After a gap of 4 years, it was a pleasure to welcome Professor Richard Crowther of the UK Space Agency back to the Flamsteed to give us an update on space debris and other issues surrounding the security of satellites in Earth’s orbit. Richard began his talk by explaining that space is becoming congested, contested […]
Dr Hiranya Peiris came to talk to the Flamsteed Astronomy Society in March 2015 about “Planck’s View of the Origin of the Universe”. Here are a few pictures from the event:
Professor Mark McCaughrean, senior science adviser, European Space Agency One of the most fascinating space missions of our lifetime was explained in one of the Flamsteed’s most fascinating lectures. Report by Andy Sawers “Many younger people talked about this being their ‘Apollo moment’,” said Prof Mark McCaughrean as he started his talk on what he […]
Galactic Planetary Science: What we’re learning about exoplanets and their atmospheres Professor Giovanna Tinetti, professor of Physics and Astronomy at University College London It’s not very many years since the first discoveries of exoplanets, planets outside our own solar system, and yet today there is already some very impressive work being done to analyse the […]
Lucie Green opened her session by saying how proud she was to be at UCL, because that was where the space research programme began back in the 1950s under Harrie Massey. He was politically-minded as well as scientifically-minded and managed to get hold of rockets that were redundant after WWII to use them for upper […]
“We have one hour to cover thousands of years of astronomy,” said Heather Couper. She and Nigel Henbest did not fall short in that challenge. Report by Andy Sawers Nigel opened the talk with a much-loved if apocryphal 19th century anecdote about a lecture given by the Astronomer Royal of that day in which he […]
Ian Ridpath gave a lecture to the Flamsteed Astronomy Society on 13 October 2014. Andy Sawers summarises his fascinating talk. Making pictures and patterns out of the stars is the ultimate game of ‘Connect the dots’ – but where did the constellations we know today come from? This was the theme of the talk to […]
Dr Ali Mozaffari’s presentation on Testing Gravity in the Solar System was the opening event of the Flamsteed 2014-15 calendar – and it really raised the bar. But this being the Flamsteed Astronomy Society, many members leapt over that bar easily. In fact, Dr Mozaffari told us later how impressed he was by the quality […]
One of the great pleasures of being a member of the Flamsteed Astronomy Society is the opportunity to chat to other members of the society about an incredibly wide range of topics. The knowledge of our membership never ceases to amaze me and has again been demonstrated by the quality of debate on our new […]
Professor Ian Crawford is Professor of Planetary Science and Astrobiology at Birkbeck College, University of London. Apollo 17 was the last space mission to the moon in December 1972. One of the astronauts on this trip, Harrison Schmitt, was the first (and so far, only) scientist on the Moon; having gained his PhD is Geology […]
