South West Herts
Astronomical Society

Links -

• Home

Meetings

Meetings start at 8pm. The main talk is followed by refreshments, after which we have a tour of the night sky in the planetarium. All meetings are on a Friday, unless otherwise stated.

IMPORTANT NOTE - visitors are welcome to our meetings, but due to space restrctions a seat must be booked in advance - email our secretary at the.secretary@swhas.org.uk to do this.

Meetings for 2010

• January 29 - Martin Lewis (WOLAS) 18” Dobsonian Telescope
• February 26 - Graham Marett - subject to be decided
• March 26th - Richard Westwood - “Colour in the Sky”
• April 30th - Gordon Rogers
• Chris Lintott wss unable to present his talk. We hope to re-schedule at a later date
• (April 30th - Chris Lintott - “Galaxy Zoo Project” - Chris Is co-presenter, with Sir Patrick Moore, of the "Sky at night" programme.)
• May 28 - AGM + speaker or member's images (Meeting was moved to 21st May)
• June & July - no meeting but we still have observing at High Top and the school (see member's area)
• August 13th - Open evening at High Top and Perseid viewing
• September 24th - Barrie Jones - "Pluto"
• October 28th - Stuart Clark - "The biggest questions in Cosmology"
• November 26th - Graham Marett - "Galileo"
  

Previous meetings

2009

• January 30th - Graham Marett - "The Moon"
• February 27th - Peter Rees - "Trip to Australia"
• March 27th - Dr Ulrich Kolb from the Open University - "Robotic Telescopes"
• April 1st - Workshop - Using a small Telescope - now fully booked
• April 24th - P & T Gillespie (Aylesbury AS) – Pluto and Space Craft Systems
• May 29th - Phil McMahon Cosmic Explosions + AGM
• September 5th - Open Evening at High Top
• September 25th - Member's images
• October 30th - Barrie Jones (Open University) “Planets and Life beyond the Solar System”
• November 27 - Colin Richards "The Large Hadron Collider"
• December 2 (Wed) - Quiz Night with Aylesbury Society - at British Legion Hall, Rickmansworth
• December 4th - Clare Adby will run a workshop - "Calculating the age of the universe" (due to limited spaces, you must book in advance - a few places are left and these will be allocated at the meeting on the 27th November)
• December 11 - Graham Marett and Len Mann will lead a debate “Man in Space – Good or Bad”.
  

2008

• January 25th - Gerry Workman - "Eclipses of the Sun"
• February 15th - Practical Workshop **
• February 29th - David Arditti - "Building a home Observatory"
• March 14th - Practical Workshop **
• March 28th - Glenn Cowan - "anti matter"
• April 25th - Pat Walker - "The Electromagnetic Spectrum"
• May 23rd - Members images - please note new date + AGM
• September 26th - Special 40th Anniversary meeting
• Octctober 31st- Nik Szymanek - "astro-imaging"
• November 28th - Bernard Steele - "How it all began"
• December 1st - Quiz night with Aylebury AS
• December 12th - Members' images

2007

• January 26th - Gerry Workman - "Mars Express"
• February 23rd - Phil McMahon - Search for life in the universe
• March 30th Jonathan Putsman - Extrasolar planets
• April 27th - Nik Szymanek - Astro Imaging
• May 25th - AGM + practical session - astronomy books etc
• June 30th - at High Top - the Society 14 inch and "go-to"
• September 8th - Open Evening at High Top - members, family and friends
• September 28th - Mike Dworetsky (Director MIll Hill Observatory) - The Chemistry of Stars
• October 26th - Phil McMahon - The Sun, our nearest Star
• November 30th - Alan Davies - Rainbows and Halos
• December 5th (Wednesday) - Christmas Quiz night at British Legion, Rickmansworth

2006

• January 27th - Jerry Workman. Cassini mission to Saturn
• February 24th - Jack Martin. Stellar Spectroscopy for the Amateur
• March 31st - Dr Fred Price. A talk on the Moon.
• April 28th - A practical evening with refreshments + AGM
• May 26th - Richard Westwood. Subject TBA
• Jun 24th - (Saturday) - Society Summer meeting at High Top
• August 12th - (Saturday) - Open evening at High Top - 8pm start
• September 29th - opening of 2006/2007 season - Graham Marett - Black Holes
• October 27th- The Story from Hubble
• November 24th - Arthur Davis - Astronomical Sites and Sights - part 2
• December 4th - Quiz with Aylesbury Society - at Aylsebury

2005

• January 28th - Mat Paige - Quasars
• February 25th - Richard Westwood – The Planetarium revisited - 1993 2005
• March 18th - Roger O’Brien – Huygens at Titan
• April 29th - AGM - Also How to Observe – A member’s forum and general discussion - please bring your telescope or any other item you use for observing. The more items we have, the more interesting the meeting will be, and you don't need to be an expert!
• May 27th – Nik Szymanek, one of the finest astro-imagers in the UK, this is not an evening to miss!
• September 30th - Simon Foster. The Lives of Stars
• October 1st - Open evening at High Top Observatory
• October 28th - Bryan Hellyer. History of Astronomy & Astrology
• November 25th - Arthur Davis (an ex-member). A Tour of Amateur Observatories
• December 7th - Extra meeting - Social / Quiz night - joint meeting with Aylesbury AS

2004

• September 24th - Helen Walker (from the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory) will talk on infra-red astronomy.
• October 22nd - The 2004 Transit of Venus. Members photographs of the event, and an illustrated talk on transits of Venus.
• November 26th - Star Formation, by Antonio Chrysostomou (University of Hertfordshire)
• December 6th - Monday - visit to Aylesbury Astronomical Society – Quiz
  see link in menu bar for details and map.