Meetings and events

 “From the Anglo-Australian Telescope to the European Extremely Large Telescope – how UK astronomy grew and prospered”
The UK astronomy community has risen from a low base after the Second World War to become a leader in, for example, world citation indices and a major contributor to the massive international collaborations in both ground based and space astronomy that are now necessary.

In this talk I am time limited and so concentrate on the development of the portfolio of UK ground based telescopes from the 1960s to the present day, which enabled this to happen and which demonstrate the importance of having the best facilities and a coherent long term strategy.

Prof. Ian Corbett
After completing a Doctorate in Particle Physics at Oxford Ian was a Research Fellow and Tutor in Physics for 6 years until he went to CERN and then the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory doing experimental particle physics.

He drifted into astronomy in the mid ‘80s when he was involved in the construction of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope on Hawai’i and early studies for gravitational wave detectors.

In 1989 he was appointed Head of Astronomy and Particle Physics at the Science and Engineering Research Council, which morphed into Deputy Chief Executive of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council when it was formed in 1994.

He moved to the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in 2001 as Deputy Director General and retired at the end of 2006.

He was elected Assistant General Secretary and then General Secretary of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), finally retiring (again) in 2015.

Since then he has acted as a consultant to several major projects, including the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), but now, at the age of 83, he is fully retired. In the course of his career he has been heavily involved in all the major astronomical facilities, ground based and space, used by the UK community.

Dr. Andrew Mummery is a physicist at Oxford University who studies black holes and the accretion process around them:

Research focus

Andrew’s research focuses on developing physical theories to describe the accretion process around black holes, particularly in areas that are not usually studied.

Recent work

Andrew led a team that discovered a bizarre region around black holes. This discovery provides a new technique for studying the strongest known gravitational fields.

Andrew’s work also includes:

• Solving the relativistic thin disc evolutionary equation

• Predicting the existence of an intermediate stage of “stalled accretion”

• Showing that the fractional variability of disc systems increases as the observed frequency increases

Future research

Andrew’s research opens new avenues for identifying and studying objects around black holes. He believes that understanding the source of regular outbursts will allow researchers to measure the abundance and distances of objects around black holes.

 

 Twenty years of the Neil Gehrels Swift observatory – Time-domain astronomy at its best.

Although just a medium large satellite, the Swift mission was launched 20 years ago (Nov 20, 2004) in order to “catch gamma ray bursts”.

It was set up to automatically point its X-ray and Ultraviolet-Optical telescopes within about 2 minutes at a GRB seen in its Burst Alert Telescope which observes a large part of the sky.

In recent years, the mission has been focussing more and more on quickly changing sources in the universe, adding to the GRB observations a diverse zoo from supernovae, novae, X-ray binaries, Active Galactic Nuclei, Blazars, gravitational wave events from merging neutron stars, magnetars, and fast radio and X-ray bursts. But also more traditional astronomy of stellar clusters, pulsating stars, and even planets transiting their host star. The Swift Team is still making improvements using new technology to make even better use of the satellite to better understand the universe.

A new Project – MESOM – Moon enabled Sun Occultation Mission – Seeing a total solar eclipse is an experience that you never forget. For a brief moment in time, the extended atmosphere of the Sun becomes visible as the bright disk of the Sun is entirely covered by the Moon. Day becomes night, the stars come out and you are able to view the Sun directly and safely. Total eclipses are also of huge scientific value and astronomers will take their telescopes to far-flung places to catch a glimpse of the Sun during these times. Now, a new mission has been proposed that will fly a spacecraft into the shadow of the Moon in order to create total solar eclipse conditions in space.  And it will do this once per month. This talk will discuss why total eclipses are so important for scientists and why an international team has been put together to create a new generation of eclipse viewing.

A journey to the edge of the universe (and back in time for tea)

Explore how astronomers measure the distance to the edge of our Universe and hope to see even further with the next generation of space telescopes. How may our view change over the next 20 years? How far is the edge and why is it expanding? How far can we see from Earth and how large is our galaxy compared to others?

What’s new, current trends and what’s coming in Astro Equipment

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