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Shropshire Astronomical Society - Speakers List
SAS Speakers List
Over the years the society has played host to an lot of fine speakers.
As the society has changed there have been years we have had 5 speaker
meetings, but currently we are planning 3 or so with observing evenings at
Rodington every month, an AGM and the Summer Social.
The speakers have come from a diverse range of backgrounds and areas of
expertise. We have had David Hardy the highly respected space artist -
who illustrated some of Patrick Moores books in the late 60s.
He was also nice enough to design our snazzy new logo.
David Hardy (right) and David Woodward swopping publications.
With apologies to the editor, I think Dave Woodward got the better deal.
A recent speaker was Prof Zarnecki of the OU,
who gave a talk to the society and public at Meole Brace
School. That was proved very popular with 230 people turning up to hear just
how bizarre Titan, home to hydrocarbon seas and ethane drizzle, really is.
Professor Zarnecki after his talk on Titan to 200 people at Meole Brace School. Left to right present are: Prof Zarnecki and SAS Chairman Mandy Bailey.
A while back we had the wonderful Prof Mike Edmunds providing a superb
docudrama style presentation of Sir Isaac Newtons life in full period costume.
Even if you had no interest in astronomy it was a great evening - and he
clearly could have found another career had he chosen.
Prof Mike Edmunds in full flow as Sir Isaac Newton, the alchemist, scourge of
coin forgers and generally strange man.
We've also had a US astronaut, Don Lind, regale us with tales of his time
on the space shuttle and the lovely (and very frequent) sunrises you see
from orbit. To our
eternal shame we did ask about the toilet facilities and as a result
there was a lot of laughter that evening.
Don Lind describes some of the rather less well know problems with zero gravity...
One of the best speakers kind enough to visit us was Dr Allan Chapman,
who spoke to us on the Victorian amateur astronomer. He must be one of the best
speakers in the UK and could make a crisp packet sound interesting.
His TV series was well worth seeing.
The list is enormously long - we have been going since 1993 - and we are endebted to each and every one. Some people
have been kind enough to travel 200 miles to speak to us for the price of
their petrol. Others are members who have been brave enough to give their first
public talk at Rodington. Astronomers are in that sense a very generous people.
Thanks to you all.
This page last
modified 17th November 2010. Copyright
of all images remains with whoever took the image/photograph.