The Plymouth Astronomical Society (PAS) meets on the second Friday of each month at the University of Plymouth from September to July. Society meetings are free to members and visitors are very welcome to attend at a cost of £2 on the door. Please bring cash (change preferred) as we have no card payment facilities.
All meetings are held in the Rolle Building and there is disabled access to the venue. If the ground floor door is locked, please ring 01752 588400. Please contact PAS via the webform for further information.
Friday 14 October | The discovery of Neptune, what's new in an old story?
- Speaker: Brian Sheen, Director of the Roseland Observatory.
Friday 11 November | A journey through a star: the astrophysics of stellar interiors – speaker: Dr Dimitar Vlaykov, Astrophysics Group, University of Exeter
Stellar light is mostly fuelled by intense nuclear reactions deep in the star’s interior. But that is only the beginning of the story. It can take several thousand years for a photon produced in the Sun’s core today to reach its surface. So what happens to it in the meantime?
In this public talk, we will take you on a tour through the ins and outs of the structure of stellar interiors — the different ways that heat, light and chemical elements are transported through stellar layers before they reach emptiness of outer space and begin their journey to our telescopes. What kind of stars are there and how do they evolve? In what way does the Sun resemble a kettle on the hob? We will present what we already understand and teach in the classroom. We will also touch on the still open questions that researchers are actively working to answer.
Friday 9 December | Tin can astronomy: following the path of the Sun in the sky – speaker: Mr Chris Cooke, Committee, Plymouth Astronomical Society
This will be a short talk followed by the famous Christmas Quiz! by David Wilton, PAS Chairman.
We are all aware of the Sun crossing the sky marking a 'day' and that the seasons change the length of that day but there are other changes too and a simple tin can can record these subtle effects as a solargraph – a long term picture of the Sun's passage though the sky measured in months not hours.
Friday 13 January | Great variable stars
- Speaker: Mike Shearer, Member, Plymouth Astronomical Society.
Friday 10 February | 50+ years of the International Astronomical Youth Camp
- Speaker: Dr Dan Mortimer, Astrophysics Group, University of Exeter.