With the help of Bernard Bryant (Store Manager) and Louise Devoy (Curator of the ROG) we were able to take two dozen FAS members to see behind the scenes at Kidbrooke, a secure storage site not normally open to the public. Bernard greeted the group with a short history of the site (it began life […]
Well, you’ve got to love astronomy in the UK… don’t you?!… don’t you?!?!?!? A very frustrating couple of hours on Blackheath on Saturday evening. Nick and I had been discussing the weather for most of the day (in the absence of anything productive to do) and decided at 3pm that we would go ahead with […]
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 […]
The mainstay of our History Group programme has been the impressive knowledge and talent of our own members. Bill’s talk added significantly to this growing tradition – Bill has special insights into the history of the telegraph network, the ‘Victorian Internet’, and he linked these to the development of Longitude determination and the ties 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 […]
At our last Flamsteed committee meeting in May, Nick Phillips proposed that we set up a series of “members only” solar viewing events at the Royal Observatory Greenwich to take advantage of the equipment that we have available and to promote interest in solar observing amongst the Flamsteed membership. We’ve been running public sessions at […]
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 […]
About 30 members came along to our last History Group lecture evening of the 2013/4 season. We were treated to two talks, each by a very knowledgeable member – scholars and gentlemen both! Mesopotamian Astronomy – Tim Newling Tim Newling kicked off and spoke about ‘Mesopotamian Astronomy’. Tim is a long-standing Flamsteed member and spends […]
Professor Louise Harra is professor of solar physics at UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory and came to the Flamsteed to talk about the current solar cycle and why it might (or might not!) be unusual in comparison to previous solar cycles. Louise started with an explanation of solar cycles. Solar cycles have been known about […]
