In wonderful sunshine, club member Dr Geoffrey Bath gave a demonstration into how gravitational fields are formed in cataclysmic variable or CV stars, which consist of a primary white dwarf and a secondary mass transferring star.

Doctor Bath has lectured in physics at Merton and Wolfson Colleges, Oxford University, and worked as a research fellow with Nasa at Princeton University in America.

His complex experiment, using vessels containing water, elastic and a siphon, attempts to simulate and explain gravitational anomalies found in certain types of stars.

Dr Bath admitted that his work has no practical applications and isn't going to make him into a millionaire.  Commodore Melita Biggs thanked him very much for a very interesting and informative talk.