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:
“Welcome to the first event at our new training centre!”… a tongue-in-cheek opening line from Rupert to introduce the first Flamsteed member’s event to be held at Mycenae House in Blackheath. In truth, we have been looking around for an additional venue to hold workshops for Flamsteed members, as, though the Royal Observatory is an […]
Looking around the galleries at the Royal Observatory Greenwich today, you’d be forgiven for not knowing about the work of the Magnetic and Meteorological departments in Greenwich. Understandably, the focus of the galleries is on the determination of time and the contribution of the Royal Observatory to positional astronomy in order to assist navigation. The […]
Our Blackheath observing session started early this month in order to catch the conjunction of Mars and Venus. Despite having to cancel on Friday we benefitted from mostly clear skies on Saturday. The conjunction did not disappoint and was clearly visible as was the distinctive orange colour of Mars. Above the two planets was the […]
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 […]
We have come to expect Eddie’s talks to be well-researched, thorough, and challenging. This talk didn’t disappoint. As Eddie said in his introduction, this was not a talk about astronomy, it was about optics, and Eddie was on home ground – much of his professional career was in the field of optics. And 2015 has […]
Brian Blake kindly arranged for us to visit the impressive Royal Astronomical Society Library where we were met by librarian Sian Prosser. Sian gave us a short introductory talk about the RAS and its activities. The RAS was founded in 1820, partly in response to the tyrannical rule of Sir Joseph Banks over the Royal […]
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 […]
Saturday the 10th was the date for our inaugural observing and imaging event under Chris Mann’s personal piece of Kent darkness and did not disappoint. The plan was to view, and hopefully capture, Comet 2014/Q2 Lovejoy. The Comet was ideally placed in the sky at just over 40 degrees altitude and due to cross the […]
Our scheduled observing session on the 19th coincided with a spell of clear skies that offered good seeing and a little bit of breeze to keep the dew away. Despite the best efforts of the Shard, which was lit up like the proverbial Christmas Tree. We were able to observe a selection of deep sky […]
