Wednesday 20 May, 7.15 for 7.30pm

Les Brand will present a talk entitled:

'350 years of the Royal Observatory Greenwich and my small part in its history'

To mark the 350th anniversary last year of the Royal Observatory Greenwich, founded in 1675, Les will talk about 350 years of the ROG, and also about his role there.

• Club members' slot - details tbc.

Wednesday 17 June, 7.15 for 7.30pm

Dr Matt Bothwell will present: 

'How fast is the Universe expanding?'

Outline: Around a century ago, Edwin Hubble made one of the most important discoveries in astronomical history; the Universe is expanding. Ever since Hubble, understanding exactly how fast the Universe is expanding has been one of the most important tasks in cosmology. Today, astronomers are faced with two puzzles: why is the expansion of the Universe speeding up? And why do different experiments disagree about how fast our Universe is expanding? This talk will discuss the expanding Universe, dark energy, and the ongoing 'Hubble tension' (which many people are calling a 'crisis' for cosmology!).

Biographical details:  Dr Matthew Bothwell is an astrophysicist, science communicator and author, and the current Public Astronomer at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge. He received his PhD in astronomy from the University of Cambridge, and worked as a galaxy evolution researcher for a decade before turning his love of science communication into a full-time position. He now delivers outreach to schools, runs stargazing evenings, give public lectures, and writes about all things astronomical.

The third book in his ‘Astrophysics for Supervillains’ children’s astronomy series, Mastering the Multiverse, will be published in May by Dorling Kindersley.

• Club members' slot - Peter Morris will talk about his experiences with his Vaonis Vespera

Wednesday 16 July, 7.15 for 7.30pm

Dr Lee Macdonald will present:

'Isaac Roberts, E. E. Barnard and the Nebulae'

Outline: pending.

Biographical details: Between 2020 and 2022, Dr Lee Macdonald held a research fellowship with Royal Museums Greenwich, which he used to research and write a book about the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, recently published as 'The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 1881–1939: Astronomy, astronomers and heritage in a changing world' (UCL Press, 2026).

  From 2016 to 2020, Lee worked as Research Facilitator at the History of Science Museum, University of Oxford, running the Museum’s library and archives. He is the author of 'Kew Observatory and the Evolution of Victorian Science, 1840-1910', published in 2018 by University of Pittsburgh Press. A long-time amateur astronomer, he has also written 'How to Observe the Sun Safely' (Second Edition, Springer, 2012). 

No club meeting in August; however, we are planning the event below:

Wed 12 August: an afternoon and evening of solar observing, partial solar eclipse viewing and Perseids observing at Thames Chase (this will include a BBQ and a planetarium, for which tickets will be available for purchase; the observing aspects are free of charge). We hope that members will come and help in the afternoon and attend in the evening as well. Eclipse glasses will be provided. If you think you can support us with this, or would like to know more, please contact Les Brand at lesbrand@gmail.com.

* Never look directly at the Sun, as you can seriously hurt your eyes, and even go blind. Proper eye protection, like eclipse glasses or a special solar filter, is the only safe option. *

Wednesday 16 September, 7.15 for 7.30pm

To be presented (at Thames Chase) via Zoom

Paul Money will present:

'Atmospheres of the Solar System'

Outline: Paul will explore what makes up the wide variety of atmospheres we see in our Solar System, and how unique our own atmosphere is in comparison to the rest.

Biographical details: Paul Money is a Fellow of the RAS and BIS, and has been giving talks to societies since 1982 on a wide range of astronomical subjects. He was one of three Northern Lights Flights astronomers from 2004 to 2013, and until recently was the Reviews Editor for the BBC 'Sky at Night' magazine; a position he had held for 17 years.  He is also now a self-published novelist with 14 novels covering ghost mysteries, apocalyptic and Sci-Fi topics.

Wednesday 21 October, 7.15 for 7.30pm

Steve Ringwood will give a talk entitled:

'The Unluckiest Astronomer'

Outline: By the mid-18th century, astronomers had a pretty good idea of the scale of the solar system, at least proportionally. Still needed was an absolute measurement of planetary distances. Thanks to Kepler’s 3rd Law (a simple equation relating orbital periods to a planet’s distance from the Sun) a mathematical means was already available to achieve this. All it lacked was a single accurate measurement – such as the solar parallax determined by a transiting inferior planet.

