On Monday April 10, 2017 we had the pleasure of a visit to the NMM Caird Library to look at some of the terrific books, maps, and charts related (vaguely!) to astronomy. Our visit was hosted by Louise Devoy (Curator of the ROG), Megan Barford (Curator of Cartography), and Gareth Bellis (Manager of the Library). […]
The talk to the History of Astronomy Group was a bit off-piste this time. As Eddie said in his introduction, it could be argued that the subject was neither history nor astronomy. But for a subject so central to modern astronomy any exception was well worthwhile. As well as capturing the public’s imagination as never […]
On Saturday March 25th we ran tours of the Altazimuth Pavilion (‘Altaz’) and Endeavour Room at the ROG so Flamsteed members could see these interesting spaces which are not open to the public. The tours were a try-out both to see if members were interested in this type of weekend event, and to see if […]
The ROG was preparing for new galleries called ‘Observatory Lives’ focusing on two of the Astronomers Royal, Maskelyne and Airy, and their families who lived at the Observatory in Flamsteed House. By way of contrast, Graham Dolan spoke to us about some of the nineteenth century assistants at the Observatory, people who did the work […]
A party from the History Group enjoyed a visit to the RMG Caird Library to look at a selection of rare and interesting books from the astronomy collection. The visit was hosted by Gareth Bellis and Stawell Heard of the library staff, and by Louise Devoy, Curator of the ROG. The books were divided into […]
Sir Fred Hoyle was never far from controversy and is probably most widely remembered for his passionate advocacy of a ‘steady state’ universe in opposition to the ‘Big Bang’ (a term he coined). But Fred made many breakthrough contributions to astrophysics, a point often overlooked. Malcolm’s thorough review of Hoyle’s life and work began with […]
On the evening of Tuesday 8 March, a group of Flamsteed members visited the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge. The members were treated to a short talk on the astrophysics of star formation by one to institute’s research students, Nimisha Kumari. She outlined her work comparing star formation rates between nearby galaxies to gain a […]
Our first History of Astronomy group meeting of the Flamsteed season proved to be a great success. We had about 35 Flamsteed members in attendance to hear Rory McEvoy, the Curator of Horology at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, giving a talk entitled “Just a Second..”. In his talk, Rory looked at the development of our […]
The Science Museum’s Cosmos & Culture was a ‘temporary’ exhibition opened in 2009 with the International Year of Astronomy to commemorate 400 years of telescopic astronomy. It has proved so popular that it’s still running in 2016 although scheduled to close before the end of the year. Curator Alison Boyle, who is Keeper of Science […]
Imagine being at a gathering where the guest list includes Galileo, Copernicus, Isaac Newton, Edmond Halley, Caroline Herschel and John Flamsteed. That’s pretty much what it felt like as 16 members of the Flamsteed attended our third visit to the remarkable Royal Astronomical Society library at Burlington House in Piccadilly. RAS librarian Dr Sian Prosser […]
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