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 The past twelve months has seen a lot of activity at HAPS.
As per usual we have had a busy program of invited speakers, talks by members, visits to the Observatory (more of which later) and some lighter moments with the usual debates and social gatherings at the Clubroom, Observatory and elsewhere. The main activities to report on are:
a) Astromind 2008 – held at Sheffield where Marcus came a creditable second place.
b) Some very interesting talks by invited speakers
c) Visits to a number of events run by other Astronomy Societies
d) Visits to a number of Schools
e) Two more successful 'Beginners Astronomy Courses' held at the Clubroom
f) The visit, co-hosted by the University of Huddersfield, of Professor John Brown, in early January 2009, to start our Society's celebrating of International Year of Astronomy.
In May 2008 Martin Lunn came to HAPS to give a talk about Viking Astronomy.
The Vikings did not keep many records as many of their astronomical discoveries are passed down by word of mouth. As such it is difficult to trace any written information but a lot can be obtained from stories around key moments in their history, which because of their culture, revolved quite a lot around astronomical goings-on. So such events as the return(s) of Halley's Comet can be found within these spoken stories.
In June Dr Philippa Browning from Manchester University, gave a presentation about 'Our Active Sun' – with the advent of modern satellites and instrumentation astronomers can feel the 'pulse' of our Sun and learn a lot more about the dynamics of the Sun's interior. No doubt in a few years she will be back with an update.
In July Professor Ian Lawrie, from Leeds University, returned to give a talk entitled 'Three Men who did not discover a Black Hole'. This presentation revolved around the arguments between a number of eminent astrophysicists on the early 1900s as to the nature of objects, that we now know are Black Holes and the fact that Einstein and others missed an opportunity to confirm their existence some 20 years before their eventual discovery.
In October, Professor Michael Merrifield, from Nottingham University, gave a talk about 'Galaxy mayhem'. This presentation looked at recent imagery, by the HST and other telescopes, that showed the movement and orbits of stars very close to the centre of the Milky way – which indicated the presence of a 'hidden object'. When the sums were done it was found that in the object now classified as 'Sagittarius A' lies a Black Hole with a mass of a few million solar masses.
In November Dr Roger New, from Sheffield, discussed the identification of massive planets (about the size of Jupiter and above) that orbit close to their parent star – hence the term 'Hot Jupiters'. With better telescopes and instruments more of these strange worlds are being found suggesting that many stars in our galaxy have planets around them -but certainly not many are in suitable positions to harbours any life similar to that which lives on our Planet. Also along with this is, by using larger telescopes and arrays, to find 'Earth-sized' exo-planets. This will be boosted by the launch of the 'Darwin' mission – a nest of space-based interferometer telescopes which should start to produce data in 2011

International year of astronomy
As some of you may know 2009 celebrates the 400th birthday of the telescope – used by Galileo in 1609 to view Jupiter and Saturn and in doing so he overturned centuries of doctrine, held sacred by the Church that the Earth was at the centre of the Universe. To honour this cornerstone of Science. The International Astronomical Union, has designated 2009 as 'International Year of Astronomy' On January 9th 2009, Professor John Brown, Scotland's Astronomer Royal and member of the Magic Circle, came from Glasgow University to Huddersfield University to give a presentation – ‘Our Magical Universe and how we reveal its tricks’.



