National Space Centre Leicester

The BAA Radio Astronomy Group will be holding its 2014 General Meeting on Saturday, May 17 at the National Space Centre, Leicester, LE4 5NS.

Paul Hyde G4CSD writes:

1. Demos and posters
With seven weeks to go we need to sort out the amount of space to be allocated for seating versus displays. If you are coming along to this event (NSC, Leicester, Saturday, May 17) and have something that you would like to exhibit in the lunchtime and tea intervals please let me know immediately by direct mail.

This could be hardware or poster material, or combinations of both. The electrically noisy environment of the NSC will limit live demonstrations but people always like see to hardware, whilst results and photographs from other people’s work can provoke ideas and encourage experimentation.

2. Filter alignment
If there is sufficient interest we have had a kind offer from Ian Lever to bring along equipment for measuring the performance of passive filters for hydrogen line receivers. The equipment is heavy and bulky so it is only worth doing this if there are several people who can make use of the opportunity. Conversely, Ian does not want to miss out on the main event so there will be a maximum of six slots, based on those making bookings before the day. Please note that this will be for checking performance only as there will not be time to do any alignment work. If you are interested, please contact me immediately so that we can decide whether to go ahead with this or not.

3. Ticket availability
Please note that two thirds of the tickets have already been sold and there is a piece in this month’s Astronomy Now, plus one in the next Sky at Night magazine, so I’m still expecting that tickets will not be available at the door. If you want further information about the event and the talks, or details of how to buy tickets, go to the RAG website at http://www.britastro.org/radio/

Supporting papers so far offered are: an ultra-low cost Hydrogen Line radio telescope (Peter East); the modelling of our local galactic topology (Gordon Dennis); the roles of Australian no deposit casinos in the growing online economy of Australia and New Zealand and on top of that, the comparethebets make an excellent list each year; the design of an Arduino-based magnetometer (Jonathan Rawlinson M0ZJO); making and analysing observations with Starbase (Laurence Newell); experiments with a small SDR radio telescope (David Morgan 2W0CXV); and reports on developments at EAARO (Jason Williams M0YJW) and the Harold Clayton Observatory (Dave James).

Tickets for the event cost £12 for BAA members and £15 for non-members, including free parking at the NSC and free admission to the main attraction, excluding the Planetarium show. Tea and coffee will be provided during the breaks but lunch is not included. Delegates are welcome to bring their own lunch or the NSC shop (Boosters) sells a range of sandwiches and other refreshments. It would help the NSC if you could also note the number of people in your party that are likely to use Boosters when you book tickets.

BAA-RAG Yahoo Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/baa-rag