Nominations are now being invited for RAS medals and prizes to be awarded in 2013. The deadline for nominations is 31 July 2012 for most awards, with the exceptions of the Patrick Moore Medal which has a deadline of 28 September 2012 and the Winton Capital Awards which have a deadline of 19 October 2012.

Please submit nominations for the Awards and Medals which will be made in 2013, which are listed below. Anyone may submit a nomination for an award - it is not necessary to be a Fellow of the RAS. Some awards are made in both 'A' (astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology etc.) and 'G' (geophysics, solar-terrestrial physics, planetary science etc.) subject areas - those marked (A & G) have one award in each area.

And the following Named Lectures:

Note there are two "G" lectures. The lecturers will be chosen in parallel each year.

Nominations should list the nominee's relevant achievements. The Awards Committees attach greater weight to more-detailed cases and factual content – for example, a full CV, a short list of key publications (preferably with bibliometric [citation] data), and, particularly, co-ordinated supporting statements from one or two colleagues, will each greatly strengthen a case. All nominations are made in strict confidence; nominees should not be apprised of submissions in order to avoid unnecessary disappointment.
Unsuccesful nominations from the last two awards cycles, usually, are automatically re-considered. Repeat (or duplicate) submissions carry equal weight. Special conditions apply for nominations of current members of the RAS Council (contact the Executive Secretary for details).

Applications are invited for the position of Events and Awards Officer at the Royal Astronomical Society. The Events and Awards Officer is responsible for organisation and support of RAS activities including public lectures, scientific meetings, the confering of awards and grants, and the meetings of Council and the committees (see full job advert below).

The position will be available from late August/early September 2012. The deadline for receipt of applications is 18 July 2012.

Job advert

A team of astronomers have used the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) on Hawaii to discover four pairs of stars that orbit each other in less than 4 hours. Until now it was thought that such close-in binary stars could not exist. The new discoveries come from the telescope's Wide Field Camera (WFCAM) Transit Survey, and appear in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

This artist's impression shows the tightest of the new record breaking binary systems. Two active M4 type red dwarfs orbit each other every 2.5 hours, as they continue to spiral inwards. Eventually they will coalesce into a single star. Credit: J. Pinfield, for the RoPACS network. Click on the image for a high resolution version.About half of the stars in our Milky Way galaxy are, unlike our Sun, part of a binary system in which two stars orbit each other. Most likely, the stars in these systems were formed close together and have been in orbit around each other from birth onwards. It was always thought that if binary stars form too close to each other, they would quickly merge into one single, bigger star. This was in line with many observations taken over the last three decades showing the abundant population of stellar binaries, but none with orbital periods shorter than 5 hours.

For the first time, the team have investigated binaries of red dwarfs, stars up to ten times smaller and a thousand times less luminous than the Sun. Although they form the most common type of star in the Milky Way, red dwarfs do not show up in normal surveys because of their dimness in visible light.

For the last five years, UKIRT has been monitoring the brightness of hundreds of thousands of stars, including thousands of red dwarfs, in near-infrared light, using its state-of-the-art Wide-Field Camera (WFC). This study of cool stars in the time domain has been a focus of the European (FP7) Initial Training Network 'Rocky Planets Around Cool Stars' (RoPACS) which studies planets and cool stars.

"To our complete surprise, we found several red dwarf binaries with orbital periods significantly shorter than the 5 hour cut-off found for Sun-like stars, something previously thought to be impossible", said Bas Nefs from Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands, lead author of the paper. "It means that we have to rethink how these close-in binaries form and evolve."

Since stars shrink in size early in their lifetime, the fact that these very tight binaries exist means that their orbits must also have shrunk as well since their birth, otherwise the stars would have been in contact early on and have merged. However, it is not at all clear how these orbits could have shrunk by so much.

One possible answer to this riddle is that cool stars in binary systems are much more active and violent than previously thought.

It is possible that the magnetic field lines radiating out from the cool star companions get twisted and deformed as they spiral in towards each other, generating the extra activity through stellar wind, explosive flaring and star spots. Powerful magnetic activity could apply the brakes to these spinning stars, slowing them down so that they move closer together.

