Monday 5 December 2011

Earth's Twin discovered?

Astronomers have confirmed the existence of an Earth-like planet in the "habitable zone" around a star not unlike our own.

The planet, Kepler 22-b, lies about 600 light-years away and is about 2.4 times the size of Earth, and has a temperature of about 22C.

The rest of the article, from the BBC, is here.

Sunday 4 December 2011

2012 Programme


Wednesday 25th January
A.G.M. followed by an over view of 2012 events.

Wednesday 29th February
Prof. David Walker - Mirror Fabrication for the 42m European E.L.T.

Wednesday 28th March
Prof. Rob. Jeffries - New discoveries in exoplanetary systems.

Wednesday 25th April
Prof. Ian Morison - Proving Einstein Right.

Friday 18th May
Dr Allan Chapman - Title to be confirmed.

Wednesday 27th June
Peter Shah - A View of the Universe from my Garden Shed.

Wednesday 25th July
Dr Ed Daw -  Gravitational Waves.

August - NO MEETING 

Wednesday 26th September
Prof A Zijlstra - Planetary Nebulae of the Galactic Bulge.

Wednesday 31st October
Members’ Night 

Wednesday 28th November
Dr Jim Wild - Weathering Solar Storms.

December - NO MEETING

No meeting in December.

Please note that the society does not meet in December. Our next meeting is the AGM on January 25th at 7.30 pm. (The date in the newsletter is wrong!)

3D Astronomy

After a last minute change of plan, last Wednesday saw society member Richard Sargent give an interesting talk on 3D astronomy. He had lots of 3D pictures which we had to view using 3D glasses. We must have looked a sight!

Some of the pictures I had difficulty focussing (possibly because I wear normal glasses as well), but some were superb. It felt at times that we were standing on the surface of the moon or Mars.

A very interesting and unusual presentation.

Thursday 27 October 2011

Superb Lecture

Dr Sandy Donnachie (University of Manchester) gave an excellent lecture on the Large Hadron Collider, covering such matters as the theories being investigated (not least the Higgs Boson), the construction of the LHC, and the results so far. Everything was very clear, even is the subject was, to quote one listener, 'mind-boggling'.

On a separate theme, Dr Donnachie finished by discussing the results from Cern that suggest neutrinos are moving faster than light.

Thursday 29 September 2011

New session off to an excellent start

The first meeting after the summer break was given by Chester AS member Dr. Jeremy Shears. He gave a biographical talk on the life of little known Belgian amateur astronomer Felix de Roy which included much hard science on variable stars, something de Roy researched enthusiastically.

Saturday 3 September 2011

Photograph Album.

We now have the means to post pictures online for the world to see.

Anyone may view them here!

Members who have the login details for the account may put pictures up to be viewed.You will need Google Picasa software which is available for Windows, Mac OS and Linux for free. You will find it here.

Mars


Endeavour crater photographed by the Opportunity rover last month.

Wednesday 17 August 2011

2011 Programme

Sept 28th - Felix de Roy: a Life of Variable Stars
Dr Jeremy Shears, Chester AS

October 26th - The Large Hadron Collider - the Machine and Physics
Dr Sandy Donnachie, University of Manchester

November 30th - Big Bangs and Black Holes
Prof Carole Mundell, Liverpool John Moores University

No meeting in December

All meetings begin at 7.30 pm

Directions

Chester Astronomical Society meets at Burley Memorial Hall, Waverton, CH3 7QN.

The location is shown on Streetmap here













Directions to the Burley Memorial Hall, Waverton


From the North:
M56 Junction 15. Head for Chester. M53 becomes A55.At junction of A51 leave A55 up slip road and follow signs for Whitchurch A41. Pick up A41 Whitchurch at the cross roads with traffic lights (filter left).

At the next set of traffic lights stay on A41 South following signs for Waverton. After the about 2 miles pass a petrol station on the left, and after about 300 metres turn left into Moor Lane.

Straight on at the next cross roads along Common Lane (passing Waverton Primary School on your left) continue for about ¾ mile, then just before St. Peter's Church turn left. The Burley Hall is the new building on the left. There is a car park next to the hall.

From the South:
A41 Whitchurch to Chester. About 1¼ miles after the old 'Power Mowers site (RHS) and before the Black Dog pub, turn right into Quarry Lane for Hargrave & Huxley. At the 'T' junction turn right (Village Road). 300 yards on and just before St. Peter's Church turn left.

The Burley Hall is the new building on the left. There is a car park next to the hall.

Thursday 28 July 2011

NEWS

Trojan asteroid seen in Earth's orbit by Wise telescope

First Post

This is to be the web site for the Chester Astronomical Society, Chester, UK.

It is very much a work in progress, but should be up and running properly in the next few weeks.