King's Lynn and District Astronomy Society

Promoting astronomy for all ages across West Norfolk

Archive: Events

Our recent visit to Shouldham Primary School

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I just wanted to thank Shouldham Primary School for last Saturday 18th April , your staff, your pupils and the Friends of School for making us so welcome yesterday. You are to complemented on the enthusiasm and depth of knowledge of your pupils.

We hope that our visit made the day even more enjoyable. We certainly enjoyed every minute of our time spent with you and your school.

Finally, I hope you get many hours of enjoyment out of the telescopes you purchased and that it will inspire pupils and staff to take a greater interest in the Cosmos.

John Craythorne
Chairman

Observation Evenings

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Good Afternoon All,

As the nights are getting lighter and Astronomical darkness is starting quite late as the summer approaches, it was decided to end the evenings until the winter and darker skies are back with us again.

Keep an eye on our events page for future talks, and out reach events planned.

Kind Regards,

Leon Askew
Membership Secretary

Thank you Dr Simon Sheridan

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Thank you to Dr Simon Sheridan for a really interesting talk last evening for his talk on Rosetta – Landing on a Comet from Planning to Reality.

Special thanks to Ray Price for arranging Dr Sheridans visit last night, the talk on the Rosetta and Philae mission was excellent and being able to see and touch the replica pieces to Ptolemy (Philae Lander) and Beagle 2 and also hold a piece of Mars was fantastic.

Dr Sheridan was really nice guy and his willingness to stay and chat for so long after the talk was an unexpected bonus.

Dr Simon Sheridan’s key activities include:

  • Development of the gas handling and processing system on the Ptolemy instrument (Rosetta Lander)
  • The development of miniature mass spectrometers for sub-surface deployment by either low-speed mole or high-speed penetrator devices
  • The development of Carbon Nano Tube devices for use as low power mass spectrometer ionisation sources

Put simply this guy designed the major parts of Ptolemy which will analyse samples from the comet to help us understand what it is and more about the beginnings of our solar system.

You can follow the ESA team on twitter:-
Ptolemy team:  https://twitter.com/Philae_Ptolemy
and the whole ESA Rosetta Team here https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta

Once again a massive thank you to Ray, who unfortunately had to leave early, get well soon.
Clear skies to all.

Tonights Talk – Rosetta – Landing on a Comet by Dr Simon Sheridan

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Landing on a Comet – from planning to reality

Dr Simon Sheridan – Research European Space Agency, Associate Lecturer of Open University in Planetary sciences.  Working on the Rosetta project, in particular the Ptolemy lander will give an interesting talk about the mission and an insight in to what is happening next.

He has promised to bring a selection of items from previous missions i.e. Mars Lander, Titan Probe, Meteorites etc.rosetta_poster hobo std

Stargazing Live

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Following on from the very successful Junior Star Gazing Live in January. We held a Star Gazing Live event to coincide with the BBC programmes.

The event was opened by our patron Henry Bellingham MP and Councillor John W Doyle, Mayor of Downham Market.

Henry Bellingham MP, John Craythorne, John W Doyle, Mayor of Downham Market

Henry Bellingham MP, John Craythorne, John W Doyle, Mayor of Downham Market

There were static displays of telescopes and Astronomical equipment, a scale model of the solar system, information on the sun and some excellent pictures of the partial solar eclipse from 20th March 2015.

There was great advice available about what sort of telescope to choose for a beginner and how to take photographs of the moon and stars.