Monthly Speaker Schedule
Due to the current Covid-19 situation, all meetings will be broadcast live online via YouTube. See our social media pages for details of how to watch the meetings
Venue: please see our ‘How to Find Our Speaker Venue‘ page.
2020
| Date | Event Description | Speaker |
| 2nd January |
New Year Quiz with Buffet, Wine & soft drinks |
|
| 6th February |
APOLLO 13 – Ingenuity & Survival 13 factors that saved 3 brave astronauts |
Dr Nigel Bannister Senior Lecturer, University of Leicester |
| 5th March |
Meeting Cancelled There will be no Gotham meeting in March |
|
| 2nd April |
Galaxies: One Gigayear at a time
|
Dr Julian Onions University of Nottingham Online Meeting |
| 7th May |
An introduction to variable star astronomy and cataclysmic variables
|
Dr Jeremy Shears
British Astronomical Association
Variable Star Section Director
Online Meeting
|
| 4th June |
Wonders of the Southern Skies
|
Professor Ian Morison University of Manchester Online Meeting |
| 2nd July |
Mars in 2020 |
Dr Richard McKim British Astronomical Association
Mars Star Section Director
|
| 6th August |
Online Meeting The centenary of the Great Debate How Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis argued the size of the Universe |
Dr Nick Hewitt
British Astronomical Association Trustee
|
| 3rd September |
Venue/ Online TBC
The Plumes of Enceladus
|
Dr Chris Arridge Reader, University of Lancaster |
| 1st October |
Venue/ Online TBC FIAT LUX 3 – The LSST Jedi The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope,the greatest survey yet |
Dr Steve Barrett Senior Research Fellow, University of Liverpool |
| 5th November |
Annual General Meeting followed by a Wine and Cheese Buffet
|
|
| 3rd December | The Vikings at Barsoom – Part 1 Orbital Operations |
Paul Money
|
2019…
| Date | Event Description | Speaker |
| 03/01/2019 | Open Evening – including a New Year quiz | |
| 07/02/2019 |
Diamonds in the Sky
White Dwarfs in Modern Astrophysics
|
Prof Martin Barstow
University of Leicester
|
| 07/03/2019 |
Beyond Pluto
New Horizons in the Kuiper Belt
|
Paul Money |
| 04/04/2019 | Gaia’s Galactic Survey |
Dr Nicholas Walton
University of Cambridge
|
| 02/05/2019 |
It’s About Time
Time’s Arrow and Time Travel
|
Prof Ian Morison
University of Manchester
|
| 06/06/2019 |
From Tycho to Newton
Foundations of modern astronomy
|
Dr Allan Chapman
FRAS
|
| 04/07/2019 |
Metal Detecting
What are metals to astronomers?
|
Dr Julian Onions
University of Nottingham
|
| 05/09/2019 |
Where Are the Aliens?
Might we be alone?
|
Prof Brad Gibson
University of Hull
|
| 03/10/2019 |
The 200 at 70
The Hale Telescope
|
Dr Steve Barrett
University of Liverpool
|
| 07/11/2019 |
Annual General Meeting
with a Wine and Cheese Social
|
|
| 05/12/2019 |
Voyages to the Sun
Probing our nearest star
|
Prof Lucie Green
University College London
|
2018…
| Date | Event Description | Speaker |
| 04/01/2018 | Open Evening – including a New Year quiz | |
| 01/02/2018 | Triumphs of Voyager – Part 2 – Where no probe has gone before | Paul Money |
| 01/03/2018 | Dark Future? Can the UK’s dark spaces survive? | Bob Mizon |
| 05/04/2018 | Jodrell Bank 60 years on | Prof Ian Morison |
| 03/05/2018 | Lucky Planet – why Earth is exceptional and what it means for life | Prof David Waltham |
| 07/06/2018 | Diamonds in the sky – White Dwarfs in modern astrophysics | Prof Martin Barstow |
| 05/07/2018 | Cassini’s final science | Dr Phil Sutton |
| 06/09/2018 | The adventures of Curiosity on Mars | Prof Sanjeev Gupta |
| 04/10/2018 | Juno – the answers | Prof Emma Bunce |
| 01/11/2018 | Annual General Meeting | |
| 06/12/2018 | Transient events in astronomy – or things that go bump in the night | Prof Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell |
2017…
| Date | Event Description | Speaker |
| 05/01/2017 | Open Evening – including a New Year quiz | |
| 02/02/2017 | Passage Graves – 6,000 year old telescopes without lenses | Dr Dan Brown |
| 02/03/2017 | Finding Exoplanets with small telescopes | Dr Peter Wheatley |
| 06/04/2017 | The Art of Astrophotography | Prof Ian Morrison |
| 04/05/2017 | JUNO – Exploring the Mysteries of Jupiter | Prof Emma Bunce |
| 01/06/2017 | Charles Messier | Dr Allan Chapman |
| 06/07/2017 | Gravitational Waves – A new tool for the study of the Universe | Dr Ed Daw |
| 07/09/2017 | Galaxy Evolution with the Hubble Space Telescope | Prof Clive Tadhunter |
| 05/10/2017 | Space Stations: From Salyut to the International Space Station | Dr Mike Leggett |
| 02/11/2017 | Annual General Meeting | |
| 07/12/2017 | Triumphs of Voyager Part 1 – Journey to Jupiter and the Splendours of Saturn | Paul Money |
