The Cerne Abbas Star Party 2025

Welcome to the second star party in the Dorset village of Cerne Abbas, set deep in the heart of the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and under very good Bortle class 4 skies. All proceeds this year will be split between the Cerne Abbas CofE First school, Mosaic, the children’s bereavement charity, and Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) Support UK. Please be sure to read the FAQs below.

Preliminary schedule for the event (subject to change):

Friday

Midday - gates open

6-8pm - meet and greet at the brewery taproom.

Talk - Accretion and Disk Winds from White Dwarfs to Quasars, by Nick Higginbottom

Three objects in the night sky - T- Corona Borealis, Cygnus X-1 and 3C273 - apparently very ordinary objects, but each hiding amazing secrets that have been uncovered in the past half century. In this talk we will discover more about these objects, and I’ll talk about how my time as an astrophysicist was spent trying to fit them into a unified model.

Nick obtained a degree in Astrophysics from Queen Mary University in 1993, and embarked upon a PhD in sub-millimetre astronomy. Attracted away from academia by the treasure of a proper job, he then spent time designing stealth aircraft, and then a stint teaching. After the school foolishly sent him on a course on how to teach astronomy GCSE at Greenwich Observatory, the astronauts bug infected him again, and he started a PhD in Radiation Transfer Astrophysics at Southampton University, finally graduating in 2014. He spent six months at the University of Nevada Las Vegas learning the arts of hydrodynamics before returning to Southampton to do Post Doctoral research. However, the international travel and bright lights of astrophysics proved too much - and he now works for Dorset Council, still modelling but now traffic.

Friday night - Observing

Saturday

6-8pm - Talk – Seventy years an amateur astronomer, by Geoff Kirby

Geoff Kirby is a retired oceanographic scientist who studied the influence of ocean conditions in the Northern Atlantic for the improvement of European weather forecasting computer models.

His interest in the night skies started during World War 2 in London where, as an adventurous and curious child, he was allowed to sit at night on the top of the family air raid shelter watching for approaching enemy bombers and “Doodlebug” missiles.

He built his first astronomical telescope in the mid-1950s and went on to build many larger telescopes together with a large rotating dome observatory to house them. He used these instruments for a wide variety of projects, many of which were in

collaboration with professional astronomers. His most memorable project was working with Sir Patrick Moore in the 1960s to map the Moon in preparation for the Apollo Moon landings. Geoff will describe all the above activities with a generously illustrated talk

Geoff's talk will be followed by a fantastic astro-quiz (prizes courtesy of the amazing First Light Optics!!)

Saturday night - Observing

Sunday

2-3pm - Talk – Controversies in Astronomy: Past, Present and Future, by Dr Richard Miles

People took many years to accept Copernicus’ heliocentric theory for the Solar System. Hear about this and other ideas from the past that also took years for astronomers and the public to become convinced about - rather like the global warming forecasts of today. Hear how astronomers of today also hang on to old ideas that take decades to shift. What will be our understanding of Dark Matter and Dark Energy in future - maybe the James Webb Space Telescope will reveal the truth behind these hypotheses?

Dr Richard Miles is a retired research scientist, ex-President of the British Astronomical Association and longtime specialist on asteroids and comets. He has been a keen observer, having had an observatory of sorts since about the age of nine. Having moved to Cerne Abbas three years ago he now uses telescopes over the internet and runs projects involving amateur astronomers from around the world.

Sunday night - Observing

Monday

Pack up and leave.

There'll be an astro. bring and buy sale running throughout the weekend, and Papa Cheese' Smokehouse and Grill will be serving delicious hot food throughout the weekend (Check them out on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/papacheesesgrill?