Jane was given a good telescope twenty years ago, shortly after completing a part-time MBA. She quickly discovered that astronomy is much more fun than business administration. She has freely borrowed form her training and experience as an engineering physicist to look for ways to “push out the envelope” of what amateur astronomers can do for themselves. She has written books on mapping the solar system, imaging the solar system, photographing galaxies from light-polluted skies, and is now engaged in a quest with her friend David Bennett to measure distances to nearby stars.
Abstract:
It is much more satisfying to work out the orbits planets and moons for yourself than to take somebody’s word for it. For the most part, the maths is simple enough to be within reach for anyone with A-level maths. Jane has measured out the orbits for every planet except the hard-to-see Mercury; and for the brightest moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and of course the Earth. Mars is a much greater challenge. That required serious, grown-up maths, because the orbit is strongly elliptical and not even almost circular. As a natural outgrowth of this activity, Jane is now trying to measure distances to some nearby stars. Now there’s a challenge!