   A rare such opportunity was to occur in 1761 when Venus was set to transit the face of the Sun in June of that year. As part of a worldwide international effort comprised of about 120 observers, the French contribution fell to a minor French nobleman working at the Paris Observatory. The subsequent adventures of Guillaume Le Gentil led him to unarguably becoming the most tragi-comic hero in the history of astronomy.

Short biography: Steve became fascinated by astronomy at the age of nine, and never really grew up. During the ensuing acquisition of steadily larger instruments, Steve has always been interested in the technical enhancement of telescopic observation; this has included the enhancement of planetary detail through use of Kodak’s Wratten filters and (during those halcyon days prior to digital cameras!) use of specialised Kodak celluloid films for infra-red, ultra-violet and micrographic (high resolution) imaging. 

  In parallel with his interests in practical astronomy there runs a fascination with astronomy’s history – which has included an RAS published study of Galilean observations using an optical replica of Galileo’s third instrument. A stronger thread is an enjoyment of astronomy’s quirkier stories and many pratfalls with which the science is littered. 

  Steve has been writing published work since he was 15, and has since written articles for the journals of both the BAA and RAS, New Scientist, Modern Astronomer, Quest, Astronomy magazine and Astronomy Now (for which he is currently Equipment Editor).   

Nik Szymanek will, in future, be speaking to HAS in March; next date 17 March 2027

Wednesday 18 November, 7.15 for 7.30pm

Martin Lewis will give a talk entitled:

'Imaging the night-side of Venus'

Outline: Normally Venus’s 460°C surface is hidden from view by a thick, dense layer of cloud. Imaging at around 1000nm however this cloud layer becomes partly transparent, allowing the thermal radiation from the hot surface to be detected. This is a talk about this imaging challenge of recording the surface of this near neighbour in space and how in recent years amateurs have been able to record variations in height of the surface and other transient features. The talk is illustrated with images from amateurs across the world and by the author’s own images taken from his back garden in St Albans in 2020, 2023 and in early 2025.

Biographical details: Martin has had a fascination for all things in the sky since he was young and developed a particular love of the night sky as a young teenager. He is now the principal engineer at Scintacor Ltd, in Cambridge. Starting out purely as a visual observer, he progressed to deep sky sketching and telescope-making, building both 222mm and 444mm Dobsonian telescopes. He now concentrates on high-resolution planetary imaging from his back garden in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, with his scopes mounted on his home-built equatorial platform. 

   Martin regularly speaks about planetary imaging and also writes for Sky at Night magazine. He was shortlisted in the 'Astronomy Photographer of the Year' competition for 8 years in a row, primarily in the Planets section and has been a category winner twice – in the ‘Planets, Comets and Asteroids’ category in 2018 and the ‘Our Moon’ category in 2022. He is now a judge for the APY competition as well as a judge on The Astrophotography Prize. 

   He is treasurer of the West of London Astronomical Society (WOLAS) and an equipment advisor in the BAA’s Equipment and Techniques section, as well as assistant to the director of the Mars section.

Wednesday 9 December,

7.15 for 7.30pm

Peter Morris and Magda Wheatley presented the annual Christmas Quiz, with a break halfway through for festive nibbles.

Wednesday 21 January, 7.15 for 7.30pm

Presented (at Thames Chase) via Zoom

Dr David Clements presented:

'Venus, Phosphine and the Possibility of Life'

Outline:  In 2020 the discovery of phosphine, a potential biomarker, in the atmosphere of Venus was announced. This discovery was tested and challenged by a variety of astronomers which, in the public sphere at least, has left the status of this detection unclear. Since then, a major project has been underway at the James Clerk Maxwell telescope to monitor the atmosphere of Venus to better understand what is going on. Dr Clements presented some of the first results from this project, discuss the status of the phosphine detection and possible resolutions to the previous challenges. He then looked into some of the speculations regarding Venus cloud life and the prospects for future projects that can resolve the question of phosphine, and life in the clouds of our nearest neighbour planet.