"Without UKIRT's superb sensitivity, it wouldn't have been possible to find these extraordinary pairs of red dwarfs", said David Pinfield. He adds: "The active nature of these stars and their apparently powerful magnetic fields has profound implications for the environments around red dwarfs throughout our Galaxy."

An image accompanying the release can be downloaded from http://star-www.herts.ac.uk/~dpi/close_mdwarfs.png

Caption: This artist's impression shows the tightest of the new record breaking binary systems. Two active M4 type red dwarfs orbit each other every 2.5 hours, as they continue to spiral inwards. Eventually they will coalesce into a single star. Credit: J. Pinfield, for the RoPACS network

Dr Robert Massey
Royal Astronomical Society
Tel: +44 (0)20 7734 3307 / 4582 x214
Mob: +44 (0)794 124 8035
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Bas Nefs
Leiden Observatory
Tel: +31 (0)71 527 8439
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Dr Jayne Birkby
Leiden Observatory
Tel: +31 (0)71527 5832
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Dr David Pinfield
University of Hertfordshire
Leads the European ROPACS network: http://star.herts.ac.uk/RoPACS/ and is co-PI of the WFCAM Transit Survey (WTS).
Tel: +44 (0)1707 284171
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Dr Simon Hodgkin
Institute of Astronomy
University of Cambridge
(Co-PI of WTS)
Tel: +44 (0)1223 766657
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(http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/)

The team publish their work in the paper, "Four ultra-short period eclipsing M-dwarf binaries in the WFCAM Transit Survey", S. V. Nefs et al, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, in press. A preprint of the paper can be downloaded from http://arxiv.org/abs/1206.1200

With a 3.8 metre diameter mirror, the UK Infrared Telescope (UKIRT: http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/UKIRT/) is the second largest dedicated infrared telescope in the world. Sited at an altitude of 4200 m on the top of the volcano Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii, it began operations in 1979. UKIRT is carrying out the UKIRT Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS: http://www.ukidss.org/) searching for objects from nearby brown dwarfs to distant quasars. In 2012 the UKIDSS team received the RAS Group Award.

The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS, www.ras.org.uk), founded in 1820, encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. The RAS organizes scientific meetings, publishes international research and review journals, recognizes outstanding achievements by the award of medals and prizes, maintains an extensive library, supports education through grants and outreach activities and represents UK astronomy nationally and internationally. Its more than 3500 members (Fellows), a third based overseas, include scientific researchers in universities, observatories and laboratories as well as historians of astronomy and others.

Follow the RAS on Twitter via @royalastrosoc

The July and August digest of upcoming space and astronomy events, from the RAS. Events in the next two months include the EWASS conference in Rome, the landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars, an occultation of Jupiter by the Moon and the departure of the Dawn mission for the dwarf planet Ceres.

EWASS will bring together more than 650 astronomers and space scientists for one of the largest astronomy meetings in Europe. The conference includes sessions on science with the European Extremely Large Telescope and the Square Kilometre Array, solar physics, the evolution of galaxies and the universe, and results from Herschel and ALMA. EWASS is organised by the European Astronomical Society and the Societa Astronomica Italiana.

A limited number of free registrations are available for accredited journalists.

EWASS home page
http://www.ifsi-roma.inaf.it/ewass2012/

CONTACT
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The launch window for the Soyuz TMA-05M mission to the ISS opens on 14 July. The Soyuz spacecraft will take off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Soyuz will carry three astronauts to the ISS as part of Expedition 32: Yuri Malenchenko from Russia, Sunita Williams from the United States and Akihiko Hoshide from Japan. The astronauts are expected to live and work on the ISS for around six months.

NASA: Expedition 32
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition32/index.html

Russian Federal Space Agency
http://www.federalspace.ru/?lang=en

For observers in southern Britain, the morning of 15 July sees the waning crescent Moon pass in front of Jupiter and its moons in a so-called occultation. These are comparatively rare events and with the right equipment can be spectacular and offer good photo opportunities for amateur astronomers.

