Astrofest 2014

Astrofest, a two-day convention held every year at Kensington Conference and Events Centre, has once again drawn to a close. The highlight of this event, as with the past few years, was the presence of Queen legend and astrophysicist, Brian May. However, the rest of the conference itself certainly did not pale in comparison: the exhibition hall was packed with astronomy enthusiasts, publishers, and quite a few families.

Adam, explaining galaxy simulations

The schedule was also quite tightly packed with a number of exciting talks throughout. I particularly enjoyed Sanjeev Gupta's talk on Curiosity, the new Mars Rover. It's a very weird thought, that there are 300 scientists who everyday watch videos of scenery on our neighbour planet, and are constantly searching for anything which might teach us more about the history of this red planet. Sky@Night Presenter Chris Lintott, who ended the conference with a spectacular talk on whether the Milky Way is special or simply a normal galaxy, was another high point of the two days. Unfortunately, I couldn't attend many more of the talks, as I was busy helping out at the University of Central Lancashire's (UCLan) exhibition stand.

Even under-5s took our quiz!!

Every year a UCLan Astronomy team makes the trip to Astrofest, and it was clear from the massive crowds the stall attracted, that frequent Astrofest attendees look forward to seeing us there. Our main motivation for this presence is to promote the Astronomy Distance Learning program, however we also like to meet up with current and former DL students, advertise the research being done at UCLan (including my own of course) and get people to take our Astronomy quiz, which is a wee bit of fun. This year we were also working on upping our media coverage: our astronomy institute now has its own Twitter feed and Youtube page. I'm looking forward to seeing my interview on the latter later this week :D.

Having just moved to the London area, Astrofest hid a few more motivations for me than previous years. I got the opportunity to meet some local astronomy enthusiasts, and there may be at least one astronomical society that I visit in the near future. As I'm also looking for a job, this was a great opportunity to find out what non-academic, astronomy based possibilities are available. Finally, the best point for me was having a bit of a chat with both Brian May and Chris Lintott, after they had finished dealing with the public. It felt a bit like I was a groupie with a special backstage pass :D

Brian and Chris, signing for the public

So all in all, this was a great Astrofest. Even though I have almost finished my time with UCLan, I hope in future years I'll still be able to attend, and who knows?? One day I might get my own invite to give a talk at this conference.

Thanks Robin Rees, for giving me
an awesome book to sign!!

My own personal signatures :D