We had something like 150 visitors and the University was very pleased with our organisation of this event – possibly there may be a chance of another link-up for the 2009-10 series of Lectures they are hosting - WATCH THIS SPACE FOR NEWS OF ANYTHING COMING IN WINTER. The presentation was well received by the general public and thankfully everything went very smoothly.
As a follow-up to this we had a trip to Edinburgh in April to the 'Science Festival' – there there were a number of keynote speakers including Dr Chris Lintott (Sky at Night, Galaxy Zoo – read later for a summary of what Galaxy Zoo is all about!). Whether there will be a EdSciFest Astronomy day in 2010 is uncertain but if there is – then its a great day out.
In February Dr Chris Stone came to HAPS to talk about 'The Subaru legacy'.
Subaru is an Infra-Red Telescope, in Hawaii, operated by the Japanese and has been successfully recording interesting 'cool' objects, for more than 20 years, from atop a high mountain peak where it gets a clear view of the cosmos, mostly unimpeded due to the lack of water vapour above 14,000 feet in altitude. Subaru is coming to the end of its (20 years ) lifetime and will be superseded by newer – more advanced - Telescopes and instruments – to back up the work done by the many space-based infra-red telescopes. In this respect the 'Son of Subaru' will join forces with the successor to the Hubble Space telescope – when the James Webb Space Telescope is (hopefully) launched in around 2013.
In March we had a visit from Dr Jonti Horner. Working at the Open University, Jonti is currently based in Milton Keynes but spends a lot of time in the north-west as part of a research project into the effect that Jupiter has on some of the many small rocky and cometary bodies in our solar system. Does Jupiter protect the Earth from these objects? - the answer is probably yes. However there are a number of projects (such as 'Space Guard'_ that are on the look-out for any body of a size of 1Km+ that would cause severe devastation on Earth, were it to land anywhere near a large population centre. Even if it missed it would still cause severe disruption to the earth's climate for 10s or hundred of years.
In April Professor Jim Wild, from Lancaster University gave a presentation on the 'Aurora Borealis'. These ethereal glowing curtains of light are usually only viewable from above latitudes 65, but during high solar activity (as happened in early 2003 over Huddersfield) even we can see them if the conditions are right. He gave a lot of information about how they are triggered and suggested ways of making sure you can be in the right place at the right time to see this wonderful natural spectacle.

AGM News
The 2009 AGM was a fairly quiet affair with nothing much needing a huge debate.
The Society is progressing with its various activities quite nicely and there are no major issues looming in the next 12 months. There are a few matters that will arise in the next 2-3 years, namely:
a) The renewal of the Observatory lease
b) The possibility that we may have to upgrade or replace the LX200 – due entirely to wear and tear
c) The future of the Observatory (in the medium to long term).
The Observatory lease is due for renewal in about 2012.
We have a number of decisions to make – essentially to secure our tenure of the land that the Observatory is built on.
Since the Observatory was constructed (finished in 1979) the encroachment of bad lighting has meant that the area around the Observatory is not as dark as it once was.
However, unfortunately there is no where else, within easy reach or access, in the Kirklees area that we could move to. Therefore the following decisions have been taken:
To ensure that the current lease is renewed and the ask for a longer tenure (hopefully 99 years) as the current tenure is 10 years
To enquire about the possibility of purchasing the land
To make contact with Kirklees Planning Dept., with an eye for the additional of extra facilities at the Observatory, to accommodate such things as:
a) a 'classroom' /place where we can host 'talks' with toilets and facilities for physically handicapped visitors.
b) The ability to operate the telescope 'remotely' from the classroom
c) To install low level platforms to place portable telescopes outside the Observatory for the use by any visitors to the Observatory
d) To consider whether we can install a second 'dome' to house one of the smaller telescopes in a 'permanent' fixture and linked to the 'classroom'. This will take some time but some plans have been drawn up by Peter Ironmonger and submitted for discussion. Another part of this plan is to install mains power to the Observatory and, potentially, change the current dome moving mechanism for a motorised upgrade.
It may de some time before anything significant takes place but as soon as it does then the membership will be informed accordingly.
The 20090-10 program has started well, with some very good presentations by:
May 09 : Dr Paula Casselli , from Leeds University, 'Formation of planets around young stars') and
June 09 :'Making Galaxy Soup' by Dr Richard Degrijs, from Sheffield University[ or that was the planned talk but it had to be substituted at the last minute by a presentation about the sizes and distances of objects in the Universe as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope and other instruments].
Both of these presentations benefited from the number of superb images from the Hubble Space Telescope, which if you have been watching the news in the past month or so has now had a major servicing mission and refit to keep in going until about 2014, when the James Webb Space telescope will take over its mantle as the prime satellite based observatory in space..


