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Friday Club

Jul 26th 7.30pm

Doors open at 7pm. Talk starts at 7.30pm
Entry is free and open to the public, all welcome, all ages.
This month’s topic….

Black Holes: The Enigma

a new talk by…

Brian Skidmore Mission Control Lead at Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd

Black holes are the most extreme effects of gravity – objects so massive that nothing, not even light, can escape. Our modern understanding of them comes from Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, yet even Einstein denied that they could exist in reality.

The recent image of a supermassive black hole’s shadow recently announced by the Event Horizon Telescope team will undoubtedly become iconic. It is the first direct evidence of the existence of black holes, though indirect evidence has been so compelling that few astronomers have doubted their existence since Cygnus X-1 was confirmed to be black hole in 1990 (causing Stephen Hawking to concede his 1974 bet with Kip Thorne).

In this talk I’ll describe the properties of black holes, including observations of them from conventional telescopes and the Event Horizon Telescope, the revolution wrought by gravitational wave astronomy that allows the detection of colliding black holes, and where the subject may be heading.

After the break….

S America’s recent total eclipse.

Members activities, images and other and other news.

Location Map

September 21st 2019

Ten Ways The Universe Tries To Kill You!

Stephen Tonkin FRAS –The Binocular Sky, outreach

Author, observer, educator and engaging speaker on all aspects of astronomy. His popular blog and book on binoculars for astronomy was the subject of a talk here a few years ago.

After the coffee break the usual announcements and members activities.

More upcoming dates….
Sep27 – Friday Club
Oct 19 – Andrew Lound
Nov 11 – Transit of Mercury
Nov 16 – Amateur Radio Astronomy