A big thank you to Dr Alan Thomson, Head of Geomagnetism, British Geological Survey for an excellent and engaging talk on Space Weather. We had a full house for this one and it was clearly really well received.
Download the ASE Slides as a PDF
Also at the meeting:
- Alan described the highlights of the night sky in March and shared some of the latest images from our Flickr group (see below).
- Andrew and Sean updated us on the success of our two recent 4-Steps programme events: Navigating the Night Sky on 18 Feb and Telescope Help Shop on 29 Feb.
- We put out another request for anyone with skills and interest in sharing astronomy with young people. We regularly get requests for help and it is something we definitely want to do.
- Andrew introduced the latest Zooniverse project, ZONIVERSE:LOFAR, which brings together two of our recent talks.
- CANCELLED: Sean mentioned the BAA Deep Sky meeting at Sheffield.
- He also mentioned the Mars Encounter for National Astronomy Week in November. We hope to do something for this so watch this space.
- CANCELLED: Professor Catherine Heymans, Professor of Astrophysics, University of Edinburgh, will give a talk on “The dark side of the Universe” at the Royal Scottish Society of Arts on 30 March (in Augustine United Church).
- Andrew gave on overview of topics that had caught his attention in astronomy and space.
- Hugh Somerville gave a short presentation on various space topics.
Mars Encounter in November will give best view of Mars until 2033
A National Astronomy Week (NAW) will be held in the UK from Saturday 14 November to Sunday 22 November 2020. The aim of the week is to celebrate the close approach of Mars, and to give members of the public the chance to see the Red Planet in close-up through a telescope.
Amateur and professional astronomers around the country will be holding observing events during the week. As seen through a telescope magnifying about 100 times, Mars will appear as a pale orange disc, with its markings clearly visible. It will be 80 million km away.
Although Mars is at its closest to Earth a month earlier, at that time it is only high enough in the sky to be viewed quite late in the evening. By November it is well up in the sky during the early evening, allowing younger schoolchildren a unique opportunity to get a good view of the planet. It will not be as close again until 2033. And on that occasion it will be very low in the sky as seen from the UK.
‘We are excited that National Astronomy Week will give thousands of children and their parents the chance to see Mars in close-up’ said Lucinda Offer, chairperson of National Astronomy Week and Executive Director of the Mars Society. ‘Several space missions are being launched towards the planet this year and we are looking forward to getting some amazing results.’
British scientists are among those who are involved in experiments aboard spacecraft, in particular ESA’s ExoMars mission to put a rover, named Rosalind Franklin, on the planet next year.
As well as Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon will be on show during National Astronomy Week. Details of observing events will be posted on the NAW website,astronomyweek.org.uk. During the last NAW, over 200 events were organised around the UK, and the organisers are calling upon astronomical societies, observatories and university departments to arrange even more events this time.
About National Astronomy Week
This will be the eighth NAW. The first, held in 1981, celebrated the 200th anniversary of the discovery of Uranus from Bath by William Herschel. Others have celebrated Halley’s Comet in 1986, the very close approach of Mars in 2003 and the 400th anniversary of the first astronomical use of the telescope by English observer Thomas Harriot in 1609.
The week is supported by leading UK astronomical groups and organisations. For more information about the event please visit astronomyweek.org.uk .