Society member Linda Manas presents a talk on Trigonometry in Astronomy: Measuring the Earth and the Moon. Linda will discuss early trigonometrical methods of finding the Earth’s tilt, latitude and circumference, the use of trigonometry and lunar and solar eclipses by Aristarchus and Hipparchus to find the distance to and size of the moon, and […]

Most of the UK population live either in a city or town, or near enough to one, that light pollution is a problem for both observers and imagers. Robin Scagell, Vice President of the SPA, has seen the problem escalate over the years. But whether you are a visual observer with a small telescope, or […]

I am the ninth director of the British Astronomical Association's Historical Section. The first director was a solar astronomer called Mary Evershed (nee Orr). She was the editor of the historical section's first memoir, Who's Who in the Moon - a series of potted biographies of everyone who had a lunar crater named after them. […]

This talk will explore the Space Shuttle, from its origins, its missions, how it contributed to astronomy and on to current and future Shuttles.

A look at the birth, life and death of stars. What are the three factors (the ABC) that determine why stars are the way they are and why they evolve the way they do? Note: Dr Barrett will be presenting his talk remotely over Zoom

Have you ever looked at the clouds and wanted to throw your expensive equipment in the bin? Here in the UK, much of the time, a cardboard tube would be as effective as a Takahashi – cloud, rain, light pollution: it is enough to make you scream! How about the cost of all that astrophotography […]

'Nova Corona Borealis 1866 was the first Nova to have its spectrum examined.  Eighty years later in 1946 the Nova erupted again, causing great excitement.  Now, after a further eighty years of observations in all wavelengths, we eagerly await the next eruption.  This is the story of its discovery in 1866 and 1946, and what we might […]

Special Relativity Without the Maths (or How to Fit a Metre Stick into a Matchbox)You might think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s. You might even have noticed the faster you run, the quicker you get there. Have you ever noticed the faster you run, the closer the chemist gets? No? […]

NASA’s JUNO mission was launched in August 2011 and has been in orbit over Jupiter’s poles since 4th July 2016, its mission to understand the origin and evolution of the planet. Underneath its dense cloud cover, Jupiter safeguards secrets to the fundamental processes and conditions that governed our solar system during its formation. As our […]

This talk will investigate the astronomical alignments at Stonehenge - both those that are academically accepted and also some others not generally known about. Do they all exist? Are they accurate? Was there really an eclipse prediction mechanism? The Altar Stone has recently been found to have been sourced from somewhere in NE Scotland and […]

101 years ago, a 24-year-old English woman had her astrophysics PhD published based on her work at Harvard College Observatory. It bought together 50 years of effort by Harvard’s computers and shattered the contemporary view of stellar astronomy. The talk guides you through these 5 decades and the trials and tribulations for the women involved. […]

The light from stars is intercepted by molecules in deep space but we do not know what the majority of these particles are. They appear as absorption features in the spectra of stars and are therefore called "Diffuse Interstellar Bands". They were first discovered by  Mary Lea Heger around 1920, a find, I would argue, […]

Pluto was recognised as a planet in 1930 but appeared to be alone until 1978. The discovery of a large moon, Charon, changed our perspective. With the flyby of the New Horizons probe more moons were discovered, and along with them new mysteries and new clues about this interesting system of small worlds in the […]