Prospects and timings for the event vary with location. The Moon will appear to completely cover Jupiter to the southeast of a line joining Lowestoft and Weymouth. Northwest of this line observers will see a grazing occultation, where Jupiter is only partly concealed by the Moon. To the northwest of a line from Sleaford to Ilfracombe the Moon will appear to slide past Jupiter.

As the four easily visible Galilean moons of Jupiter (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto) are more or less in a line running along the lunar limb, they are occulted in a similar way. Observers along a line from King's Lynn to Plymouth see Io occulted, while observers along the Sleaford to Ilfracombe line see Callisto occulted.

The event takes place while Jupiter and the Moon are low in the sky and the sky will be brightening as sunrise approaches. According to HM Nautical Almanac Office, in London the Moon will be 10 degrees above the north-eastern horizon and from further west as low as 5 degrees. From London the occultation begins at around 0255 BST and ends at 0311 BST, whilst in for example Taunton (to the south of Bristol) the occultation starts at 0258 BST and ends at 0308 BST.

Note that although perfectly safe to observe with the unaided eye, the occultation is best viewed with at least a good pair of binoculars or better still a telescope, with which Jupiter will be seen as a disk and the Galilean moons will be easily visible.

"The grazing occultation of Jupiter on 2012 July 15", Jean Meeus, Journal of the British Astronomical Association
http://www.shindles.co.uk/ouastro/jup-occult-meeus.pdf

HM Nautical Almanac Office
http://www.ukho.gov.uk/HMNAO/

The NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission is scheduled to land on Mars on the morning of 6 August. The mission will deliver the Curiosity rover, the largest ever sent to the red planet, to a landing site near the mountain Aeolis Mons in Gale Crater, just to the south of the Martian equator.

Remote controlled from Earth, Curiosity has a mass of 900 kg, is designed to explore Mars for at least a year and will cover a minimum range of between 5 and 20 km. The mission will try to determine whether Mars could once have supported life, better understand its climate and geology and do some of the groundwork for a future human mission to the planet.

Scientific instruments on board the rover will sample the atmosphere and surface material, searching for the chemical building blocks of life, investigate the composition of rocks and soils and characterise the radiation that reaches the surface from the Sun and from galactic cosmic rays.

JPL: Mars Science Laboratory
http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/

CONTACTS

Dwayne Brown
NASA HQ
Washington
USA
Tel: +1 202 358 1726
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Trent Perotto
NASA HQ
Tel: +1 202 358 0321
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Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena
California
USA
Tel: +1 818 354 5011
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12 August sees the maximum of the annual Perseid meteor shower, predicted to be at around 1400 BST (daytime in the UK). Meteors (popularly known as 'shooting stars') are the result of small particles entering the Earth's atmosphere at high speed. In this case the material comes from the tail of Comet Swift-Tuttle, which last passed near the Earth in 1992. This shower of meteors appears to originate from a 'radiant' in the constellation of Perseus, hence the name Perseid.

The shower is active from around 17 July to 24 August, although for most of that period only a few meteors an hour will be visible. From the UK the best time to see the Perseid shower is likely to be on the morning of 12 August before dawn, when as many as 60 meteors an hour may be visible. This year prospects for the shower are relatively good, although the light from the waning crescent Moon will interfere with the view to some extent.

International Meteor Organisation: Meteor Shower Calendar 2012
http://www.imo.net/calendar/2012

The General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union meets from 20 to 31 August at the China National Convention Center in Beijing. This triennial meeting is the world's largest gathering of astronomers and space scientists, with more than 3000 delegates expected to attend.

As well as a full range of scientific presentation and discussion sessions, the General Assembly is one of the global meetings where international cooperation in astronomy is organised and where decisions on fundamental issues facing the science are taken.

Full press office facilities will be available throughout the meeting and journalists are cordially invited to attend.

IAU General Assembly
http://www.astronomy2012.org/

CONTACTS (for free media registration)

Lars Lindbergh Christensen
IAU Press Officer
Tel: +49 89 320 06 761
Mob: +49 173 38 72 621
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Ang Xu
Chinese Press Officer
Tel: +86-10-64807897
Mob: +86-13611050079
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Raquel Yumi Shida
IAU Deputy Press Officer
Tel: +49 89 320 06 177
Mob: +49 151 11 055 413
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On 23 August the window opens for the launch of the RBSP mission. This will see two space probes begin a two year mission orbiting within the radiation belts that surround the Earth, belts made up of particles held in place by the terrestrial magnetic field. The spacecraft are set to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, in the United States, atop an Atlas V-401 rocket.

