The World’s Biggest Telescope

About this month’s speaker

Our speaker this month is Bill Barton.

Bill Barton left Secondary School in 1979 with ‘O’ level qualifications. After a four year apprenticeship in Signal Engineering with British Rail he held multiple signal engineering positions until early retirement from Network Rail in 2014.

He joined the British Astronomical Association in 1984 and took part in and contributed to their Solar Section between 1990 and 2000, also sharing his observations with the Solar Division of the American Association of Variable Star Observers. Other favourites are observing eclipses, transits and planetary conjunctions.

In 2002 he was a founder member of Society for the History of Astronomy and was also elected Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. The next year saw him licensed to operate the Orwell Park refractor (IAU observatory no. 582) on behalf of the Orwell Astronomical Society (Ipswich), which he had joined several years earlier.

In 2017 and 2019 he received the SHA Roger Jones award for contributions to their ‘County Survey of Astronomers’.

An early foray into astronomical history was a biography of Charles May, and more recent work has been on Alice Grace Cook and Fiammetta Wilson.

Bill has a particular soft spot for classic refracting telescopes such as the Swift model 831 and Carl Zeiss Telementor as well as Questar Maksutov Cassegrains. He owns some astronomical antiques, usually eyepiece micrometers, planispheres or similar teaching aids. He has more old astronomy books than he likes to admit to.

In January 2020 he was appointed as the Deputy Director of the British Astronomical Association Historical Section.

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Anyone is welcome – beginner or expert – and there is no need to pre-book. A small charge applies to help us cover costs (typically £3 for non-members; £2 for NEAS members; U16s free). Doors open at 7.30pm with the talk starting at 8.00pm.

Note that if you are using satnav system, the postcode may not take you directly to the hall – please check this Google Maps link if you aren’t sure: https://goo.gl/maps/fNxmg9qnAYm

Covid Precautions

• You are encouraged to wear a mask and you are asked to be respectful and sensitive to the medical circumstances of others
• What to do if you have coronavirus (COVID-19) or symptoms of COVID-19
  The NHS says:
  While you’re no longer legally required to self-isolate if you have COVID-19, you should try to stay at home and away from others to avoid passing on the virus.
  Try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people if you:
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• If you have Covid symptoms and have not taken a test, please do not attend.
• There will be a section of the Hall for exclusively mask wearers. If you are wearing a mask you may of course sit where you want but if you are not wearing a mask do not sit in the masks only area. We have vulnerable people in our club and we want to make our meeting accessible for them.
• We will ventilate the Hall to the best of our ability.