Observatory News
It has been a fairly busy time at the Observatory, in the past 12 months., with around 500+ visitors, including some who have been in previous years, and others who a 'new'.
Thankfully the Observatory is operating OK, but there are a few signs of wear and tear. These will have to be attended to in the next year or so. One major item that is in need of repairs is the 'Dome Slewing Mechanism', which is starting to fail after 30 years of use. Contact is being made with David Brown Gears, the company who constructed the telescope drive train for the 'old' 16-inch, and hopefully, by the end of the Summer the slewing mechanism will have been refurbished.
Over the next three months quite a lot of work and activity is planned:
a) Refurbishing the ‘slit’ of the dome so that it runs better on the circular track – this is already part done with improvements to the sealing strip on the bottom of the slit already in place
b) Replacing the broken Solar panel has been completed. The old panel has been refurbished and may be re-installed once a new battery and controller are purchased.
c) Installing a new Solar Battery – to provide more lighting power
d) Repairs to the outer and inner door to make it open better/easily – hopefully the problems are just wear-and-tear so it should be an easy fix.
e) General refurbishment – possibly some painting and clear-out of the room downstairs
All this is hoped to be done before the end of October in time for the first Open Week (which coincides with the IYA 'Moon Watch' Week between Monday 26th and Saturday 31st October 2009
The Society BBQ is planned for the Sunday 16th August (TBC and also weather permitting) – the BBQs will be lit for about 6.30pm so if you want to come along just let Paul know asap, and give him a few £s for sundries. As before bring your own meats/veggies. If the weather is kind to us then we will open up the Observatory to do some observing of the Moon, if it is visible and anything else in the night sky.
Recently Peter Ironmonger has taken on a special role as 'Observatory redevelopment focal point'. In this role Peter is setting in plans to upgrade facilities at the Observatory. His current idea is:
a) Install two 6 meter long containers on hard-standing in front of the current entrance – these will be out-fitted with secure windows, tables, chairs and lighting/heating etc.
b) Modify the current entrance to permit wheelchair/disabled access to the containers
c) install toilet and drainage facilities
d) Install mains power to the Observatory/new buildings
e) provide facilities to operate the main observatory telescope remotely from a 'warm room'
f) Provide fixed 'piers' or bases for mounting portable telescopes
g) Motorise the dome of the current observatory
These are likely to take some time and we need to have a secure tenure on the land so just watch this space. If/when anything significant in the project happens you will be informed

Kielder Forest Star Camp October 2009
This is planned for the weekend of 1th to 19th October 2009 [One week before the IYA 2009 Moon Watch] so if you want to go please get a pitch booked asap – it's likely to be busy!!!
As some of you may know the Kielder Observatory Astronomical Society has been recently formed to oversee the operation of a new Observatory in Kielder Forest near ‘SkyScape’. Located in one of the darkest localities in England the Kielder Observatory utilises a unique wooden design, to fit in with the forested surroundings.
Kielder Observatory has had over 4000+ visitors in the past 15 months so it's a popular spot – if you are up in the north-east between now and Christmas why not call in at the Observatory (please check www.kielderobservatory.org for opening times/special events). If the weather is good you will have a spectacular view of our Milky way if the sky is clear (and the midges aren't about!!!). I recently ventured to a B&B in Kielder in late March to do some astro-photography. Thankfully the Saturday night was very clear and I could see over 30 stars in 'M45' (from Huddersfield you might see 10 if you were lucky!). Anyway I got s super view of M42 (and other clusters etc.) and you can see the results on my website.... www.robs-roamings.info
Back in Huddersfield and,using the LX200 at the Observatory, I have also been experimenting with 'Moon Mosaics' – taking a patchwork quilt of images of the Moon through the 16-inch at the Observatory and, again you can see the results on my website. If you have a DSLR camera and a suitable 'nose-piece' you can take enough images of the Moon quite quickly and there's plenty of software, on the WWW, to do the 'stitching' of the images.

