Institute of Astronomy Cambridge

1. Institute of Astronomy Cambridge Federation of astronomical societies Convention & AGM 2010

2. AGM • Subscriptions from this year onwards to be aligned to financial year. Now due in January for April 2011. • 50% Discounted subs rate for prompt payment. Accounts show that funds are higher than needed, hence discount scheme. Additional income is due to sale of educational pamphlets and Astro Calendars. • No change to subs this year. • FAS would like societies to register their post codes on the FAS web site. An embedded Google map will then display all societies in a region as a pin on the map.

3. Institute of Astronomy

4. Convention

6. Jerry stone frasfbis ‘visiting the lord of the rings’ • Notes • Greek word for Saturn is KRONOS • History of observing Saturn – who and when • Signal strength from the Cassini space craft is only 20W when it leaves – tiny fraction of that when it arrives on earth • Huygens probe – surface consistency (wet snow or sand), video & still photography. • New research using radar to probe inside Titan – may be internal oceans of water and ammonia. • New images from previous day showing new blue ice exposed by impact in false colour image of Rhea. • Cassini mission may extend to 2017 , skimming just 3,000km from cloud tops before tumbling into Saturn's atmosphere.

8. Prof. Philippa browning ‘Our active sun’ • Notes • 100,000 years for energy to escape – drunken stagger through the woods • Photosphere temperature is 6000K. • Inside sunspots 4,000K, hence much darker. • Carona is 1-2M K – much hotter than the surface! • Cycle 23 (current) has been much longer and deeper minimum than usual: • longest in a century (12.1 - 12.8 years) • 51 sun-spot free days. • Spectacular displays of erupting prominences and 3-dimensional views of coronal mass ejections using stereo. • Prof. Browning’s specialisation is in Re-connection of magnetic field lines.

9. Prof. timnaylor ‘star & planet formation’ • Notes • Two diverse camps - divided over the influence that a strong magnetic field has over the process of star formation. Results differ by factor of 5-10: • 1-2M years or 10M years. • High field strength => Slower star formation • Research continues from ground based telescopes • Collapse is rapid and chaotic , mass aggregating along filaments in the spiral arms similar to large cosmological models of galaxy formation. • Disc formation in young stars is visible in the infra-red. • Disc carries away angular momentum from the star and leads to planet formation. • BUT Jupiter took 10M years to from and discs last approx 3M years.

10. Dr peter wheatley ‘hunting for extra-solar planets using small telescopes’ • Notes • Dr Wheatley is a founder member of WASP, Wide Angle Search for Planets. • First direct images of extra-solar planets – around Formalhaut-b using Keck and Hubble. • Most planets found to date are ~10x MJ. • Most planets are found by doppler wobble. • Very highly stable environment for measurements – fibre optic from telescope to spectrograph in basement - vibration free, N2 atmosphere, constant temp and pressure. • WASP uses an array of Canon telephoto lenses f/1.8 – wide angle array. • 28.6M stars have been surveyed to date. Computerised search for dips in brightness. • Most difficult data to inerpret : eclipsing binary with a 3rd star present.

12. Dr peter wheatley ‘hunting for extra-solar planets using small telescopes’ • Notes • Team have discovered ICE GIANTS – Neptune sized planets. • For transit planet method, observer on earth has to be in the plane of the orbit. • Anomaly: MP= 10MJ creates a tidal effect on parent star. They have found a 5Bn year old relationship which will end within 1M years => is it fully understood? • Can measure red/blue shift of the light blocked by a transiting planet – can tell which side of rotating star was hidden. • Also brightness and spectrum of planet before it passes behind parent star. • May be just 10 years away from finding oxygen rich atmosphere which would point to RESPIRATION process => LIFE !!

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