomenon which can be seen at sunrise and sunset when some part of the Sun suddenly changes colour - at sunset, from red / orange to green / blue. 

This has inspired the imagination of story-tellers from ancient Egypt to the present day. Meet the nerdish Aristobulos, hero of Jules Verne's "Le Rayon Vert", and David Abden, roguish hero of Winston Graham's "The Green Flash", as they try to explain the mysteries of the setting sun.

We very much look forward to welcoming Mike to give us a talk and look forward to seeing you all Sunday.

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP34 - Sunday, 24th January 2021 7:30pm GMT - The Green Flash by Mike Frost
Time: Jan 24, 2021 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 961 1471 3041
Passcode: 141170

This week another member @George Jones has kindly offer us to give us his talk 'Gravitational Wave Astronomy: A Descriptive, Non-Mathematical Talk'.

George is a physics Senior Lab Instructor at the University of Northern British Columbia in Canada, where he often gives public outreach talks and demonstrations. A childhood interest in space and astronomy led to his career in physics.

Gravitational waves, first observed in 2015, are produced when compact objects such as black holes and neutron stars merge. Just as useful astronomical information can be extracted from light wave signals, useful information about black holes, neutron stars, and cosmology can be extracted from gravitational wave signals.

Thank you George for offering to give us this talk, our first trans-continental talk! We look forwards to seeing you all there Sunday night.

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP33 - Sunday, 17th January 2021 7:30pm GMT - Gravitational Wave Astronomy: A Descriptive, Non-Mathematical Talk by George Jones
Time: Jan 15, 2021 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 958 0536 4889
Passcode: 401233

Welcome back! Kicking off our first StarGaZine of 2021 we are welcoming Steve Clifton / @tomato a longstanding member of SGL who is going to give us his talk 'Astrophotography Then and Now' - A not too technical look at the AP process in the pre-digital age and contrasting that to what can now be achieved with modern amateur equipment.

Steve has had a lifelong interest in astronomy and was an enthusiastic Astro photographer back in the 80’s and 90’s He took up the hobby again in 2014 after a 25 year hiatus, the talk has been sparked by my experiences both then and now and the tremendous advances that have taken place over that time.

It sounds like a really interesting talk and a great way to kick off our programme of talks for 2021 - I'm looking forward to this! Thank you Steve for offering to give us a talk.

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP32 - Sunday, 10th January 2021 7:30pm GMT - Astrophotography Then and Now by Steve Clifton (tomato)
Time: Jan 10, 2021 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 951 4831 7888
Passcode: 942068

Long-time SGL member and moderator Martin Bradley (MartinB) has kindly offered to give us a talk he had prepared for this years cancelled SGL star party 'Night Time Landscape Photography'.

Many of you will already know MartinB and have seen the amazing images he posts on the forum and on his 'AstralPeaks' Facebook page. Martin has been photographing deep space objects for several years and more recently have been increasingly attracted to the stunning beauty of rural landscapes at night.

The talk aims to be a guide for taking widefield, nightime images which combine a landscape and the night sky.  Areas covered will include planning, composition, workflow, equipment and, if time permits, a quick Milkyway process in Lightroom.  

Attached is some notes that Martin has kindly put together which will act as a companion to his talk.

This is the second-part of our double bill on Sunday, this is at the usual 7:30pm time. We look forward to seeing lots of you there

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP31 - Sunday, 13th December 2020 7:30pm GMT - Night Time Landscape Photography by Martin Bradley (MartinB)
Time: Dec 13, 2020 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 970 2114 6528
Passcode: 483065

 

Nightime landscape photography notes.pdf

SGL member Jack Martin has kindly offered to do a talk for us this Sunday afternoon 'Spectroscopy Live' (unless raining!).

Jack has been a keen amateur astronomer for over 50 years. Active in Spectroscopy since 1997. He studied Astronomy and Planetary Science at The Open University 2010. Co-authored Practical Amateur Spectroscopy 2004 and author of A Spectroscopic Atlas of bright Stars 2009 for Springer. Also, written articles for The BAA Journal, Astronomy Now, The Webb Deep-Sky Society, The Society for Popular Astronomy. Running The Huggins Spectroscopic Observatory UK since 2013. Doing long term collaboration studies with an international group of Small Telescope Spectroscopists monitoring h alpha lines etc of Be and Syombitic stars using a Shelyak Lhires III spectrograph.

