An outline of some key aspects of Messier’s life and achievements, an illustration and assessment of the nature, distribution and discovery of the various Messier objects in the sky, and a demonstration of how they display the form of the Milky Way above our heads.Steve

A talk on how astronomy has influenced Masonic Ritual, with an overview of Freemasonry, its history, structure and rituals, including astronomers and astronauts who were, or may have been, Freemasons.

Many great civilisations flourished in the ancient Mediterranean. This talk takes us on an astronomical journey to Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia and the empires of Byzantium and Arabia. We will also visit Europe during the Renaissance. These were very varied civilisations, each with their own interpretation of the night sky. Our modern view of the stars […]

Noisy Data: Listening to astronomical observations

Paul Pope Memorial free public lecture. Space - The Fuel Cell Frontier.The story of the development of the Hydrogen fuel cell from the discovery of Hydrogen through to future prospects. This event is open to all but you need to register for a FREE ticket via Eventbrite. https://paulpopelecture2023.eventbrite.com

Peter's talk 'Imaging from Light Polluted Cities' is a look at how to image from urban sky glow using a scope and specialist Astro camera. This will include the reasons for choosing a cooled monochrome camera and filters, image calibration, noise reduction, image capture and processing. The talk will be illustrated with many images taken […]

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 […]