Thursday, 17th August, the IAU celebrity lecture at UMIST was again hosted by Patrick Moore and featured Prof. Jocelyn Bell Burnell who discovered pulsars!! ADAS members were there and as guests of Colin Henshaw, Graham Cliff and Tony Aremia retired at the end of Professor Bell Burnell's lecture to the MAS's Godlee observatory at the top of the UMIST main building on Sackville Street, Manchester, England. So too did everyone else! The pictures below speak for themselves!!!!! Colin clearly enjoyed the comments made by Prof Bell Burnell about 1987A and particularly that it was NOT a pulsar! It is not that often that a pulsar discoverer (JBB) is in the company of a supernova discoverer (CH)!!!
On Friday, 11th August, members of ADAS went to UMIST, in Manchester, England to listen to the Astronomer Royal, Sir Martin Rees, give a talk about the Universe, at the Renold building, on the UMIST campus. This is the venue for the latest (24th) IAU (International Astronomical Union) meeting, and public lectures are being sponsored to take advantage of the massive density of professional astronomy experience in Manchester this month. Tickets for lectures are described by Colin Henshaw who co-discovered 1987A as like "hen's teeth!"
The thumbnails below show Patrick Moore hosting the lecture, members of ADAS in the full house audience and then later with Ian Morrison of Jodrell Bank and Colin Henshaw. Ian and Colin appear in an ADAS archive photo somewhere from 1974 when Ian gave ADAS a lecture about "neutron stars"!
How time flies!
When ADAS returned from Martin Rees lecture there was an observing session at the obs where Graham Cliff recorded 17 Perseids and 2 sporadics (spods!). The mean magnitude was estimated to be +0, which was consistent with the light pollution from the Moon which was nearly full but at least low on the horizon. Colin Henshaw got 11 variable star observations and 13 PERSEIDS IN A ONE HOUR PERIOD! We adjourned at 4am BST as fatigue and twilight began to intrude! It was a clear night, NO cloud or mist and sadly none of the Aurora Fred Talbot had phoned to warn about! A GOOD night nevertheless!
by Unknown ADAS member
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