Jack is going to give us a tour of his observatory and explain how he acquires Spectra.

Due to the earlier time, we will record this and make it available for later watching but hopefully some of you can make it to this early slot. We will also be having an additional member talk in the evening at the usual time slot, details to be announced shortly.

Hopefully see lots of you twice on Sunday 🙂

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP30 - Sunday, 13th December 2020 2:30pm GMT - Spectroscopy Live by Jack Martin
Time: Dec 13, 2020 02:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 920 2020 2953
Passcode: 968416

This week we are joined by Jonathan Tate (Jay) Director of the Spaceguard Centre and the National Near Earth Objects Information Centre to give us his talk 'The Science of Armageddon'.

For 26 years Jonathan Tate was a serving Army Officer, specialising in surface to air missile systems.  In June 1996 Tate submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Defence and the British National Space Centre proposing the establishment of a British National Spaceguard Centre to study the NEO hazard. Scientists worldwide lent their support. The Ministry of Defence dismissed the proposal.  Later the Department of Trade and Industry established a Task Force to investigate the threat.  The subsequent report validated the hazard, and made significant recommendations for action.  Implementation of these recommendations did not happen.

In January 1997 Tate established Spaceguard UK, which became the largest independent Spaceguard organisation in the world. Thanks to the efforts of the members the subject of Spaceguard has been publicly debated in both Houses of Parliament, and Tate has been a regular contributor on television and radio, also in professional and popular journals Tate is a member of the Board of Directors of the international Spaceguard Foundation, a consultant to the International Astronomical Union Working Group on Near Earth Objects, an associate of COSPAR, the vice-president of the Space Development Council and a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.  He is the Director of the Spaceguard Centre in mid-Wales and took over the role of National Near Earth Objects Information Centre in October 2013.

In 2013 Tate was awarded the Europlanet Prize for Public Engagement in Planetary Science. In recognition of his work Asteroid 15116, discovered by the Spacewatch programme in 2000. has been named “Jaytate”.

The Science of Armageddon

The Earth has a long and violent history of collisions with extra-terrestrial objects such as asteroids and comets, causing mass extinctions and severe changes to global climate and geography.  Many smaller impacts, such as the Chelyabinsk event as recently as 2013, have caused considerable damage.

In his talk Tate will analyse the nature and extent of the Near Earth Object (NEO) hazard, how it can be dealt with, and give an up to date account of what is currently being done to address the most significant long term natural threat to the Earth’s ecosystem

We look forward to welcoming Jay on Sunday and hope to see lots of you there 🙂

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP29 - Sunday, 6th December 2020 7:30pm GMT - The Science of Armageddon by Jay Tate
Time: Dec 6, 2020 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 949 9630 3334
Passcode: 659378

This Sunday at 7:30 we are joined by Peter Williamson FRAS of http://www.peterwilliamson.co.uk/, http://www.solarsphere.events/ and http://www.astroradio.earth/. Peter is an astronomer, broadcaster and musician who created the Astro Radio station, organises the Solarsphere astronomical and music festival as well as delivering talks / workshops across the country. He is also a Deep Sky imaging consultant for the Faulkes telescope as well as many other things related to astronomy and astronomy outreach - we are very honoured to welcome him.

Pete gave us a super talk earlier in the summer 'Hershel to Hawkwind' so we are delighted to welcome him back.

This talk will be Myth to Moon, a story of the moon from ancient Myths to the Apollo 11 Landings with stories from the family and astronauts Pete has interviewed over the years.

Hope to see you there 🙂

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP28 - Sunday, 29th November 2020 7:30pm GMT - Myth to Moon by Peter Williamson
Time: Nov 29, 2020 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 997 7076 6109
Passcode: 795566

We have the pleasure of being joined this week by Ezzy Pearson (https://twitter.com/EzzyP) to give us a talk on 'The Chelyabinsk Meteor'.

Ezzy Pearson is a science writer and author of Robots in Space: The Secret Lives of Our Planetary Explorers. She is the News Editor of BBC Sky at Night Magazine.