Once in space, they will travel in elliptical orbits that bring them as close as 600 km and as far as 32000 km from the surface of the Earth, in order to sample the diverse regions that make up the radiation belts. By using two spacecraft, scientists hope to distinguish between belt events that happen simultaneously, those that happen at a single point and those that move from one point to another over time.

NASA Radiation Belt Storm Probes
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/rbsp/main/index.html

CONTACTS

Dwayne Browne
NASA HQ
(details above)

Susan Hendrix
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Tel: +1 301 286 7745
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Jennifer Rumburg
NASA HQ
Tel: +1 202 358 2484
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An image of a 15 km wide crater on Vesta, from the Dawn spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA The Dawn mission, a NASA spacecraft in orbit around the asteroid Vesta since July 2011, is set to depart for its next target, the dwarf planet Ceres, on 26 August. Dawn has mapped and studied Vesta in the year since it arrived, sending back the first detailed images of this small world and helping scientists to establish that it has a large metal-rich core.

The journey to Ceres, a body 975 km across, will take two and a half years, with Dawn expected to enter orbit around the dwarf planet in February 2015. The spacecraft will then study Ceres for the following five months.

Dawn Mission
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/

CONTACTS

Stuart Wolpert
University of California Los Angeles
Tel: +1 310 206 0510
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Jia Rui-Cook
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Tel: +1 818 354 0850
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D. C. Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Tel: +1 818 393 9011
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Dwayne Brown
NASA
(see above)

Information on stars, planets, comets, meteor showers and other celestial phenomena is available from the British Astronomical Association (BAA), the Society for Popular Astronomy (SPA) and the Jodrell Bank night sky guide.

BAA
http://www.britastro.org

SPA
http://www.popastro.com

The Night Sky: Jodrell Bank
http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/astronomy/nightsky/

The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS, www.ras.org.uk), founded in 1820, encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. The RAS organizes scientific meetings, publishes international research and review journals, recognizes outstanding achievements by the award of medals and prizes, maintains an extensive library, supports education through grants and outreach activities and represents UK astronomy nationally and internationally. Its more than 3500 members (Fellows), a third based overseas, include scientific researchers in universities, observatories and laboratories as well as historians of astronomy and others.

Follow the RAS on Twitter via @royalastrosoc

Professor David Flower has taken over as the new Editor-in-Chief of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS), replacing Professor Robert Carswell. Prof. Carswell has stepped down as Editor-in-Chief, a post he has held since 2008, but will remain a member of the MNRAS editorial board.

Professor David Flower

MNRAS is one of the world's foremost astronomy journals, and has been continuously published since 1827. The journal publishes peer-reviewed scientific papers in all areas of astronomy and astrophysics. Papers submitted for publication are considered by an editorial board (currently consisting of 16 editors), headed by the Editor-in-Chief.

David Flower is an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Durham, and is a long-standing member of the MNRAS editorial board. Prof. Flower's research interests include various aspects of the physics and chemistry of the interstellar medium, particularly the processes occurring in regions of star formation, such as shocks. He also calculates some of the basic molecular data that are required to interpret observations of atomic and molecular spectral lines.

The RAS has concluded an agreement which will move the Society's journals to a new publisher, Oxford University Press (OUP). The new publication contract was signed by representatives of the RAS and OUP at Burlington House on 27 June. OUP will take over from the current publishers, Wiley-Blackwell, from January 2013.

From left to right: Prof. Mike Cruise (RAS Treasurer), Tim Barton (Managing Director, Global Academic Publishing, OUP) and Pamela Mortimer (RAS Executive Secretary) at the signing of the new contract.

All of the Society's journals will be affected by the move: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS; including MNRAS Letters), Geophysical Journal International (GJI) and Astronomy & Geophysics (A&G). The transition is expected to be seamless for authors, referees and subscribers.

