Meeting Report by Arshad Aleem
It was an engaging talk by the Carl Sagan of Pakistan: Umair Asim! The whole talk was a Q&A session where members of Lahore Astronomical Society were asking questions on any area of Astronomy. The talk included discussion about discovery of Asteroid and Solar System, Milkyway's own supermassive black-hole Sagittarius A* and the M-87 supermassive black hole. Concept of black hole, its Event Horizon was also described. What would happen to Solar System's planets and to their orbits if the Sun is supposedly replaced by a same massed Black hole. Life cycle of star and formation of Iron in massive star’s core were also shed light upon. Chandrasekar limit and Supernovae were also chattered upon. It was interesting to know that type 1A supernova never changes its luminosity and is a distance measuring scale for Astronomers. Q&A lasted a long time even after the session ended!
Current level of curiosity about Astronomy in people - specially kids - indicates a better future for Astronomy.
We should acknowledge the efforts put forth by LAST's Senior members and specially sir Umair Asim who make their telescopes, home observatory - and all possible resources dedicated for making Astronomy reachable for general public. After each meeting, interested participants view the Astronomy books available at the observatory, and can also borrow the books for limited duration.
Every talk is followed by a telescopic observation.. This time we looked at the moon with 10 inch aperture dobsonian telescope.
Thanks to our event manager - Âlpha Bhatti - for managing it well.