Ezzy describes this talk as: On 15 February 2013 a meteor detonated over the industrial town of Chelyabinsk in Sibera. It showered space rocks down onto the surrounding landscape, drawing thousands of people to go hunting them. I was one of them, shooting a documentary for Channel 4 called Meteor Strike – Fireball from Space. This talk tells the story of both the meteor and my trip to see it.

I hope to see many of you join us Sunday to find out more about this meteorite and Ezzy's journey to see it 🙂

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP27 - Sunday, 22nd November 2020 7:30pm GMT - The Chelyabinsk Meteor by Ezzy Pearson
Time: Nov 22, 2020 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 923 4602 8829
Passcode: 694773

This week we are delighted to be joined by Bob Mizon, MBE, FRAS from the commission for dark skies (CfDS) https://britastro.org/dark-skies/index.php to give us his talk titled: What Future for Britain’s Dark Skies? Britain’s dark places and the threat to their existence and biodiversity.

Bob  is the co-ordinator of the BAA's CfDS as well as a planetarium operator and astronomy lecturer. The CfDS aims to turn back the tide of light pollution which has seriously affected our view of the stars over the last 50 years.

His talk will also mention the new All-Party Parliamentary Dark Skies Group of MPs and how we can support their work in persuading Government that dark skies policies and legislation will make a difference not just to our view of the stars, but also to expenditure on energy, the biodiversity collapse and a more comfortable nighttime environment.

This is a topic surely important to us all so we look forward to hearing from Bob and hopefully seeing how we can help this important campaign.

I look forward to seeing you there 🙂

 

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP26 - Sunday, 15th November 2020 7:30pm GMT - What Future for Britain’s Dark Skies? by Bob Mizon
Time: Nov 15, 2020 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 910 4942 7583
Passcode: 132428

This week we are joined by Paul Money of http://www.astrospace.co.uk/. Paul is very well known for his extensive talks and as review editor for BBC Sky at Night magazine. He also publishes his yearly 'NightScenes' sky guide - an extremely useful book!

Paul is going to join us and take a look through 10 astronomical images that have been inspiring him through the years and look at the stories of and sometimes behind the images.

If you've not seen one of Pauls talks before you are in for a treat, there are few more passionate and energetic astronomy speakers out there and it's always a pleasure to attend one of his talks. This should be very interesting and entertaining, hope to see you there! 🙂

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP25 - Sunday, 1st November 2020 7:30pm GMT - Images of the Universe by Paul Money
Time: Nov 1, 2020 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 920 6943 6395
Passcode: 903667

It feels like only yesterday we last had him on but, It is a great pleasure to welcome back to SGL Dave Eagle of https://www.star-gazing.co.uk/ this time to give us a talk about Affinity Photo and how to do astrophotography image processing using the Affinity Photo software.

A lot of people have shown interest in this subject and Dave literally wrote the book on it so this should be a really interesting talk.

Dave is an amateur Astronomer, Planetarium Operator, Presenter, Author and Tutor, you may have read some of his books or come across one of his talks before.

Hope to see you there 🙂

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP24 - Sunday, 25th October 2020 7:30pm BST - A tour round Affinity Photo by Dave Eagle
Time: Oct 25, 2020 07:30 PM London

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Meeting ID: 974 6490 0210
Passcode: 322525

This Sunday at 7:30 we are delighted to welcome back Steve Tonkin ( @BinocularSky )  of http://binocularsky.com/ and https://astunit.com/. Steve has been using binoculars for astronomy since the mid 1960s and, as his main observing instrument, since 2002. He is also the author of the book Binocular Astronomy.

This time, we've asked him to talk about binoculars for us 🙂

Two Eyes are Better Than One: Choosing and Using Binoculars for Deep Sky Observing

The binocular is not limited to being a beginner's instrument and a subordinate adjunct to a telescope, but is an exceptionally valuable astronomical instrument in its own right. Find out how to choose and use binoculars for deep sky observing: discover what makes a good (or bad!) binocular, distinguish between valuable information and advertising hype, and learn how to optimise your observing experience.

Very much looking forwards to this one!

