Archive for August, 2009
Perseids Meteor Shower
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Every year in August, the Earth passes through rock and dust fragments left behind by the comet Swift-Tuttle, last time it came near the Sun. As these small particles collide with the Earth’s atmosphere, they burn-up, often creating a startling streak of light across the sky. Such events result in meteor showers, and this week sees the peak of the Perseids meteor shower, so called because the shooting stars appear to emanate from the direction of the constellation Perseus.
The Perseids occur at the same time each year, and this year will reach a maximum at around 1600BST on Wednesday 12th August. Although this is in the daytime for UK observers, it will still be worthwhile having a look up on the nights of 11 and 12 August. You can expect to see up to 100 shooting stars per hour from a very dark site in ideal conditions. This year conditions aren’t ideal (the Moon is up, and will drown out the fainter meteors), and if you’re observing from a town or city the light pollution will reduce what you can see, but you can still expect to see many more meteors than normal on these nights. The best thing is you don’t need telescopes of binoculars to see the Perseid shower, your eyes will do just fine.
To celebrate this event Newbury Astronomical Society, with help from IYA2009 UK, is hosting a Twitter Meteorwatch, the first of its kind ever! Thousands of people around the world will be tweeting their images of the night sky, as well as asking and answering questions. In order to take part, you need to have a Twitter account; you can get easily at http://twitter.com and it’s free. Once you have one, follow @NewburyAS and @astronomy2009uk to keep up to date with what’s happening. You can also search for #meteorwatch to see what everyone else is saying.
To find out more visit: http://newburyas.wordpress.com/2009/08/03/twitter-meteorwatch/
Happy meteorwatching, and see you on Twitter!
Regards
Steve Owens
International Year of Astronomy 2009
UK Co-ordinator
Autumn 2009 Programme
Monday, August 10th, 2009
The club has some great talks lined up this autumn, hopefully leading up to a clear night sky meeting at the beginning of December. You can always check the details of the next meeting on the Meetings page, and of course we’ll continue to post reminders closer to the date on the Club News RSS feed, together with a write up of each meeting after the event. Here’s what you’ve got to look forward to:
Wednesday 2nd September
Carolin Crawford from the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge will give a talk on cosmology and dark energy.
Wednesday 7th October
Susan Conway from the Open University will talk about her work on gullies on Mars. She will also describe advances in our understanding of the surface of the planet.
Wednesday 4th November
Dave Eagle from Bedford Astronomical Society will give a presentation on Charles Piazzi Smyth’s observatory. He will also talk about modern amateur astronomy on Tenerife.
Wednesday 2nd December
This will be a night sky meeting, with (weather permitting) an observing session. It will be held at the Vinter Room as usual and, in the event of inclement weather, there will be an alternative presentation indoors.
Summer Picnic
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
The Club’s annual picnic is a great opportunity to come along and relax with Club members over buffet food, astronomy anecdotes, and maybe even a few drinks. This informal event reinforces the feeling that we are a very relaxed and friendly Club, with members of all ages and experience sharing their love of astronomy.
The picnic is at 7.30pm, at the Vinter Room in Papworth Everard (see the Meetings page for a map). Everyone is welcome, and all you have to do is bring along your favourite picnic nibbles and/or drinks.
Summer Picnic
Sunday, August 2nd, 2009
Sunday 2nd August 2009
Don’t forget that we start off the new season’s programme with the annual picnic, at 7.30pm on Wednesday evening at the Vinter Room. For more details about the picnic, see the Events page, or click here for a map of how to get to the Vinter Room.
In the event of inclement weather, we’ll hold the picnic indoors. Hope to see you all there!