Home (2015/2016)

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Image credit: NASA Hubble Heritage

Welcome to Astronomy in Herefordshire.

Latest News:

News and new items of interest to Herefordshire Astronomical Society members.

Our July talk by Dr Chris Berry was the last planned activity for the 2015-2016 season. The HAS committee will meet in August to plan the 2016-2017 season - so look out for emails and information on this web site to tell you about what's on in the coming year.

The next society activity will be the monthly lecture at the Kindle Centre on Thursday 1st September.

Observing highlights for this month: Telescope House - monthly night sky guide

Visit to the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge

Our big trip this year was to visit the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge where we were hosted by Dr Carolin Crawford. Dr Crawford welcomed us into the Institute's very comfortable lecture theatre where she explained what's done at Cambridge and introduced us to the world of X-ray astronomy illustrated with some tremendous animated graphics and photographs.

Here are some piccies from our trip. She showed us one of the lenses from an X-ray telescope - not what us visual observers are used to. The shiny inside coatings of the carefully shaped concentric tubes look like gold - that's because they are coated with gold !

Dr Crawford then took us on a tour of the historic telescopes and visual observatories at the Institute. Here's the Northumberland observatory - the scope is a 20 foot refracting achromatic with an 11.6 inch lens which was one of the worlds largest refractors. The scope is still used in public observing evening - I rather fancied reclining in the observing chair to look at the heavens.

Dr Crawford next showed us the 36" telescope which, although originally built in the 1950s is still used today for research into stellar radial velocity. By passing the light captured by the scope into a spectrometer, shifts in the spectral lines of key elements indicates the radial velocity. So a scope that's over 60 years old has been at the forefront of finding extra-solar planets using this radial velocity technique!

After a pub lunch we met Peter Doherty who gave us a most comprehensive tour of the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory a few miles outside Cambridge. The MRAO has many working telescopes and some vast decommissioned antennae that speak to the great history of radio astronomy carried out at Cambridge. Below are some of the things we were shown - one of the dishes from Manchester University's eMerlin interferometer array, the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager Small Array, a new experimental array that Peter is just building, and a marvellous control panel with lots of switches, knobs and dials which, most disappointingly, has now all been replaced with computer screens:

No, this isn't Paul's new observatory, this is where Jocelyn Bell controlled the Interplanetary Scintillation Array from which she discovered the very first Pulsar

So, we had a fab time - a big thank you to Paul for organising it.

Next Meeting:

at the Kindle Centre Belmont Road Hereford HR2 7JE (Next to ASDA - more information here)

Next Observing Session:

Come and talk to new and more experienced society members - hopefully have a look through some telescopes and binoculars at the night sky. Share your thoughts, pick up some observing tips and recommendations, discuss your astronomical problems and projects, bring your own equipment for advice on how best to use it. We will defer the observing meeting to the following evening (Friday) if the weather forecast indicates it would be better. Members can bring their own refreshments and the Servant's Hall Tea Room will be left open for us to use for refreshment and talks. Look out for the latest news on this website and we'll email out any change to arrangements to members.:

Next Star Party:

The Transit of Mercury was our last planned Star Party for the 2015/2016 season.

Next Visit:

Once or twice a year, members like to jump in cars or climb in a mini-bus and make their way to go and see something interesting outside of Herefordshire (passports not required). Previous trips have been to the Spaceguard Centre, the International Astronomy Show, the National Space Centre and Jodrell Bank. Members pay for shared transport and any entrance fees as appropriate..

14th - 15th October 2016 - International Astronomy Show

The International Astronomy Show was inaugurated in 2013 and proved to be a great success - including a visit by HAS members. The next show will be held on Friday 14th and Saturday 16th October 2016.

The show has moved to Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire (CV8 2LZ) - the old site of the Royal Agricultural Show.

Information about the show and talks can be found here:

http://www.ukastroshow.com/

Click link below for view of UK sky:

Met Office Satellite image. UK Visible Light.