We began the meeting with 'Are There Aliens', a video about the possibility of life on other planets; the link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMXgTLopRx0. This was followed by an activity, involving the YAs drawing possible lifeforms on five exoplanets. They had to relate their proposed lifeform to conditions on the planet they had chosen, and came up with a wide range of imaginative possibilities.

After the break Peter Morris gave a talk on the topic. He said that alien life might be simple, like slime on Earth. Even simple organisms change their planet’s atmosphere, producing chemical signals which may indicate the presence of life. K2 18b (a planet orbiting a red dwarf star) has an exotic chemical in its atmosphere called dimethyl sulphide. Is this the first sign of life outside Earth?

Photo credits: #1, 3 and 4 - Les Jones; #2 - Les Brand

Video credit: Royal Observatory Greenwich

Les Brand gave a detailed talk about telescopes and binoculars, with a lot of practical information about acquiring and using them. We also had a hands-on session, looking at a wide range of scopes and binoculars set up in the Education Room and the Barn (we didn't go outside, as it wasn't a clear night). 

Les also demonstrated the ZWO Seestar smart telescope, which can be operated via an app (see image #3, Dec 2023 - below - for a photo of the Moon taken with the Seestar). Please see Les' slides, in PDF format; also accessible via the middle, orange button further above, marked 'Telescopes, mounts and how to use them' (and please feel free to look at Peter Morris' guide to telescopes, also quoted on that PDF). 

Many thanks to club members who brought in equipment, and who helped out in any way on the evening.

Photos #1-2 by Les Jones; #3-4 by Emma Christmas; #5 by Liz Watson

Peter Morris gave a talk about, and held an activity on, Asterisms. The YAs learned the differences between constellations and asterisms, and were shown examples of the latter; with animations to help illustrate some descriptive names. Also, using thick white felt pens, they drew asterisms of their own design, on A3-sized starcharts, depicting the night sky at various seasons (printed from Stellarium, planetarium software), and showed them to the rest of the audience.

Photos #1 by Les Jones; #2-4 by Magda Wheatley

We had an impromptu observing evening, when the skies were unexpectedly clear.  The Young Astronomers were able to see the Moon, Jupiter (with its four closest moons) and Saturn through a variety of telescopes and binoculars that we had available - though it was perhaps a bit too light in the early evening, at this time of year, to see many stars. 

The Asterisms talk and activity that we had planned for this meeting will now be held in November. 

Photos #1-2 by Andrew Lyner; #3 by Peter Morris

With a talk and activities led by Les Brand, we had a great evening, learning about cosmic distances: what units are used, and how distances are measured (including the use of parallax, and ‘standard candles’!).  Exciting activities involved the YAs:

• marking on long strips of paper their estimated locations of the planets. Then they were instructed to fold the back of the strips in sequence and then write down the more accurate locations of the planets. They then turn their strip round to see how close their estimates were to reality.
• unfurling a very long strip of paper – informally called the “toilet roll” – showing the vast size of the Solar System.  The Sun and inner planets appear huddled together near the beginning, and the rest of the Solar System extends very far out!   

Photos #1-3 by Magda Wheatley; #4 by Andrew Lyner

We enjoyed Andrew Lyner's talk about the principles of propulsion, which included a short video showing children – one lying on a skateboard – pushing away from another.  Peter Morris and Magda Wheatley then ran the following activities:

• Straw rockets: the YAs brought some paper rockets printed from templates circulated beforehand, and propelled them by blowing through straws. 
• Soda rockets: we demonstrated ‘soda rockets’, made of plastic bottles, whereby sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) reacts with vinegar, blowing the corks off the bottles and propelling them into the air. They didn’t all go off, but a few did!
• The 'stomp rocket' – shooting plastic rockets into the air by stamping on an air-filled device like a small hot water bottle – proved very popular, and was the highlight of the evening.

Please see the videos above!  Permission has been obtained from those featured here.  Many thanks to all who helped, or provided these videos. 

Practical, hands-on session about telescopes - June 2023

The Young Astronomers were fascinated to learn all about how telescopes work, and how to use them - and to have a go at astrophotography!  A special 'thank you' to club members Andy Bennett and Ian Moss who helped out with advice, demonstrations and supplying their telescopes for the evening.  The scopes were set up outside, and the YAs used distant terrestrial objects for pointing and focusing, and also observed the Moon.

Photo credits:  1. Liz Watson; 2. Reena Midha; 3 & 4. Les Brand; 5. Reena Midha.

Results of our book competition

We asked Young Astronomers to draw their favourite planet and say why they like it so much. Our thanks are due to UClan Publishing for offering three copies of  'Matilda Meets the Universe' as prizes.  Congratulations to our winners, announced at our June meeting:

Max D’Aiuto, Millie Harvey and Arjun Midha

The judges also awarded a runner-up prize of a book token to Esmé Harvey.