Professor David Southwood, President of the Royal Astronomical Society, commented: "Scientific communication with sound peer review and effective production and distribution is an essential component of research in astronomy and geophysics and lies at the very heart of RAS activity. I look forward to a long and productive partnership with OUP that will help us continue to deliver that aim."

Ian Russell, Editorial Director for Science at Oxford University Press, said: "The Royal Astronomical Society is at the centre of the tremendously exciting fields of astronomy and geophysics and their journals are renowned the world over. We are therefore absolutely delighted to have been selected by the RAS to work with them to further develop their important and influential journals and to have such high-quality titles joining our collection. We are very much looking forward to working with the Society to ensure the continued success of their publishing and to ensure that their titles are the journals of choice for the best research in their fields and provide even better value for subscribers."

The Royal Astronomical Society regrets to announce the death of Peter Hingley, our Librarian at Burlington House.  Peter's family have been informed and our thoughts are with them and his friends at this difficult time.

Peter Hingley - RAS Librarian

Peter was a valued and committed member of staff with an extraordinary knowledge of historical astronomical documents and will be missed by all who knew him

Scientists have discovered a new way to detect the first stars when the Universe was in its infancy at a mere 1% of its present age.

The research will be unveiled for the first time by Professor Rennan Barkana from Tel Aviv University at a conference organised by Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Liverpool and sponsored by the Royal Astronomical Society and the Science and Technology Facilities Council, bringing together nearly a hundred astrophysicists from eighteen countries to discuss the latest results on the most distant and powerful explosions in the universe, Gamma Ray Bursts.

Gamma Ray Bursts are brief, unpredictable bursts of radiation that occur anywhere on the sky and which are thought to be associated with the death of a massive star and the formation of a black hole in the early universe.

Until recently, astronomers believed that it was impossible to observe stars when the Universe was so young and just coming out of its so-called dark age - a time when the universe was permeated by hydrogen gas and before any light sources such as stars had switched on. Now, however, scientists have used powerful computer models to show that an expected difference in the speed of gas and dark matter causes the first stars to clump together into a prominent cosmic web.

"The discovery of these web-like structures now makes it feasible for radio astronomers to detect the 21-cm wavelength light from the first stars when the Universe was only 200 million years old and still emerging from its dark ages", said Dr. Barkana.

Professor Carole Mundell, from LJMU's Astrophysics Research Institute, who is the lead organiser of the conference said, "This result is very exciting because it opens a new window on an era that has always been considered challenging for observers."

LJMU scientists from the Astrophysics Research Institute are at the forefront of Gamma Ray research, with the robotic Liverpool Telescope on the Canary island of La Palma having a uniquely powerful capability to react rapidly to notifications from Gamma-Ray detector satellites - such as NASA's Swift - and catch the optical counterpart and fading afterglow of the explosion.

Professor Carole Mundell said: "Since the launch of NASA's Swift satellite in 2004, over 700 new gamma ray bursts have been detected out to the edges of the observable universe. Delegates will present the state-of-the-art in our understanding of black holes and their environments. We have an exciting agenda covering topics such as the very first stars in the Universe, the nature of space-time and the detection of exotic particles."

Professor Rennan Barkana's research results will be published on Nature online on Wednesday 20th June and in an upcoming issue.

Professor Nigel Weatherill, Vice-Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University, and Liverpool's new Lord Mayor Councillor Sharon Sullivan welcomed the scientists to the conference on Monday morning at the Maritime Museum in the historic Albert docks.

Media contact

For embargoed interviews with Professor Barkana please contact:

Clare Doran
Press and Publications Officer
Liverpool John Moores University
Tel: +44 (0)151 231 3004
Mob: +44 (0)7929 999 460
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Title: "The signature of the first stars in atomic hydrogen at redshift 20"

The full list of authors is Eli Visbal (Harvard), Rennan Barkana (Te Aviv University), Anastasia Fialkov (Tel Aviv University), Dmitriy Tseliakhovich (Caltech) and Chris Hirata (Caltech).

More information, including images, is available from
http://wise-obs.tau.ac.il/~barkana/naturez20.html

The results will be presented at the "Gamma Ray Bursts in the Era of Rapid Follow-up" conference, running from 18-22 June at Liverpool John Moores University.

