Welcome to the autumn series of meetings of the Abergavenny Astronomy Society.

We start in September with:-

Monday 9^th Sept., : around the table discussion.  I will post a list of proposed topics next weekend along with some summary notes.

Monday 23^rd Sept., Dr Duncan MacLeod, Gravitational Physics Group, Cardiff University : LIGO and Gravitational Waves.
Dr MacLeod’s research targets; development of improved user-facing software utilities for accessing, processing, and visualising data from the 2^nd generation of ground-based gravitational-wave detectors, primarily LIGO.

I have also updated the “Meetings-2019 programme” page.

All are welcome.  Usual time and place, The Kings Head, Abergavenny at 7:30pm.

I look forward to meeting up with everyone who can make it over the next 4 months.

Tonight, the 12th August, is this year’s peak of the Perseid meteor shower and although not one of the most favourable years and with a dodgy weather forecast it is still worth having a look out to catch a glimpse of this natural wonder.  Unfortunately there is a very large Moon around, full moon is on Thursday.  The moon will not get tucked away below the horizon until after 2:30 am tomorrow morning, which is also a very good time to observe the meteors, even if a bit late for many of us.  However the Perseid meteor shower does contain more than average lumpy bits so there is always a sporting chance of a fireball or two which even the Moon cannot diminish.

The Perseids are called that because they seem to all emanate from a point in the constellation of Perseus, which tonight is in the north east when most people will be looking for the meteors.  Contrary to some reports in the media that does not mean you have to look towards Perseus to get the best chance of observing them, they can appear anywhere in the sky.  The best place to look is straight up, that is where it is darkest.  Lie down on a lounger, make yourself comfortable and simply look up without any optical aid.  Conditions allowing you should see at least one meteor every minute or so.

The Perseids meteors are little fragments of dust from the tail of a  (Swift-Tuttle) that passed this way some thousands of years ago.  As the fragments hit the atmosphere at around 36 km/sec the friction causes them to heat the air around them an burn up, that is what causes the light that you see.

If it is cloudy tonight do not despair the meteors last for a week or so more but of course at much lower rates than at the peak.  If you are out generally observing from late July through the first couple of weeks of August you may see one or two Perseids in an evening

Happy Hunting!

Professor Matt Griffin, Astronomy Instrumentation Group, Cardiff Uni. will be coming to talk to us on the subject of “Characterising Extra-solar Planets”.  Brief summary:-

“Around 4,000 extra-solar planets have now been detected, and studying them is one of the most important areas of astronomical research today.

Using the technique of transit spectroscopy, it is now starting to be possible to study  exoplanets and determine the chemical composition and physical constitutions in their atmosphere.

This will be an important objective for both NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, due for launch in 2022, and ESA’s ARIEL satellite, a purpose-built exoplanet observatory, to be launched in 2028.

I’ll describe the technique and what we can learn from it, and how one day we may be able to detect the presence of life on Earth-like planets.”

Usual time & place; 7:30pm, The Kings Head, Abergavenny.

Everyone and anyone most welcome.

Our next session is a discussion group next Monday.

Suggested topics : Items from the news etc over the last month

Space Debris  –  The cluttered nature of the space around the Earth.
Water in the Solar system  –  Water on Earth, the moon and Pluto.
Mars  –  History, minerals, soil and potential for oxygen production.
Exo planets – more discoveries and a “Forbidden Planet”
Supernova  –  including human evolution, lots of new supernova and white dwarf fusion
TESS mission – Latest news from the NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite launched in 2018

Any other topics anyone wants to bring up please don’t be shy, we can explore them together.

Usual Place & Time; The Kings Head, Abergavenny, 7:30pm

Everyone welcome

For our May meeting Dr Andreas Papageorgiou, Research Associate, Astronomy Instrumentation Group, Cardiff School of Physics & Astronomy will be coming to talk to us.

Since 2008, Dr Papageorgiou has been full-time involved with all phases of space telescope missions.  He will be talking about the work he was involved in with the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) which was on the ESA Herschel infra red space telescope, which operated from 2009 to 2013.

Usual time and place; 7:30pm at the Kings Head, Abergavenny.  Next to the Town Hall.

All are welcome

This month Professor Chris Allton from the Department of Physics at Swansea will be talking to us about the the forces that operate in Neutron Stars.

 

Chris is an Australian by birth, education (and outlook!). He is a professor of theoretical particle physics in Swansea University where his research involves using some of the fastest computers in the world to simulate the properties of quarks at temperatures 100,000 times that of the core of the sun.
He is also very interested in the public engagement of science and is the Director of Oriel Science, Swansea University’s outreach project.

 

 

All the matter we know about in the universe is comprised of just 19 particles.  Quarks are the most massive and they combine together to form neutrons and protons to make atomic nuclei. Quarks are bound together by the Strong Force – and this Force is incredibly strong, each quark is held to its neighbour by a force equivalent to the weight of three elephants!  At high temperatures and pressures, around a trillion degrees, quarks can become free. 
The talk explores how this new phase of matter and neutron stars are related.

Everyone is, as always, very welcome.

Usual time and place, 7:30pm at the Kings Head, Abergavenny, next to the Town Hall.