Public TalksMonthly Talks on Astronomical Topics of Interest |  |
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Monthly Public Talks
Our popular monthly talks are for members and the public to learn about some aspects of astronomy. These talks are aimed at ‘middle of the road’ level so the talk will appeal to members of the public with no prior knowledge, newcomers as well as those who have been interested in the subject for a number of years.
Topics from imaging the night sky, through to Cosmology, we invite speakers from all over the UK and the World.
We make a small charge on the door of £3.00 to cover our expenses
Our local venue:
Clanfield Memorial Hall,
South Lane,
Clanfield
Waterlooville
Hampshire
PO8 0RB
If you wish to view this location on MultiMap please click here
All talks start at 7:45pm unless otherwise stated
Friday, 14th December 2018
How We'll Live on Mars
A talk by Colin Stuart
Cost: £3 for non-members
Humans will soon make their first trip to Mars.Friday, 11th January 2019
The Cradle of the Sun - Did Our Solar System Form in a Star Cluster?
A talk by Dr Richard J Parker
Cost: £3 for non-members
Dr Parker is a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow, working at the University of Sheffield who delivered a talk about the "Search for Planet 9" at the 2018 BAA Winchester Weekend. For this talk, he will be considering where our Sun was born.
Stars like the Sun do not form in isolation, but rather in the company of tens to millions of other stars. These stellar birth-places are often very hostile astrophysical environments, where planets can be disrupted or prevented from forming altogether. However, there are several strands of evidence that suggest the Sun MUST have formed in such a dense environment. In this talk, I will discuss the evidence for and against the Solar System's formation within a star cluster.
Friday, 8th February 2019
The search for Planet Vulcan
A talk by Paul Fellows
Cost: £3 for non-members
This talk looks at the science and scientists involved in the prediction, search and reported discovery of planet Vulcan - a planet that never was.
We will look into just why it was predicted, and ask “Why did so many people firmly believe that it must be out there?” and “Why had it not been seen before?”. The talk covers a mixture of the observations and the theory of this tale over a period of 100 years, culminating of course in the story of how eventually of it needed a genius to come along and resolve things and revolutionize all of physics to explain what was going on.
Then we will take a more light-hearted look at other examples of mistaken discoveries and surprises in the history of the moons and planets. Did you know for instance that the Earth has two moons?Paul Fellows is chair of the Cambridge Astronomical Association and co-presenter of the public observing season at the University of Cambridge leading the live outdoor shows every week (or giving indoor presentations when the clouds get in the way!). Either way these attract audiences of 200+ on a regular basis and are aimed to appeal to people of all levels from the complete beginner who wants to know where to start, yet hopefully adding something even for the more knowledgeable. He is also a regular speaker on board Queen Mary 2 for Cunard Line.
However he has always retained an interest in astronomy since building his first telescope aged 14 and experiencing the “wow” moment of seeing the rings of Saturn for the first time. He has been stargazing for some 40 years and has his own private observatory where he images the sky, taking pictures of galaxies, clusters, nebulae and planets and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2006. Many of his own images will appear in his talks.
Paul Fellows is an old friend of Hampshire Astronomical Group, having been a member back in the days when we were the Portsmouth Astronomical Group.
Image from lithographic map of 1846
Friday, 12th April 2019
TBC
A talk by Dr Seshadri Nadathur
Cost: £3 for non-members
Friday, 10th May 2019
Multimessenger Astronomy
A talk by Dr Stephen Webb
Cost: £3 for non-members
Almost everything we know about the universe came from observing electromagnetic radiation.- charged cosmic rays,
- neutrinos,
- and gravitational waves.
By combining signals from the four different messengers we can gain new insights.
This talk looks at how multimessenger astronomy recently shed light on a decades-old puzzle, and it looks forward to what we might learn next.
Friday, 8th November 2019
The Consequences of Contact with ET
A talk by Martin Griffiths
Cost: £3 for non-members
We have been searching deliberately for extraterrestrial signals since the 1960’s. Although so much thought, effort and technology has been invested in the search for ETI, little consideration has been given to the consequences of such contact and how discovering that we are not alone in the universe will affect our society and culture here on Earth. This talk will cover some of the most important aspects of our human response to finding life elsewhere in the cosmos.
Our speaker tonight, Martin Griffiths, was a founder member of NASA’s Astrobiology Institute Science Communication Group, active between 2003-2006 and managed a multi-million pound ESF programme in Astrobiology for adult learners between 2003-2008. He has been an adviser to several museum projects on the interface between science and science fiction, including exhibitions on the science of Star Trek and the Science of Aliens.
Martin is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society; a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy; a member of the British Astronomical Association; the Webb Deep-Sky Society; the Society for Popular Astronomy, The Astronomical Society of the Pacific and the Astronomical League. He is also a local representative for the BAA Commission for Dark Skies.