Conference home page
http://www.astro.ljmu.ac.uk/grb2012/

The conference is being led by Professor Carole Mundell (LJMU). Professor Bing Zhang (University of Nevada) is the co-chair of the scientific organising committee and Dr Shiho Kobayashi (LJMU) chairs the local organising committee.

Gamma Ray Bursts were first detected in the late 1960's by military satellites monitoring violations of the nuclear test ban treaty and their existence was classified for years until they were recognised as colossal explosions at astronomical distances rather than man-made nuclear explosions in the atmosphere.

In a matter of seconds, a GRB releases as much energy as the sun is expected to emit over a lifetime of about ten billion years.

The conference is sponsored by the Royal Astronomical Society, the Science and Technology Facilities Council and Liverpool John Moores University.

The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS, www.ras.org.uk), founded in 1820, encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. The RAS organizes scientific meetings, publishes international research and review journals, recognizes outstanding achievements by the award of medals and prizes, maintains an extensive library, supports education through grants and outreach activities and represents UK astronomy nationally and internationally. Its more than 3500 members (Fellows), a third based overseas, include scientific researchers in universities, observatories and laboratories as well as historians of astronomy and others.

Follow the RAS on Twitter via @royalastrosoc

RAS Fellow Prof. Monica Grady has been made a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE), in recognition of her services to space science. Prof. Grady is a leading meteoritics scientist, with a career spanning three decades at the University of Cambridge, the Natural History Museum and now the Open University where she is the Professor of Planetary and Space Science.

Alongside her distinguished contribution to research, Prof. Grady is an enthusiast for 'science in society' and gave the 2003 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. Asteroid 4731 was named 'MonicaGrady' in her honour.

2012 Queen's birthday honours list

The Royal Astronomical Society today welcomed the in principle decision to proceed to construct the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). When complete in 2022 E-ELT will be the largest optical telescope in the world, with a main mirror 39 metres in diameter.

The decision to build the telescope, made by the governing Council of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), an international collaboration of fifteen member states, still has to be ratified by four countries including the United Kingdom. If approved, then preparation of the telescope site in Chile should begin later this year.

Artist's impression of the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) in its enclosure on Cerro Armazones, a 3060-metre high mountaintop in Chile's Atacama Desert. Credit: ESO / L. CalçadaE-ELT will observe the universe in visible and infrared light, making direct images of planets in orbit around other stars, possibly including Earth-like worlds, and studying the first galaxies that formed after the Big Bang.

RAS President Prof. David Southwood commented: "'We urge the UK Government to approve our involvement in E-ELT as soon as possible, so that British scientists and engineers can take a full role in what is set to be one of the most exciting scientific projects of the 21st century."

'The decision is good news not only for the UK but for astronomers across Europe. It is good to see Europe boldly going where others have yet to venture. E-ELT will help us answer some of the fundamental questions about the universe, from the nature of planets around other stars to the early history of the cosmos.

'World-leading projects of this kind inspire us all and are hugely effective in bringing young people into careers in science and technology. The announcement on the same day of increased astronomy content in the national curriculum recognises this. Some of the students benefiting from the new curriculum may well be among the first to exploit the new facility when it comes on line."

ESO announcement on E-ELT
http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1225/

UK Science and Technology Facilities Council press release on E-ELT announcement
http://www.stfc.ac.uk/News+and+Events/39166.aspx

Prof. David Southwood
President
Royal Astronomical Society

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For interview requests with Prof. Southwood please contact:

Robert Massey
Royal Astronomical Society
Tel: +44 (0)20 7734 3307 / 4582 x214
Mob: +44 (0)794 124 8035
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS, http://www.ras.org.uk), founded in 1820, encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. The RAS organizes scientific meetings, publishes international research and review journals, recognizes outstanding achievements by the award of medals and prizes, maintains an extensive library, supports education through grants and outreach activities and represents UK astronomy nationally and internationally. Its more than 3500 members (Fellows), a third based overseas, include scientific researchers in universities, observatories and laboratories as well as historians of astronomy and others.

Follow the RAS on Twitter via @royalastrosoc