An evening of short talks presented by Wolvas members. Roger Metcalfe: Binary Stars. Duncan Willis: Astronomical Navigation - The history and application of astronomical co-ordinates.

Following on from part one, this talk looks at the trailblazing women working in astronomy after Caroline Herschel, through the Victorian era and into the modern day. It covers some of the challenges women faced during this time period, particularly around education. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the planned talk for this date has been postponedWe are […]

Black Holes - are they really that bad? Black holes have got a pretty bad rap from films and books, being looked on as terrifying objects that suck spaceships and astronauts to their doom. Are they really that bad? How are they made? Can you escape from one?

In 1705, Edmond Halley liberated humanity from the belief that comets were portents of doom; two centuries later, when Halley’s Comet returned to its perihelion, newspapers, misguided theorists, and shameless con men managed to reignite that fear. When astronomers announced that the earth would pass through the comet’s tail, opportunists exploited human anxiety—often with fatal […]

Gary Palmer is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and Assistant Director of the Equipment and Technical Section of the British Astronomical Association. Gary has been interested in Astronomy since childhood and now works as a professional in the industry giving talks across the globe, he is widely regarded as one of the best […]

Although it took only three minutes to make our Universe (see 'Beginning of Everything' given to Wolvas in Jan 2021) it will take more than a trillion trillion years for it to come to an end. This talk looks at what will happen to the Earth, the Sun and the galaxy on timescales ranging from […]

Take a tour of what lies beyond our solar system in our Milky Way Galaxy and to the far reaches of our Universe. NOTE: The speaker will be presenting this talk remotely, via Zoom and will not be attending in-person at the University of Wolverhampton.

The usual story told of the end stage of giant stars is that they either finish up as a neutron star or collapse completely to a black hole. However, in this talk Paul looks at the possibility for other extremely exotic forms of matter which may add to the picture – and how the latest […]

Light Pollution was first identified as a problem by astronomers, but its consequences reach far wider. It is now widely recognised that artificial light at night, especially bright white light, can have profoundly negative effects on human health, and this is just the tip of an iceberg of harm. The effects on wildlife have been […]