Three members of our society, David Taylor, Graham Salmon and Phil Wallace attended the funeral of Bob Barrett on the 31st January 2006. We have bid farewell to valued member and our thoughts are with his family.
The Red Spider Nebula - Robin Waddling This is a bipolar planetary nebula (ngc 6537) in Sagittarius. Its has been imaged by the EA ISO and surprisingly the infra-red image contains emissions that are characteristic of carbonates such as calcite and dolomite. This is a real challenge as it is virtually universally accepted that such materials can only form in an aqueous environment. It has been estimated that this nebula contains some thirty Earth masses of carbonate. Astronomers appear to have discounted the idea that this carbonate was formed in a planetary system around the central star. Two good sources of information are Space.com and ESA.
AstroFest 2006 - Lesley Milner Lesley reported back on her visit to this year's event in London. She showed slides of the lecture hall and various trade stands and brought back numerous items for members to examine and borrow.
IRIS and FTN - Robin Hughes Robin showed us various images that he had processed from FITS data using the IRIS software and its digital development processing. Robin has written a guide to using this software which will be available shortly in the Members Area. Target objects were then selected for our viewing with The FTN in March. Details will also be posted in the Members Area.
