10 July 2023
Andrew Green, ‘Space Shuttle & the International Space Station’

12 June 2023
Matthew Hoskin, ‘Observing White Dwarf Stars: A glimpse of almost everything’

15 May 2023
Dr. Ernie Hill, ‘Graphene in Space?’
A video of the zoom presentation can be viewed below.
17 April 2023
Professor Christopher Conselice, ‘Origins: The Big Bang to Intelligent Life & Everything in Between (The James Webb Telescope)’
A video of the zoom presentation can be viewed below.
13 March 2023
Professor Derek Ward-Thompson, ‘Black Holes Update’
13 February 2023
Marissa Lo, ‘The Volcanic History of the Moon’
09 January 2023
Paul Money, ‘Wonders of our Solar System’

12 December 2022
‘Members Christmas Evening’
Festive cheer! – including: a 15 minute planetarium show, (kindly set up and provided by our member, Annette Hunsley). The show was based on ‘We are Aliens’ by the National Space Centre.
Astrophotography displays by some of our members, plus a display of methods used and results achieved to take photographs of the path of the sun over a six month period using Solarcan pin hole cameras.
Discussions around a ‘beginners pack’ of information to help in finding your way around the night sky and understanding the phases of the moon and how and when this can be observed. Plus – the ‘magic’ mirror, which produces truly amazing hovering 3D images of the night sky.
14 November 2022
Professor Jeff Forshaw: ‘Black Holes: The Key to Understanding the Universe’
A video of the zoom presentation can be viewed below.
10 October 2022
Dr. Steve Barrett: ‘The Weird World of the Very Very Small’

12 September 2022
Dr. Megan Argo BEM: ‘Predictions for Astronomy in the next 200 years’

11 July 2022
Professor Ian Robson: ‘The Pluto Story’ followed by the AGM
13 June 2022
Pauline Norris, ‘Ancient Egyptian Constellations’
09 May 2022
Paul Money, ‘Triumphs of Voyager Part 2’
11 April 2022
Professor Andy Newsam (Liverpool John Moores University), ‘Astronomy and Art: Universal Appeal?’
A video of the zoom presentation can be viewed below.
14 March 2022
Martin Lunn (The Rambling Astronomer), ‘Anglo-Saxon Astronomy’
A video of the zoom presentation can be viewed below.
07 February 2022
Dr. Dimitris Stamatellos (University of Central Lancashire), ‘Exoplanet update – The search for new worlds in our Galaxy’
10 January 2022
Steve Hurley, ‘Messages From Earth’
A video of the zoom presentation can be viewed below.
13 December 2021
Dr. Steve Barrett (University of Liverpool), ‘The Science of Santa’

A talk by Dr. Steve Barrett given to the society on Monday, 13 December 2021. A video of the ‘Zoom’ presentation can be viewed here.
To view the slides from the presentation please click here.
08 November 2021
Dr. Rhian Jones (University of Manchester), ‘The Wonders of Asteroids’

11 October 2021
Andrew Lound, ‘Apollo: A Moon Odyssey’
Author and presenter Andrew Lound told us the story of the Apollo project tracing the highs and lows, the sweat and tears of the most ambitious and daring mission in history. This was a fascinating story of human achievement illustrated with images, scale models and accompanied by sound and music.

13 September 2021
Professor Isobel Hook, (University of Lancaster) ‘Supernovae and the search for Dark Energy’
12 July 2021
Rickbir Bahia, Research Fellow, European Space Agency ‘The ExoMars 2022 Mission’
15 June 2021
Dr. Clive Saunders, Centre for Atmospheric Studies, University of Manchester: ‘Atmospheric Optical Phenomena: Rainbows, Halos & Glories’
A video of the zoom presentation can be viewed below.
10 May 2021
Steve Hurley: ‘Satellite Navigation’
A talk by Steve Hurley. How satellite navigation works, its history and how it may develop further over the next 10 years. A video of Steve’s zoom presentation can be viewed below.
12 April 2021
Colin Stuart: ‘How We’ll Live on Mars’
A talk by Colin Stuart Astronomy author, writer and speaker. (given – rather appropriately, on the 60th anniversary of the first human spaceflight).

