Next Meeting: Wednesday April 9th at 8:00pm A Decade as an ESA Director David Southwood

HAG Membership details: •£10 per year - renewable at end of July* •Non-members £2.00 first 3 meetings then annual membership subscription due pro rata for remaining meetings. •Free to under 18s and full time students. Proof of status may be required. •Under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.

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Visitors welcome - £2.00 per meeting

We, Oct 11

Richard Goodich

How the 1910 Return of Halley’s Comet (Almost) Destroyed Civilization

2024-25 Programme (subject to change)

Wed, Sep 11

Roger O’Brien

Distance Scales

Wed, Oct 9

Sam Rolfe

Raman Spectroscopy and the search for life in the Solar System

Wed, Nov 13

Robert Connon Smith

So Simple a thing as a Star

Wed, Dec 11

Jill Stuart

The governance of the "Final Frontier"

Wed, Jan 8

Martin Lewis

Planetary Imaging at the Edge

Wed, Feb 12

Quentin Stanley

The Art of (Numerical) Modelling

Wed, Mar 12

Mike Foulkes

Eclipses.

Wed, Apr 9

David Southwood

A Decade as an ESA Director

Wed, May 14

Alan Heavens

AGM followed by Light Bending in the Sky

Wed, June 11

Jerry Stone

Is Pluto a Planet?

This meeting will be held at: University of Hertfordshire Lindop Building College Lane Hatfield AL10 9AB (What 3 words: stars.stones.energetic) and simultaneously on Zoom. There is plenty of parking space around the venue which is free after 19:00

David oversaw the launch of mission as varied as the major gamma ray astronomy mission, Integral, building two instruments for NASA’s JWST, the Herschel and Planck observatories as well as GAIA, the astronomical observatory that now has inspired a scientific publication rate faster than any previous ESA mission. In the solar system, he oversaw the arrival of Cassini at Saturn and the successful landing of a probe (Huygens) on Titan as well as missions to the Moon, Mars and Venus. The talk will review some of the highs and lows of having the job “where the buck stops for European space science”.

Visitors most welcome at meetings or on Zoom

ZOOM

Visual Observing Sessions Our visual observing group is now up and running. You can learn more here or if you want to jump straight in then just complete the Visual Observing Response form below and we’ll let you know when we are next meeting. Next session - To be announced