International year of astronomy update
So far we have had some successful IYA events – in as much as the weather was very good for the 'Moon-watches' in late March and early April. Generally, though IYA 2009 has not had much media impact, so far, so we will have to see if these will be an upswing in the public's perception in the next 6 months. Hopefully there will be plenty of information about the October Moon watch as it is a 'cornerstone' project of IYA 2009.
During the last week in October everyone is encouraged to observe the Moon, when possible, and take pictures or make drawings etc. These can then be sent to the Moon Watch co-ordinators who are pitting together an on-line galley of images for everyone to view. If you want to know more just browse on these websites....
www.IYA2009.org and
www.astronomy2009.co.uk


And now for a look at an ongoing project first started by Chris Lintott, (of Sky at Night) from Cambridge University, but has now evolved into a world-wide participation activity. Feeling bored – wanting something to do (astronomical), well try this.....

Galaxy Zoo
Found at www.galaxyzoo.org
First of all what is Galaxy Zoo?
Is it a Zoo of Galaxies? – well nearly
What kind of animals are in it? - there aren't any.......well not quite!...........but if/when you get involved you might see things that look like animals What is it?
Galaxy Zoo (we are now on Version 2) is a on-line collaborative website whose aim is to enlist as many participants as possible. It is run by a consortium of Universities, including Cambridge, and is the 'brainchild' of Dr Chris Lintot (of Sky at Night fame).
What do they want?
Anyone can enlist onto GZ2 and once you have taken a simple test you are asked to classify galaxy images according to some simple rules
What do I have to do?
It's quite simple (once you get the hang of it)
Look at a galaxy image and decide if the image shows an Elliptical or Spiral Galaxy
Next look and see if you can spot spiral arms (or not)
Look and see if you can see any 'bar' structure (or not)
How many Spiral Arms are there (if any!)?
Can you see anything 'odd'? - choose from pictogram features such as extra 'blobs', odd shapes, distortions, extra rings, mergers etc.
Finally, make a note of the 'SDSS' number – the SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY number.
This is because you can then go onto the Galaxy Zoo Forum and post a query with other GZ classifiers.
Who are the classifiers? - they come from all walks of life, including professional scientists (not necessarily Astronomers), Teachers, basically who has a computer linked to the Internet and an interest in Astronomy – and there's over 400,000 of us and more joining all the time.
Some of the images are of well known objects (from the Messier and NGC catalogues). Others may be members of the catalogues of fainter galaxies (such as Hickson, PGC, MGC etc.) Just occasionally some are completely new to astronomy.
A few months ago a Dutch school teacher spotted something odd on GZ. It was a type of 'jet' but had not originated form a galaxy and turned out to be a luminous gas cloud that had not been seen before. So you may be lucky enough to find something for yourself.

To get you started have a look at these.

SDSS 588018056183677103

and

SDSS 588013383263387679

These are two nice almost edge-on spiral galaxies – note the difference in their dust lanes.
Here's a cluster of galaxies...
SDSS 587741722823753811

It's amazing the detail you can see in some of these images.
If you have a Planetarium computer program , such as SkyMap, Carte Du Ciel etc., you can make a note of the objects positional co-ordinates and then go and find the real thing. One slight bug-bear is that the co-ordinates are in 'decimal' degrees and you have to convert them to RA and Dec, for use in most Planetarium Programs [If anyone wants an Excel spreadsheet to do this just let me know!] Anyway hope you all join in the fun and happy hunting – in and amongst the run-of -the mill images are some absolute pearls.


