Countdown to Astrofest 2011

This coming Friday and Saturday 4th and 5th February sees the ever popular European Astrofest at Kensington town centre, High Street Kensington. This year promises to be another action packed event.
The lecture topics include biographies (Fred Hoyle, Arthur Stanley Eddington), archeoastronmy, cosmology, lunar geology, spaceflight (Apollo), Mars, Near Earth Asteroids and even a comedienne!
This year also promises to be interesting as Brian Cox particle physicist and astronomer will be giving a talk saturday afternoon entitled "Recreating the early Universe", no doubt talking about the Large Hadron Collider. He will also be signing copies of his book "Wonders of the Solar System" during lunchtime on the Saturday. Going by past signing sessions from notable guest speakers like Patrick Moore, Chris Lintott and Brian May it probably is a good idea to queue up early to avoid the long queue to get your book signed. I believe Patrick Moore will also be there signing his latest book "Data Book of Astronomy".
There will be the usual plethora of trade stands strewn across three floors displaying plenty of equipment and gadgets, so there is always the opportunity to grab a bargain or two.

Three Springer Authors

I have been a member of Loughton Astronomical Society (LAS) for almost twenty years. The level of expertise at the society range from the beginner to the serious observer. The society is unique as it happens to have not one, not two but three authors all who have published with Springer.

Jack Martin is author of "A Spectroscopic Atlas of Bright Stars: A Pocket Field Guide (Astronomer's  Pocket Field Guide)", a unique reference to some of the brightest stars in the sky. It is suitable for astronomers and students at all levels interested in the facinating subject of Spectroscopy. More details can be found here.

Steve Ringwood is author of "Astronomers Anonymous" which in my opinion is probably the most funniest (and very true!) account of the antics and misadventures of amateur astronomers today and throughout the ages. More details can be found here.

 

Jack and myself also contributed to another Springer publication, "Practical Amateur Spectroscopy" which describes some of the latest methods in spectroscopy available for amateur astronomers. More details can be found here.





 
 

All three of us will be at Astrofest UK this year (Kensington Town Hall, Fri 4th and Sat 5th February) where we will be promoting and signing our books somewhere in the vicinity of the Springer stand on the third floor. Hope to see you there!

The Three LAS Springer Authors!
Myself (left), Jack (centre) and Steve (right)
Taken at Astrofest 2010

 

 

New Meade AudioStar

Meade have launched a new handset that is set to replace the trusty Autostar #497 handset. Its called the AudioStar™.
Hoping to get hold of one of these at Astrofest so that I can field-test it.

Here's the advertising blurb...
Originally developed for the ground-breaking series of Meade LS™ LightSwitch® telescopes, Astronomer Inside is built into the new AudioStar™ controller (with speaker) now included with Meade's LX90™, LT™ and LXD75™ lines of telescopes. The intelligence integrated into these Meade telescopes delivers all the astronomical knowledge and experience of a professional astronomer.

The incredible Astronomer Inside does all this:

·   Knows the sky so you don't have to
    Controls the telescope to find and track any
    of over 30,000 celestial objects automatically

·   Takes you on a guided tour
    Shows you the best objects in your sky from
    your  location and time and then plays audio
    descriptions of those objects so you learn the
    details of what you are seeing

·   Has over 4 hours of audio descriptions
    that bring astronomy to life
    Includes planets, stars, constellations,
    clusters, nebulae, galaxies and more

It's like having a personal astronomer standing next to you.

To find out more about Astronomer Inside and the entire line of Meade Instruments products, or to buy online, visit  meade.com.

UPDATE: You can now buy the handset alone on Ebay

Stargazing Live! Post Episode Review

On the whole I thought the episodes were very good and aimed at the right audience. Brian Cox was especially enthusiastic and I was very impressed with Dara O Briain who added sensible humour so it made the discussions credible and interesting. I would have liked to have seen a few more 'how to' guides from BBC The One Show's resident astronomer Mark Thompson but he did a good job of explaining some of the basics on observing and what equipment to use. It was fun watching Jonathan Ross being given a brief tour of the night sky by Mark.

Shame the weather wasn't great down here in London so unfortunately I missed the Partial eclipse at sunrise on Tuesday 4th. However the due to cloud the effect was such that it was noticeably darker than normal driving to work. If it was clear the darkening effect might have gone unnoticed.

As well as screening the episodes the BBC encouraged astronomical societies all over the uk to host public observing events and lectures to fire the public imagination and get them involved in the subject.

I would love to see another set of these Stargazing Live episodes again, perhaps later on the year. Perhaps it could coincide with a Star Party like the one in September at Kelling Heath.

Stargazing Live!

The BBC are showing three episodes over three days dedicated to amateur astronomy. This coincides with a partial solar eclipse which can be seen from the UK and occurs on the morning of Tuesday 4th January.
Astronomer and host of the series 'Wonders of the Solar System' Brian Cox teams up with celebrity guests Dara O Briain and Jonathan Ross to talk about how to get started in astronomy and stargazing. 
Events are are taking place all over the country and some observatories around the world are also taking part. To find your nearest event see the Events page on the Beeb website. 
Happy observing!