There won’t be any lecture Sunday 18th Lecture night is having a rest, so we are having an “Equipment Workshop Night”. The observing/Astrophotography season is starting now that the dark skies have returned so it’s time to get your equipment in tip top condition. We will therefore be doing an equipment workshop. Come…
Details
September is the start of our new season. SAS Memberships will be due from 1st September 2024 (payable throughout September) for this season 2024/2025 Joining/Renewing helps support your local astronomical society & community. So come on down to the Cygnus Observatory (based at the Washington Wetlands Centre) to join or renew your SAS membership. The SAS is the largest…
Details
This year’s Starbque will be held at our usual venue, the Millshields car Derwent Reservoir on Saturday 7th September 2024. We meet around 3pm for our picnic / barbeque and continue into the night for stargazing. A bit of cloud or rain will not stop the event going ahead but we will consider an…
Details
Rocks returned to Earth by the Apollo astronauts over 50 years ago profoundly changed our view of how the Moon has formed. This talk will review our current understanding of the Moon’s formation, explaining planet formation more generally and how computer simulations are being used to try to infer what happened 4.5 billion years ago.
Details
In this talk Dr Steve Barrett will give a brief description of the origin and the very early history of the Universe. After the Big Bang it took about three minutes to make all the constituents of the Universe and give it a kickstart. If this happened 13.8 billion years ago, how can we be…
Details
The Sunderland Astronomical Society’s Astrophotography Competition will held on Sunday 28th July 2024 and we are returning to our pre Covid format. The event will be held at the Washington wetlands centre from 7:00 pm, where the best of our SAS astrophotographer images will be displayed and voted on at the event. All members attending…
Details
Keith been a dedicated planetary imager since webcam imaging first started off. Keith has been a trail blazer in the field of Planetary Imaging for many years. Keith has gained a vast amount of knowledge, tips nd tricks on the subject which he is keen to share. In this talk Keith gives a hands on…
Details
Something a bit different for the May lecture night. In recent years “Smart Telescopes” have arrived on the astronomy scene. Smart telescopes offer an automated way of doing astronomy and astrophotography, albeit at a quite expensive price. Last year ZWO released the SeeStar S50 offering a smart telescope at the price of an entry level…
Details
Since the telescope was invented about 400 years ago, they grew in size considerably to adapt with advances in astronomy. In this presentation Dr Jurgen Schmoll gives a historical overview of world’s largest telescopes of the past before looking into current projects which include the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO).…
Details
Astronomy is mostly a visual and non-experimental science. We can only look at what is out there but can’t brings stars and galaxies into the lab. However we can build them inside computers and attempt to simulate them. In Julian’s talk, we will see how simulations can show us how the universe evolves and what…
Details
During the 1950s and 1960s the Soviet space program used dogs for sub-orbital and orbital space flights to determine whether human spaceflight was feasible. In this period, the Soviet Union launched missions with passenger slots for at least 57 dogs. Most survived; the few that died were lost mostly through technical failures. In this fascinating talk Dr Pete Edwards, Director of Science Outreach at Durham…
Details
Back by popular demand, Sunderland Astronomical Society are will visiting Northumberland Park). Date: Friday 23rd February 2024. Time: from 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm. Entry: Free Event SAS have been asked by the Northumberland Park (the park in North Shields) to hold a Stargazing event on Friday 24th February 2024 from 7 pm till 10 pm.
Details