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP23 - Sunday, 11th October 2020 7:30pm BST - Two Eyes are Better Than One: Choosing and Using Binoculars for Deep Sky Observing by Steve Tonkin
Time: Oct 11, 2020 07:30 PM London

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@old_eyes / Richard Miller has kindly offered to give us his talk: From the Big Bang to the Periodic Table

Richard Miller trained as a Chemist, and after a long career in industrial R&D has now settled down as a consultant on innovation, sustainability and the future of cities. Took up astronomy 12 years ago and has now progressed to being a moderately incompetent astrophotographer (his words not mine!!!).

From the Big Bang to the Periodic Table

The Periodic Table of the Elements is the book from which we build our world. And yet we started after the Big Bang with just hydrogen, helium and a touch of lithium. How did we get from there to the 118 elements we know about today? The answer is in the stars.

The Periodic Table has a fascinating history over several thousand years of discovering the elements and searching for an underlying logic that made sense of it. But that did not tell us where all the unique elements came from. For that we needed a modern understanding of cosmology and stellar processes, from the Big Bang through nuclear fusion in the heart of stars to the immense energies of supernovae.

I'm very much looking forward to what promises to be a fascinating talk! 

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP22 - Sunday, 4th October 2020 7:30pm BST - From the Big Bang to the Periodic Table by Richard Miller
Time: Oct 4, 2020 07:30 PM London

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It is a great pleasure to welcome back to SGL Gary Palmer of http://www.solarsystemimaging.co.uk/ to give us his talk: A look around Pixinsight.

Gary is a highly regarded solar and deep sky imager and one of the leading solar imagers in the world with images widely published in books, magazines and online. He is the author of many articles and reviews in various astronomy magazines and tv programmes and works closely, alongside many manufacturers to develop and test upcoming astronomy equipment. Gary also offers many workshops across the UK for groups and 1-to-1 via http://www.astrocourses.co.uk/ which some of you may have attended before.

We've already had some talks that touch upon Pixinsight but Gary is going to start more from the beginning and run through ways to keep it simple and look at some of the issues people might have using the software. He will be looking at the weighted batch pre-processor as well as a run through using some CMOS data from the new 2400MC camera from ZWO and some Crescent Nebula data from our latest release from the IKO observatory project.

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP20 - Sunday, 20th September 2020 7:30pm BST - A look around Pixinsight by Gary Palmer
Time: Sep 20, 2020 07:30 PM London

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It is a great pleasure to welcome back to SGL Dr Matthew Bothwell to give us his talk: Big Bangs and Big Rips: Cosmology in the 20th Century.

Matt came to the 2018 SGL SP and gave us our keynote talk "Monsters in the Dark"  - searching for the Universe’s most massive galaxies’ so it's fantastic to have him back again to deliver another talk. Matt is one of my favourite astronomy speakers so I am particularly looking forwards to this one.

Matt is an outreach astronomer at the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge University.  He was an undergraduate at the University of Southampton, and studied for his Master’s at the Harvard Center of Astrophysics. He received his PhD in 2011 from the University of Cambridge, working with Prof. Rob Kennicutt and Dr. Scott Chapman on the thesis “Galaxy evolution, near and far”. Before taking up his current outreach position, He was a postdoctoral researcher at Steward Observatory, University of Arizona (2011-2012), and the Astrophysics group at the University of Cambridge (2012-2017).

His research interests are centred around understanding galaxy evolution across cosmic time. At high redshift, He studies some of the most luminous and extreme galaxies in the Universe. These extreme galaxies are a great laboratory for testing our knowledge of gas physics, star formation laws, and galaxy evolution, while providing an important challenge for our understanding of the growth of structure in the Universe.

In the local Universe he uses large surveys for gas, metals, and stars, to shed light on the physical processes governing the evolution of galaxies across all cosmic epochs.

Big Bangs and Big Rips: Cosmology in the 20th Century

In the early decades of the 20th century, our understanding of the Universe was completely revolutionised. As amazing as it may seem to us now, just a century ago the prevailing wisdom was that we lived in a tiny and eternal Universe. I will discuss the debates and evidence that allowed us to finally understand the Universe around us.

Meeting details below:

Topic: EP19 - Sunday, 13th September 2020 7:30pm BST - Big Bangs and Big Rips: Cosmology in the 20th Century by Dr Matthew Bothwell
Time: Sep 13, 2020 07:30 PM London

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