Professor Alan Watson “Cosmic Rays”

The talk will cover progress in understanding the highest energy particles in nature. It will briefly outline the history behind the discovery of cosmic rays and explain the early efforts to understand them and will introduce the vast energy range involved and explain why we are interested in studying these particles, some of which have macroscopic energies.

The talk will describe the detection methods and the planning,construction and realisation of the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina, which covers a land-area nearly 8 times that of the Isle of Wight. It will explain how we measure the energy of the particles and describe our efforts to use them for cosmic ray astronomy.

Alan Watson:
After completing his PhD at the University of Edinburgh, where he studied the condensation of water vapour using cloud chambers, Alan moved to the University of Leeds as a lecturer in 1964.He was fortunate to join the Haverah Park group which was constructing a large cosmic ray detector on the Yorkshire Moors. After completing that work in the late 1980s, Alan led a joint US/UK effort at the South Pole to look for high-energy gamma-rays from the supernovae, SN1987A.

He then joined forces with the Nobel Laureate, Jim Cronin, university of Chicago to help create the Pierre Auger Observatory. Alan retired in 2003 and is now an emeritus professor at the University of Leeds, an honorary professor at the University of Edinburgh and a visiting professor at the University of Durham. He is also an emeritus spokesperson of the Pierre Auger Observatory. Alan was elected to the Royal Society in 2000 and awarded the Faraday Medal of the Institute of Physics in 2011.

The Vectis Astronomical Society meets on the 4th Friday of every month, except for December. This event is open for non-members to attend. The speakers come from all over the country and give a presentation for around 45 mins. We then stop for a break with tea and biscuits, which gives an opportunity to mingle and chat.

The second half of the evening sees a presentation by one of our regular members showing us what to we could see in the sky over the coming month.

This always involves some great pictures projected onto the large screen. Entry to the event is free of charge, although as we run as a charity, donations are always welcome.

Newsletters are available at the entrance for a suggested donation of £2.00

Please see our website for contact and membership details.