Our Solar System presented by Dr Bill Jones

I was fascinated by the night sky as a small boy – rushing out to see the first man made satellite (the Russian Sputnik 1) fly over the house – and being able to see more of the stars than we can today because there was less light pollution. Having spent over 60 years being interested in ‘space’, planets, astronomy and the science behind our, manned and unmanned, exploration of the solar system and beyond, I should like to share some of this exciting journey with you in this talk. Our solar system is a wonderful, varied, enormous, beautiful place, but it is also very dangerous. Come with me on an exploration of this (mainly empty) enormous space and see some of the sights and hear some of the facts I have uncovered in my study of ‘Our Solar System’ and our place in it on the ‘tiny blue dot’ we call Mother Earth.

Notes about the speaker: Bill is a retired Clinical Oncologist (Radiotherapist), which, as well as being a cancer doctor, required a bit of a science background in physics, radiation, chemistry, biology, physiology and the ability to use technical equipment. The excitement of the early days of space exploration in the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s, culminating in man’s first steps on the moon – as well as ‘real’ science and science fiction books, films and TV has kept my interest in all things to do with ‘space’. I am a member of the Leeds Astronomical Society, although I don’t do much observing these days.