Things coming up in the 2009-10 program
Here's a summary of a few events to look forward to, coming up in the program:
Solar Evenings at the Observatory (weather permitting):

1) 26th June and 31st July (open to the public) from 6.30pm

2) 40th Anniversary of the Moon Landings - 17th July in the Clubroom

3) Two IYA themed events - 24th July (Thomas Harriott) and 28th August (Galileo Galilei)

Thomas Harriott was an 'amateur' astronomer from England, who had spent some time at sea, along with Sir Francis Drake, during the exploration of the Americas. He did not keep many records of his discoveries, so actually very little is known about him and, if any papers by him are 'discovered' this is a major scientific find of international importance.He did a lot of work, for Drake, into the mist efficient method of packing canon-balls.Whilst this might not seem too consequential, his experiments and theories about this led to the idea of 'Atomic Theory' and the structure of rocks, metals and similar substances.

On the other-hand, Galileo Galilei is possibly in the 'top ten' best known astronomers and scientists of all time.Apart from his main job of devising 'war machines' for his employee – a rich Italian aristocrat, he made observations of the motions of the Moon, the Planets and Stars that contradicted the beliefs of the Church and supported the ideas of Nicolas Copernicus.As such he was in 'hot water' [almost literally] with the Catholic Church and has only recently been pardoned for his 'sin'

4) 4th September – 'Bringing the Universe down to Earth – the LHC' by Dr Peter Edwards from Durham University. Unfortunately during the start-up of the collider/atom-smasher there was a coolant leak that destroyed some of the chambers and instruments – once these are repaired and the unit started up and tested then the results will come. Hopefully we will get an update from Professor Edwards

5) Observatory Night - 18th September – an opportunity to learn how to use the Observatory and a prelude to

6) Monday 26th to Saturday 31st October – Moon Watch Open Week at the Observatory

Other Astronomical happenings in 2009 as well as celebrating 400 years of the telescope is also:
a) The 90th anniversary of the '1919 Total Solar Eclipse'. This eclipse was used by scientists to check the prediction of Arthur Eddington, that the Sun's gravity would 'bend' star-light in the manner predicted by Albert Einstein in his Special Theory of Relativity. An expedition was sent to the south Atlantic Ocean, to view the eclipse from near the Island of Principe. Instruments were set up to observe the relative position of stars very close to the solar limb, during the eclipse, to see if they appeared to 'move' from their correct position because of the bending effect that the Sun's gravity would have on the stars' starlight. The observation correctly measured the predicted 'bending' of the light by the Sun's gravity and Arthur Eddington became a well respected physicist.

b) The 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing.On the 21st / 22nd of July 1969, Neil Armstrong placed his feet on the surface of the Moon and said a statement that epitomised the ideas of the time 'One small step for (a) Man – one giant leap for mankind'.To celebrate this anniversary I'm doing a presentation which will include some digitally remastered footage of the Moon landing(s), which will take place on the 17th of July.

On Friday 2nd October we have invited someone very new to HAPS.Professor Sam Falle, from the University of Leeds will be talking about Supernovae – exploding stars.

On the 6th November another new face is coming – Professor Don Kurtz, from University of Central Lancashire. His specialist subject is 'Songs from the Stars' – about the way in which stars ring like a bell as they convert Hydrogen into Helium. Scientists can use radio Telescopes to peer right inside stars to see how they work.

On Friday 4th December Dr Frazer Pearce from the University of Central Lancashire, will be coming to HAPS, to give a presentation about 'Exo-Planets' – planets orbiting other stars. This is becoming a big project with the launch recently of the 'COROT' mission which is searching for 'Earth-sized' planets around other stars and will be followed by 'Gaia' – another multi-satellite mission, trying to locate Earth sized planets orbiting nearby stars.

Next Newsletter
Will be published around December.
I hope to have some news about a visit I am making to Hyderabad Observatory in November.

Web-links to various sources for more information:
Society website – www.huddersfieldastronomy.org
Professor John Brown – www.johncbrown.org Galaxy Zoo – www.galaxyzoo.org
1919 Eclipse - http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM7I9R1VED_index_0.html
http://www.1919eclipse.org/



Previous Newsletters

Newsletter 22
Newsletter 23
Newsletter 24
Newsletter 25