A friendly local society for everyone interested in astronomy and space exploration, in Cumbria and beyond.
Welcome

Wednesday, May 23
Light Pollution Petition - Deadline 29th May
Tuesday, May 22
Venus & Moon @ the Keswick Mountain Festival
Keswick Mountain Festival event report
After clouds and rain put a dampener of our first solar observing session the second session was much more successful with 30-40 people stopping to look at the sun through Robin's specially filtered telescope and spectrograph.

The highlight of the day was the talk by BBC Sky at Night presenter Dr Chris Lintott. The event was well attended with over 50 people joining us in the Methodist Church hall in Keswick. Chris gave a fascinating talk on "The First Stars" and gave an insight into how dark matter influenced the formation of the first stars and how these stars subsequently influenced the formation of the rest of the universe.


A special thanks must go to Robin for organising the whole thing and arranging for Chris to attend. Also to Gwen for acting as Chris' driver and providing refreshments in the evening.
Thanks also to Stuart for coming through from Kendal to assist with the displays during the day and to all CAS members who made the day a success; Bill, Tony, Caroline, Wes, Dave, Jeremy and others.
Monday, May 21
Another Moon Occultation of Saturn

If you missed the the Moon passing in front of Saturn recently then there is another chance tomorrow (Tuesday) evening. It will be a little tougher this time as it takes place before the Sun has set. It should be visible in a telescope though and the Moon will make it relatively easy to find Saturn. According to Starry Night software, Saturn disappears behind the unlit edge at 20:00 BST and reappears on the sunlit edge at 21:08 as seen from here. The diagram shows the track to help you locate Saturn. Good luck and if you manage to photograph it, don't forget to bring the result along to the next meeting the following Tuesday.
Wednesday, May 16
Hubble images dark matter smoke ring
Dark Matter is also the subject for our May meeting where Bill will be giving us a talk on the subject.
Chris.
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Thursday, May 10
Keswick Mountain Festival events - 19th May
During the day (from 11am until 4 pm) society members will be on hand at the Theatre by the Lake to provide information about the day's events, the society and hopefully answer the public's astronomy related questions. Hence the session's title "Ask an astronomer".
Also during the day, weather permitting, we will hold two sun observing sessions on the lake shore near the Keswick Launch landing stages. These sessions will give people an opportunity to safely view the sun through special optical equipment. It's worth repeating our usual warning: NEVER look directly at the sun through any optical instruments (binoculars, telescopes etc) you can seriously damage your eysight! These sessions will take place between 11.30am - 12.30pm and 2.30pm - 3.30pm.
The main event of the day is a talk by BBC Sky at Night co-presenter Dr Chris Lintott. Chris will be giving an illustrated talk on "The First Stars". Chris will explain how the first stars in the Universe formed and the crucial role they played in the events that lead to our existence here on Earth. The talk will take place at the Methodist Church Hall, Southey Street, Keswick at 7.30pm. Prebooking of tickets is essential for this talk, the cost is £4 for adults and £3 for under 16s and full CAS Members.
To book tickets phone 016973 71514 or email robin@cockermouthastronomy.co.uk or chris@cockermouthastronomy.co.uk
Finally the evening will finish back down at the lake shore in Crow Park, opposite the theatre, with a planet watch event. The session will take place between 9.30pm and 11.30pm and although it will not be fully dark at the start, weather permitting we will be able to observe several planets through society member's telescopes.
If you have a telescope you are able to bring along to the evening event please let either Robin or myself know as soon as possible, so that we have a good idea of numbers.
Chris.
Pluto tells all . . .
Chris.
Wednesday, May 9
Astronomers map an extrasolar planet
Below is a selection of an article on Bad Astronomy blog reporting that astronomers have managed to 'map' the surface of an extrasolar planet. The team at the Havard-Smithsonian Centre of Astrophysics have the full details in this press release.
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Tuesday, May 8
New details in Saturn's clouds

This recently released image of Saturn taken by the Cassini space probe shows details in the cloud layers rarely seen before. The image has been enhanced to show the details of swirling patterns and storms in the clouds layers.
Check out the NASA news release for a link to a high resolution version.
Chris.
Sunday, May 6
Notes from the Secretary's Log

I did have an astronomically valid excuse for missing the AGM though as I was fortunate enough to be invited down by Sir Patrick Moore and the BBC to the Sky at Night 50th Anniversary party at Patrick’s house in Selsey. You can watch what happened on BBC1 tonight Sunday at the uncommonly early time of 11.10 pm (repeated 7pm BBC4 on Monday) and there is also a tribute programme at 4.45pm on the same channel.
The place was packed with the great and good of the astronomical and celebrity world but of course Sir Patrick was the Star of the show. Not even the presence of Lembit Opek’s “cheeky girlfriend” could tempt people away from him for long! Although wheelchair bound now, he showed remarkable stamina, keeping going non stop for the two days (The following day we continued partying after the BBC crew had departed)
On the way home I called in at the South Downs Planetarium in Chichester A fantastic resource, entirely funded and run by volunteers and not to be missed if you are down that way. They gave me a (quite literally) behind the scenes tour and very kindly gave me some books to swell our new library (duplicates from their very extensive collection)

This weekend I attended my first meeting of the British Astronomical Association Variable Star Section held north of the border for the first time at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh. (Note to self, we must have a talk on variables sometime) It was an excellent meeting with several professional astronomers talking on Dark Matter, Exoplanet hunting and gravitational microlensing. I presented a poster paper on a possible microlensing event which seemed to be well received and one of the professional astronomers was interested in following up the work. The good news for CAS though is that it looks like I have secured a speaker for next year's programme! (More later)
We were also treated to a tour of the old observatory dome with its 36 inch telescope (sadly decommisioned but still impressive) and the highlight for me, a tour of the new instrument building facility where the SCUBA 2 submillimetre detector was being built, soon to be shipped to the James Clarke Maxwell Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Gone are the days when astronomers used to take their instruments out to the the telescope in their hand luggage, this thing weighs four Tons and is cooled to almost absolute zero! Look out for result from it later this year. Perhaps we could arrange a tour of the ROE for as a society day out if enough people are interested.
Don’t forget the Astronomy at the Mountain Festival event on 19th May and if you have not yet booked tickets for Chris Lintott, don’t delay as they are now available to the general public.
Clear Skies
Robin
Friday, May 4
Yet another exoplanet discovered
If you want more details on the discovery of potentially 'earth-like' Gliese 581c you can listen to one of the planet's discoverers being interviewed on this week's Planetary radio.
Chris.
Wednesday, May 2
CAS April Meeting and AGM Report
April's meeting was the first CAS Annual General meeting that meant that the first part of the meeting was deidcated to formal business matters. Firstly the Society Constitution was formally agreed with some minor ammendents suggested by members. The society accounts were approved by the members.
Election of the Committee for the coming year was completed with the new committee being;
Chairman: Chris Darwin
Secretary: Robin Leadbeater
Treasurer: Caroline Pollard
Committee Members: Bill McAllister, Wes Smith, Jeremy Hunt
Chris thanked all committee members for their efforts over the last year and proposed a special vote of thanks to Tony Terry who has been an active member of the Society since it's formation and has served on the committee for several years.
Minutes of the AGM and a copy of the constitution and accounts will be made available on the CAS Website as soon as possible.
Following a brief news round up and a refreshements Chris gave a talk on "40 years of astronomy" to coincide with a recent significant birthday celebration.