2016…
| Date | Event Description | Speaker |
| 07/01/2016 | Open Evening – including a New Year quiz | |
| 04/02/2016 | The Formation of the Solar System | Dr Richard Alexandra |
| 03/03/2016 | ROSETTA – Anatomy of a Comet | Dr Colin Snodgrass |
| 07/04/2016 | Is there anyone out there? – The search for extra terrestrial intelligence in the new Millennium | Prof Ian Morrison |
| 05/05/2016 | Gamma Ray Bursts | Prof Nial Tanvir |
| 02/06/2016 | GAIA – A billion pixel survey of a billion stars | Dr Elme Breedt |
| 07/07/2016 | The Antikythera Mechanism – An ancient astronomical computer | Prof Mike Edmunds |
| 01/09/2016 | Images of the Universe -2 | Paul Money |
| 06/10/2016 | Open Evening – including a telescope surgery | |
| 03/11/2016 | Annual General Meeing | |
| 01/12/2016 | Galactic Monsters – Seyfert Galaxies, Radio Galaxies and Quasars | Dr Marek Kukula |
2015…
| Date | Event Description | Speaker |
| 03/12/2015 | “New Horizons: Pluto and the Kuiper Belt Objects” | Dr Chris Arridge |
| 05/11/2015 | 2015 Annual General Meeting | |
| 01/10/2015 | How our Galaxy came to be NOTE: This meeting is open to MEMBERS ONLY |
Dr Chris Lintott |
| 03/09/2015 | Telescope Workshop | |
| 02/07/2015 | Cold Dark Matter – is it Cold? – is it Dark? – and is it Matter? | Julian Onions |
| 04/06/2015 | The Microwave Universe | Dr Clive Dickinson |
| 07/05/2015 | Proving Einstein Right | Prof Ian Morison |
| 02/04/2015 | Images of the Universe | Paul Money |
| 05/03/2015 | Curosity and Co – The latest from Mars | Dr John Bridges |
| 05/02/2015 | Open Evening. Talks by members, plus a telescope surgery. | John Hurst |
| 08/01/2015 | It’s time for Astronomy! | Dr Roy Gretton |
2014…
| 04/12/2014 | Into the Cosmic Ocean – the Dream of Travel to the Stars | Andrew Lound |
| 06/11/2014 | 2014 Annual General Meeting | |
| 02/10/2014 | At the Edge – studying the Sun from the outer limits of the Solar System | Dr Lucie Green |
| 04/09/2014 | Members’ Evening – Visitors Welcome – Update on Observatory Project, followed by Astronomy Quiz for all | |
| 03/08/2014 | Summer Break – No Meeting | |
| 03/07/2014 | Phoenix from the Ashes – the Origin of the Chemical Elements | Prof Mike Edmunds |
| 05/06/2014 | Practical Radio Astronomy for Amateurs | Paul Hyde |
| 01/05/2014 | White Dwarf Stars | Dr Sarah Casewell |
| 03/04/2014 | Basic Astrophotography | Paul Money |
| 06/03/2014 | Stardust, Meteorites and the Early Solar System | |
| 06/02/2014 | Members’ Evening – Telescopes and Astrophotography – A Practical Evening | John Hurst |
| 02/01/2014 | Rambling through the Winter Skies | Paul Money |
2013…
| Date | Event Description | Speaker |
| 05/12/2013 | Galaxies – A Brief History | Julian Onions |
| 07/11/2013 | 2013 Annual General Meeting | |
| 03/10/2013 | Astrophotography – and How It’s Done | Nik Szymanek |
| 05/09/2013 | Members’ Evening (visitors welcome) the Observatory Project report. | One of our members |
| 01/08/2013 | Summer Break – No Meeting | |
| 04/07/2013 | Matter Between the Stars – the Physics and Chemistry of the Interstellar Medium | Dr Paul Ruffle |
| 06/06/2013 | Exploring Jupiter’s Icy Moons – the next ESA Mission to Jupiter | Dr Emma Bunce |
| 02/05/2013 | Life, the Universe and Everything | Dr Frazer Pearce |
| 04/04/2013 | 20th Century Telescopes and Technology | Dr Ken Elliott |
| 07/03/2013 | The latest from the new Mars Rover Curiosity | Dr John Bridges |
| 07/02/2013 | Members’ Evening (with an Astro Quiz Night) | John Hurst |
| 03/01/2013 | Naked Eye and Binocular Astronomy | Paul Money |
2012 and 2011…
| Date | Event Description | Speaker |
| 06/12/2012 | Climate Change and the Sun-Earth Connection | Dr Jim Wild |
| 01/11/2012 | 2012 Annual General Meeting | |
| 04/10/2012 | The Centre of our Galaxy – Black Holes, Rare Stars and Cosmic Mayhem | Prof. Michael Merrifield |
| 06/09/2012 | All about Telescopes – a Practical Evening | Members’ Evening |
| August 2012 | Summer Break – no meeting | |
| 05/07/2012 | Exodus – The Death of Stars | Paul Money |
| 07/06/2012 | Magnetism in Astronomy | David Conner |
| 03/05/2012 | Near Earth Objects: What are they and why do we care? | Josh Barker |
| 05/04/2012 | A Starry Night to Remember – Astronomy and the Titanic | Andrew Lound |
| 01/03/2012 | Parallel Universes | Dr Antonio Padilla |
| 02/02/2012 | Members’ Evening (Visitors welcome) | Open Forum and an Astro Quiz |
| 05/01/2012 | Nocturnal Landscapes and Skyscapes (The Quest for Dark Skies) | Dr Daniel Brown |
| 01/12/2011 | Fire from the Sky – the Tunguska Incident | Andrew Lound |
| 03/11/2011 | 2011 Annual General Meeting |