23-24 meetings

13th October 2023
Graham Young, DAS
“New Dog on the Block”

Graham will talk about his love of astronomy, his love of books, and of course his love of astronomy books. He will also explain why books are still important today.

27th October 2023
Eugene Vasiliev, University of Edinburgh
“Life and Adventures of Binary Supermassive Black Holes”

This talk will look at the lifecycle of binary supermassive black holes: how they form in galaxy collisions, how they kick surrounding stars out of the galaxy, how they eventually merge, and how we can find these exciting objects.

10th November 2023
Derek Mcleod, University of Edinburgh
“The first year of JWST: The remarkable progress in our understanding of galaxies in the distant Universe”

In its first year of operation, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has already provided some truly remarkable results, demonstrating its ability to push the frontiers of extragalactic research well beyond those of its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope. As well as being instrumental in advancing our knowledge of the physical properties of galaxies both near and far, JWST provides us with a window to the most distant, and earliest, galaxies in the Universe.

24th November 2023
Ross Johnston & John Veitch, University of Glasgow
“Gravitational Wave Evening”

Glasgow University plays a significant role in the study of gravitational waves. Ross will describe developments in detector technology, improving their sensitivity and stability, while John will cover the physics behind gravitational waves, and current observational results.

8th December 2023 : Christmas Quiz
With Jeanette Noble & Graham Young

Our regular fun quiz night.

12th January 2024 : Members' Evening
Your chance to shine!! Short talks, demonstrations, show & tell items, on any relevant subject – all contributions welcome.

26th January 2024
Bill Ward, University of The West of Scotland
“Modern meteor astronomy and developments in meteor spectroscopy”

This talk will look at how meteor astronomy has evolved over the past decades from the lone observer watching the sky to global networks of high-tech automatic cameras. Bill will also discuss his own recent results in the field of high resolution meteor spectroscopy, having obtained the most detailed meteor spectra using video techniques thus far, amateur or professional.

9th February 2024
Karen Meyer, University of Dundee
“The Sun: Living with a Star”

The Sun generates heat and light that is vital for life on Earth – but it also generates ‘space weather’ that can damage satellites and endanger astronauts. Observations from ground and space-based telescopes, together with theoretical mathematics and physics, have allowed us to learn much about our closest star.

23rd February 2024
Ruhee Kahar, University of Dundee
“Star Formation”

Ruhee is a PhD student working in the area of star formation, and will describe some of his work, and the physics of star formation in general.

8th March 2024
Sargam Mulay, University of Glasgow
“The Study of Solar Flares Using UV and X-ray Observations”

This talk focusses on the study of the Sun and explosive energetic events, such as solar flares, and coronal mass ejections that occur in the solar atmosphere. They are capable of accelerating energetic particles in space, which travel from the Sun to the Earth and produce aurorae in large part of the Earth's polar regions.

22nd March 2024 : AGM

Possibly including a brief talk or presentation.