Faulkes Telescopes - Brian Thomas Brian updated us about the situation with the Faulkes telescopes. FTS will be out of action for some time while the damage to the electrical systems caused by the lightning strike are repaired. FTN is recovering from the earthquake, but should be back in action sooner than FTS.
The proposed date for a new session with FTN is 18/1/2007 if a midweek session is chosen or 20/1/2007 if we want to try & arrange to go to The Learning Space for the session.
Brian showed us three ARP objects that we might go for, none of which have been imaged before. The general feeling of the members present was that we should select one of them and do a series of differing exposures so we have a baseline for future observations.
The Shaw Prize - Lesley Milner Lesley gave a short presentation on the Shaw Prize, astronomy's equivalent to the Nobel Prize. It's worth $1 million a year and has been awarded every year since 2004. The prizes so far have been awarded for research in cosmology, extrasolar planets and the expansion rate of the universe.
Society Message Board It was proposed that we should have a message board in the members area of the website where people could say what they will be talking about at the next meeting, propose subjects they's like to hear about etc. Everyone liked the idea & wanted this to happen.
