September Meeting: Globular clusters: how to see them in a different light by David Allan

The main presentation of our September monthly meeting will be Globular clusters: how to see them in a different light by David Allan. See an overview below.

The September 2021 meeting will be a face-to-face meeting; attendees can also join in online via Zoom. Details emailed to members. Guests/visitors can contact us for Zoom details at .

Visitors are welcome to join our face-to-face or online meetings.

Please stay home and attend online if you have:
• fever or symptoms of respiratory infection (cough, sore throat, shortness of breath);
• returned from overseas in the last 14 days;
• been in close contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19: (coronavirus) in the last 14 days.

Overview – Globular Clusters: How to see them in a different light

To the casual observer, Globular Clusters are the ‘pretty faces’ of the night sky. Apart from a few bright standouts, little seems to distinguish one from another. To the scientist, they are ancient remnants of the ‘big bang’, with an accepted morphology and a settled science. These traditional assumptions are now being seriously challenged. This talk places Globular Clusters in their context, as singular members of our galaxy and reveals them to be highly individualistic and dynamic rather than static objects. These mysterious objects, hitherto somewhat neglected by mainstream astrophysics, are now receiving more attention and their story is being rewritten.
David Allan has been a member of the Astronomical Association of Queensland (AAQ) and the Brisbane Astronomical Society (BAS) for almost two decades. He was recently Visual Observing Reporter for AAQ for a period of 5 years and developed a particular interest in galactic and globular clusters.