TA AGM 2003

A weekend meeting at Alston Hall near Preston - 2003 October 10 - 12

Friday evening: 17:00 Attendees begin to arrive and settle in. For those travelling north up the M6 it would be prudent to allow plenty of time to travel as there are usually significant hold ups on Friday afternoons. Members can check in at Alston Hall any time during the afternoon.; 19:00 Dinner; 20:30 Introduction to the weekend: D.G.Buczynski; 20:40 Dr John Mason (BAA) "Lectures to Astronomical Societies: Personal Experiences"; 21:40 Free time discussions in the bar

Saturday morning: 08:30 Breakfast; 09:30 Guy Hurst (TA editor) "The 2003 TA annual review"; 10:15 TA team Mastermind Quiz (1); 11:00 Morning coffee; 11:45 Dr Petr Pravec (Ondrejov Observatory Czech Republic) "Asteroid Photometry - from lightcurve measurements to physical parameters"; 13:00 Lunch

Saturday afternoon: 14:30 Dr Petr Pravec workshop and discussion of his work on Asteroid dimension modelling; 15:30 TA team Mastermind Quiz (2); 16:00 Afternoon tea; 16:30 Dr Donald Kurtz (University of Central Lancashire) "Asteroseismology: the real music of the spheres"; 17:30 Free time /visit University of Central Lancashire's Observatories and teaching labs; 19:30 Dinner; 20:30 David Ratledge (Bolton AS) "CCD imaging of unusual galaxies and galaxy groups"; 21:30 Free time more discussions in the bar

Sunday morning: 09:15 Breakfast; 10:15 TA team Mastermind Quiz (3); 10:45 Tom Boles (BAA President elect) " The UK Supernova patrol: 100 up"; 11:30 Morning coffee; 12:00 Martin Mobberley (TA and BAA) " Webcam imaging of the Planets: Mars and others"; 13:00 Lunch

Sunday afternoon: 14:15 TA team Mastermind (4); 14:45 Professor Lionel Wilson (University of Lancaster) "The search for water on Mars"; 15:45 Afternoon tea; Weekend closes

There will be time made available for 10 minute contributions from members wishing to bring us up to date with there latest programmes and observations. Should anybody wish to book time to give a short talk then please contact Denis Buczynski at denis@cb978iau.demon.co.uk or telephone 01524 68530 any evening

Should any member wish to display any posters of their work and projects there is plenty of space available in the Hall

On display will be George Alcock's instruments. Including his 4 inch Ross refractor with which he made his controversial planetary drawings. Also his large aperture binoculars with which he discovered a number of comets and novae.

There will also be a large Zeiss stereo comparator set up by Glyn Marsh to allow members to find out how hard it was to discover variables and minor planets. Have you ever wondered just what it was like for Clyde Tombaugh to search all those negatives to discover Pluto, you will be able to get a flavour of it with this machine.

*We need to apologise to members who had expected Dr Allan Chapman to be speaking at our meeting, due to unforeseen circumstances it was not possible for Allan to attend on the particular weekend we are holding our meeting. He passes on his regret at being unable to be present. Also, Michael Oates from Manchester is unable to attend as the weekend clashes with the final week of his MSc degree at UMIST which I am sure we all hope he successfully negotiates.*

**There may be a limited amount of residential space available for the meeting either at the Hall or in nearby Motels and B/Bs. Members need to contact Alston Hall directly to find out details of residency and individual day rates. telephone 01772 784661**

*** There may be a limited amount of space left for members who want to travel and attend the Saturday/Sunday sessions and who do not want to use the catering facilities that Alston Hall will be providing for members who have booked in advance. It would be prudent for anybody intending to attend under these circumstances to telephone Alston Hall directly and also contact Denis Buczynski at denis@cb978iau.demon.co.uk ***

Denis Buczynski

Webmaster: Peter Meadows

Contents

TA AGM 2003

A weekend meeting at Alston Hall near Preston - 2003 October 10 - 12