Lecture: Grubb Parsons: The first (A gift of stars) - When Geordies reached for the stars
About this event :
Image c/o: Durham University Physics Department.
Photographs of the Grubb-Parsons Works
David Kidds’ talk will outline the early history of Grubb Parsons (international telescope manufacturer, based in Heaton Newcastle upon Tyne).
David will be outlining Grubb-Parsons early history leading to the 74” Reflectors.
David’s talk, ‘A Gift of Stars’, will tell the story of how Grubb Parsons came to be in Newcastle and will, in particular, focus on (no pun intended!) the firm’s first big reflector, the 74 inch David Dunlap telescope.
This was used by astronomer Helen Sawyer Hogg to discover thousands of variable stars, allowing the distance of galaxies to be measured accurately thus enabling the true scale of the universe to be established for the first time.
When What Where
- Date: Sunday 19th November 2017,
- Time: 7pm.
- Speaker: David Kidd (Local Astronomy History Educator).
- Venue: Will take place at the Cygnus Observatory (WWC Discovery Room).
Our speaker
Our speaker is David Kidd, is a retired maths teacher and amateur astronomer.
David first came across Grubb Parsons in the 1960s when, as a member of South Shields Astronomical Society, he visited the works.
David spent the last part of his working life in Africa and started researching the history of Grubbs when he was contacted by a group of local historians in South Africa interested in the telescopes in Pretoria and Johannesburg built by the company.
Background Information: Other External Links:
- Sir Howard Grubb, Parsons and Co -Wiki pages
- When Geordies reached the stars, BBC news article
- Grubb-Parsons Lectures – annual lectures at Durham UNiversity.
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Your host : Martin Kennedy