Biographical details: David L. Clements is an Associate Professor of Astrophysics in the Physics Department of Imperial College London. He has a degree in physics and a PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College. He has worked at Oxford University, The European Southern Observatory Headquarters, near Munich, the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, near Paris, and at Cardiff University. His research is in the broad areas of extragalactic astronomy and observational cosmology, specialising in studies of dust in galaxies and the role that dusty galaxies play in galaxy formation and evolution. He has worked on the Herschel and Planck missions as well as other planned and operating space missions including SPICA, PRIMA and Euclid. He has most recently been working on astrobiology in our Solar System using millimetre telescopes to study the atmosphere of Venus. He is the author of over 400 scientific papers and also writes science fiction stories and popular science articles which have been published in Analog, Nature Futures, Shoreline of Infinity, and Astronomy Now, among others.

• Club members' slot - talk by Les Brand, entitled 'Here Comes the Sun: An Introduction to Solar Image Processing' 
  

Wednesday 18 February, 7.15 for 7.30pm

Dr Emma Curtis-Lake, University of Hertfordshire, presented:

'Early galaxies revealed by JWST and why they puzzle us'

Outline: Emma gave a talk to HAS in 2023 entitled "Webb and the most distant galaxies in the Universe" where she introduced some of the exciting discoveries we had made in the first year of science with JWST, including the most distant confirmed galaxies (at the time). She now gave a follow-up talk highlighting some of the exciting discoveries made since then from many different surveys, including the new high-redshift record and why it's puzzling to us, and a completely new class of object that might hold the answer to the question of "which came first, the chicken or the egg, the galaxy or the black hole?".

Biographical details: Emma is STFC Webb Fellow at the Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire. Her research is based on studying galaxy formation and evolution in the Early Universe. She primarily uses space-based observatories to search for and characterise galaxies inhabiting the Universe in the first billions of years after the Big Bang. She is a member of the JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) NIRSpec guaranteed time observations (GTO) team. They are observing two patches of sky that have been previously observed with many other observatories, including the Hubble and Spitzer Space telescopes. With the NIRCam GTO team, they are taking imaging and spectroscopy of objects identified with Hubble (and other observatories) and JWST. This is the JADES survey (JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey). Emma is co-lead of the target selection and data analysis sub work packages. 

Wednesday 18 March, 7.15 for 7.30pm

Jerry Workman presented:  'Solar Eclipses'

A change of talk: Dr Richard Greenwood was unable to speak on this date, due to unforeseen circumstances.  He will speak to us on a future occasion (date tbc).

Jerry Workman kindly agreed to present a talk instead, his title being ‘Solar Eclipses’.  The talk was mainly about total eclipses, and also the places where he has seen them.  We were very grateful to Jerry for stepping in at this short notice.  

• Followed by a slideshow of members' images, covering March 2025 to Feb 2026, presented by Peter Morris and Magda Wheatley

Wednesday 15 April, 7.15 for 7.30pm

Pre-recorded talk by Konrad Malin-Smith:

'Unique Nature of Radiation'

Outline: Visible light is part of radiation in general. Radiation travels at the universal speed of 300 million metres/second, and remains this value for all observers regardless of their own speed. The wave nature of light and radiation is general is relevant throughout astronomy and, with the advent of Earth-orbiting telescopes, opens many windows in observational astronomy, from infrared views through to X-ray astronomy and beyond. 

Biographical details: Konrad is known with great affection by many as a founder member of the HAS, and a regular speaker to our club.  He is a retired senior schoolteacher of chemistry and physics, and was Head of Science for a number of years. He has been a peripatetic lecturer on various astronomical topics to adult education establishments (especially in Havering) and astronomical societies around South England since the early 1970s. 

   His interests include eclipse-chasing, astrophotography, DIY, classical music, church, golf and snooker. Avoids doing housework; and especially avoids dabbling with computers!

• Followed by nibbles, to celebrate our club's 32nd anniversary.