Colin’s website: www.colinstuart.net Colin’s twitter: @skyponderer Subscribe to Colin’s weekly astronomy newsletter and get a free e-book www.colinstuart.net/newsletter
08 March 2021
William Stewart: ‘The Size of Space – just how do astronomers estimate distances?’
A video of the talk can be viewed below.
08 February 2021
Professor Ian Robson: ‘The Changing Scene of Astronomy’
A video of the talk can be viewed below.
11 January 2021
Martin Kessel: ‘Introduction to Astrophotography Part 2’
Part 2 of Martin Kessel’s talk from 2019.
A video of the talk can be viewed below.
14 December 2020
Dr. Steve Barrett: ‘Star of Bethlehem’
A talk by Dr. Steve Barrett, University of Liverpool
To view the slides from the presentation please click here. (PDF opens in a new window)
A video of the talk can be viewed below.
09 November 2020
Professor Ivan Baldry: ‘Galaxy Populations and the Colour of the Universe’
A talk by Professor Ivan Baldry, Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University
A video of the talk can be viewed below.
12 October 2020
Dr. Chris Arridge: ‘The JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) Mission to Jupiter and Ganymede’
A talk by Dr. Chris Arridge, Royal Society Research Fellow and Reader in Planetary Physics, Department of Physics, Lancaster University.
A video of the talk can be viewed below.
14 September 2020
Dr. Chris Wareing: ‘Filaments, Feedback and forming the Rosette’
A talk by Dr. Chris Wareing, School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Leeds. If you would like to see a video of the talk please contact the society.

13 July 2020
Steve Hurley: ‘SETI and the Rare Earth Hypothesis’
A video of the talk can be viewed below.
For further information please visit Steve’s blog here. There is also a kindle e-book by Steve which can be purchased here.
8 June 2020
Dr. Licia Ray (Lancaster University):
‘Auroral Emissions Through the Solar System’
A video of the talk can be viewed below.
11 May 2020
Boyd Bowdish & Andrew Bradshaw:
‘The World’s Biggest Digital Camera and why the StarLink Programme is a significant Issue for it …’
‘How we look at Space and Time at VRO’ & ‘Sudden StarLink Syndrome’ An overview of the work of The Vera Rubin Observatory (with its 27-ft (8.4-m) mirror telescope and 3200 megapixel camera) given by Boyd Bowdish (How we look at Space and Time at VRO) followed by a further presentation on the effects on VRO data caused by the StarLink satellite constellation (Sudden StarLink Syndrome) by Andrew Bradshaw. Our first intercontinental talk by guest speakers from the USA and an exclusive first for our society here in the UK using Zoom video conferencing.
A video of the talk can be viewed below.
To view the slides from the first presentation ‘How we look at Space and Time at VRO’ please click here. (PDF opens in a new window)
To view the slides from the second presentation ‘Sudden StarLink Syndrome’ please click here. (PDF opens in a new window)

09 March 2020
Pauline Norris: ‘The Ancient Egyptians and their Astronomy’

A talk by Pauline Norris
10 February 2020
Dr. Rene Breton: ‘A Hitchhikers Guide to Black Holes’
A talk by Dr. Rene Breton (University of Manchester)

13 January 2020
Martin Kessel: ‘Introduction to Astrophotography’
To see Martin’s website please click here
To see Martin’s Flickr album please click here

09 December 2019
Dr. Paul Connolly (University of Manchester): ‘Saturn’s Hexagon’

11 November 2019
Professor Matthew Cobb (University of Manchester): ‘Alien Life in the Universe’

14 October 2019
Steve Hurley: ‘Dark Matter & Dark Energy’
A talk given to the society on Monday, 14 October 2019
To see Steve’s blog spots on these subjects please click here for Dark Matter and here for Dark Energy

09 September 2019
Dr. Steve Barrett: ‘The Great Moon Hoax’
A talk given to the society on Monday, 09 September 2019
To see a video presentation of the talk please click here
To view the presentation handout please click here
[This content has been kindly provided by Dr. Steve Barrett]
