The latest events with Sunderland Astronomical Society
Professor Shaun Cole from the Department of Physics at Durham University and winner of 2014’s prestigious Shaw Prize, will give a general review of the Hot Big Bang and the accelerating expansion of the universe. Shaun will then focus on how sound waves from the early universe can be used as a yard stick to measure…
For our 21st February Lecture, Professor Wallace Arthur from the National University of Ireland, Galway, and a volunteer at Kielder Observatory will be giving an evolutionary biologists view of possibilities of Extra-Terrestrial Life. The rate of exoplanet discovery over the last 20 years has been incredible. But do any of these newly-discovered worlds act as a…
Many great breakthroughs in astronomy have come as the direct result of the applications of new technology. In this talk Professor Ray Sharples from the Department of Physics at Durham University, will review the development of astronomical technology over the last 300 years.
In support of the BBC Two’s Stargazing Live shows on BBC2 on 12th to the 14th January 2016, Sunderland Astronomical Society and other invited Astronomical Society’s will be running our own Stargazing Live events on Friday 15th & Saturday 16th January 2016, from 6:30 pm. Free Entry (Contributions to Society fundraising nonetheless welcomed). Join local astronomers from across…
Graham Edwards (SAs member) talk will consist of looking at women astronomers from history, going back as far as Hypatia of Alexandria, to the present.
On the 15th November at 7 pm Washington Wetlands Centre Graham Darke from Sunderland Astronomical Society will be giving a talk celebrating 25 years of NASA’s Hubble telescope and its many achievements. On April 24, 1990, the space shuttle Discovery lifted off from Earth with the Hubble Space Telescope nestled securely in its cargo bay.…
On the 20th November we will be Honoured with the presence of Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson who will do the official opening ceremony of the new “all access” mount we have recent had built. Please note: This is an SAS members and invited guests only night. The SAS would like to thank Harry Herron and Dave…
This is a fundraising event for 4th Washington cub scouts who are a recently formed pack (and the one that Graham Dark’s son belongs to). We are doing this as a favour to them to help them raise some funds. They are coming along with parents and other family members. There’s going to be a…
The standard model of cosmology tells us that the Universe is mostly made up of ‘Dark Matter’, with normal matter contributing only about 15% of the total budget. However, direct detections have not yielded any results about the nature of this mysterious dark matter, leaving us with only indirect means of inferring its existence and…
The years around 1915 conjure up dark images of the Great War and the destruction that went with it. Yet 1915 was also the year that Einstein’s master work, General Relativity, first appeared and forever changed our view of this Universe we live in. SAS President Dave Newton will give a talk on the background…