CNAAG

CLUB NIGHT
2025-10-20 19:00 - 21:30 (Europe/London) | Methodist Hall Chipping Norton / Zoom
Methodist Hall Chipping Norton 7pm for 7.30 Start
Topics include:
Living with a large SCT,
Radio Astronomy,
An update on Recent Imaging and Observing Session

OBSERVING THE BRIGHTEST OBJECTS IN THE UNIVERSE - DR VICKY FAWCETT
2025-11-17 19:00 - 21:30 | Methodist Hall Chipping Norton / Zoom
Methodist Hall, Chipping Norton – 7pm for 7.30pm start
Summary: Almost every known galaxy contains a supermassive black hole at its heart, including our own Milky Way, which have masses millions to billions that of our Sun. Understanding how these monster black holes shape their surroundings is crucial to our understanding of how galaxies evolve. Some black holes are very energetic, launching powerful winds and jets, and are referred to as “active”. We have recently found a population of these active black holes that are extremely bright (referred to as “quasars”) and enshrouded by dust that exhibit peculiar properties. An emerging theory is that these dusty black holes represent a key stage in galaxy evolution.
DR Vicky Fawcett is an astronomy postdoctoral researcher at Newcastle University studying quasars: extremely bright galaxies powered by supermassive black holes. She is part of two major astronomy collaborations: the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), an optical spectrograph on the Mayall telescope in Arizona, and the Multi-object Optical and Near-IR spectrograph (MOONS), an infrared spectrograph soon to be installed on the Very Large Telescope in Chile.

CHRISTMAS TALK - MERCURY, METEORITES AND THE BEPICOLUMBO MISSION - DR JULIA CARTWRIGHT
2025-12-08 19:00 - 21:30 | Long Compton Village Hall
The talk explains why meteorites remain some of the most important materials for understanding the where, what and why of our
Solar System, as they preserve information about key events and processes. For Mercury, as one of the least
explored planets, we still don’t exactly know how it formed or what is going on at the surface. I’ll be
discussing how important these cosmic samples are, and how they contribute to our knowledge of how the
planets, like Mercury, formed. With the upcoming ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission on its way to
Mercury, and building off of NASA MESSENGER mission data, I’ll discuss some of the latest work being
done here at the Institute for Space, University of Leicester, in our research to understand the history of the
smallest rocky planet in our Solar System.
Dr. Cartwright is a planetary scientist, cosmochemist and expert in the study of meteorites, with research
focused on understanding the timings, formation and evolution of planetary surfaces. She uses multiple
petrological and geochemical analytical techniques to understand both large- and small-scale processes in
the Solar System.
Having worked in the field for over two decades, including many notable international research institutions,
she is currently an independent research fellow at the University of Leicester, where she is leading research
to understand the surface composition of the planet Mercury, as part of the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo team
using novel equipment at UoL. She is also involved with in-situ resource utilisation (ISRU) topics,
particularly for exploring applications to the lunar surface, as well as studies of meteorites, regoliths and
asteroids.
The talk will be in person at Long Compton Village Hall 7pm for 7.30 Start (Members Only)

CLUB NIGHT
2026-01-19 19:00 - 21:30 | Methodist Hall Chipping Norton / Zoom
Methodist Hall 7pm for 7.30
Topics TBN

SPEAKER EVENING - SUBJECT TBN
2026-02-16 19:00 - 21:30 | Methodist Hall Chipping Norton / Zoom
Methodist Hall, Chipping Norton 7pm for 7.30 start
Speaker and Topic TBN

CLUB EVENING
2026-03-16 19:00 - 21:30 | Methodist Hall Chipping Norton / Zoom
Methodist Hall Chipping Norton 7pm for 7.30 start
Topics TBN
