Public talks

We meet approximately every two weeks for talks on astronomy and related topics. These talks are open to the public - no need to book.

After Easter, starting on Friday 2nd May 2025, our meetings will move to the small hall, Shirley Methodist Church, Eldon Avenue, CR0 8SD and will be held on the first and third Friday of each month. Our meetings will run, as now, from 7:30 – 9:30.

Shirley Methodist is within walking distance of Trinity School and is easily accessible by bus from East Croydon. There is parking on site but, if it is full, there is ample parking on nearby roads.

Programme

The dates for the rest of the year will be the 1st and 3rd Fridays of the month:

September 5th & 19th,

October 3rd & 17th, November 7th & 21st, December 5th & 19th.

September 5th.

Tonight Roy Easto will look at

"Cosmic Collisions: what is the possibility of a comet or asteroid impacting the Earth?"

How close have we come historically and if we identified a dangerous object what could be done to mitigate the risk"

September 19th.

Telescope workshop.

Do you have a telescope that you would like help with? Or perhaps need guidance about observing and how to start?

Tonight we will have a selection of our own telescopes for people to look at and will try to help with your problems. We hope the weather will be kind and we will be able to be outside at the Church Hall.

October 3rd.

High Resolution Solar Observing.

Simon Dawes will speak about getting the highest resolution images of the Sun from your own equipment.

October 17th.

Amateur contributions to Research in Astronomy.

Peter Goodhew will tonight talk about how in recent years amateur astronomers have been increasingly engaging in research and discovery activities. He will describe the nature of such activities, how amateurs make new discoveries and show some of the more beautiful discoveries made. Peter will further explain how such proactive research is now evolving into reactive research where amateur astronomers are responding to requests for support from professional astronomers.

Peter Goodhew FRAS has been a keen astrophotographer for the past 12 years and runs 3 remote robotic telescopes from the better skies of Spain. He also leads a collaborate network of amateur telescopes in Spain, the USA, Chile and Australia which respond to research requests from professional astronomers.

November 7th.

Tonight we welcome William Bottaci who will speak about -

Nucleosynthesis, the early years.

More accurately, the first 20 minutes of the Universe where a lot happens even in the first second.

There are 92 different atoms, elements, and most of these are here on earth, but how and where did they come from, starting from probably nothing, and how are they being formed even now? The journey to discover this takes us from one environment and situation to another and is an illustrated description using intuition and detective skills as much as the usual scientific method, where we uncover information not often in the public narrative. It's a big subject, this can run and run, and yet no technical knowledge is required.

November 21st.

Dr.George Seabroke - The Gaia mission.

One of the most important missions of the last 20 years, Gaia rewrote some of our perceived ideas about the Milky Way Galaxy. Dr.Seabroke was a lead scientist working on Gaia data at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory.

December 5th.

The Sodium Tails of the Moon and Mercury - Professor David Rees.

Sodium is deposited on the Lunar and Mercury surfaces by the impact of very many asteroidal, meteor and cometary impacts over many millennia. Solar photons and energetic particles (solar wind) have enough energy to raise the sodium atoms from the lunar surface, creating a rarified "surface-bounded exosphere"

Further impacts from solar photons/energetic particles excite and accelerate sodium atoms in the anti-sunward direction, creating an an anti-solar comet-like sodium tail.

Around the time of New Moon this tail interacts with the Earth's gravitational field, becoming focussed as it passes the Earth. It is possible to observe this gravitationally-focussed region with a sensitive camera and sodium filter as a (relatively) bright spot, directly opposite the Moon and Sun! This has been observed successfully from the UK.

This will be a Zoom presentation into the Hall.

Today marks the moment that the Bepicolombo mission to the planet Mercury enters orbit around Mercury carrying camera systems built for ESA by Prof' Rees, who was also Professor of Atmospheric Physics at UCL for 30 years.

December 19th.

Christmas meeting!

Our last meeting of 2025 and our Christmas social. There will be food of various sorts but all Christmas themed. Please note no alcohol is allowed! Come and meet your fellow members, visitors will also be very welcome, at an astronomy themed evening which is less formal.

Location

The church is between Wickham Road and Eldon Avenue, but the entrance is in Eldon Avenue.

If driving from West Wickham turn right down Shirley Avenue then first left to Eldon Avenue.
If driving from Croydon or London Eldon Avenue is a turning on the left off the dual carridgeway.
If driving from New Addington go right at the roundabout into Wickham Road, then left into Shirley Avenue then left into Eldon Avenue..

There is a small parking area in the church grounds, otherwise park on the local roads (Barnfield Avenue, Eldon Avenue or Shirley Avenue for example).

These buses stop close by and all of them connect with East Croydon Railway Station and tram stop.

119: Croydon Airport to Bromley Catch the bus at stop E1

194: West Croydon to Lower Sydenham Catch the bus at stop E1

198: Shrublands to Thornton Heath Catch the bus at stop E1

466: Caterham-on-the-Hill to Addington Village Catch the bus at stop E3

If coming from East Croydon get off at Valley Walk. This stop is on the dual carriageway. Walk up the slight hill, left into Eldon Avenue, and the church entrance is on the right.

(Note that to go back to East Croydon you will need to go to stop M (named Upper Shirley Road) in Wickham Road and catch the 119, 194 or 198 )