Lecture - 19th October 2017 - 7.30pm
Radio Astronomy from your Back Garden - Prof. Graham Woan
Professional radio astronomy has benefited from massive improvements in computing and signal processing power in recent years, giving us new types of telescope like LOFAR and (soon) the Square Kilometre Array. These technologies have, for the first time, also made amateur radio astronomy accessible to the non-expert. In this talk I will briefly look at how modern radio astronomical instrumentation is developing and show how one can make some simple observations with very modest equipment at home.
Biography - Graham Woan is professor of Astrophysics at the University of Glasgow. He is the director of the University Observatories and heads the Astronomy and Astrophysics research group in the School of Physics and Astronomy. Brought up as a radio astronomer, his current main area of research is gravitational-wave astrophysics, particularly the detection of signals from pulsars and other rotating neutron stars.
Location - Room 6.41 Royal College, Strathclyde University. Access is via the Montrose Street entrance, take the lift to Level 3, exit the lift and take the 2nd set of steps on your left, go through the double glass doors. Room 6.41 is on your left approximately half way along the corridor.
Public lectures for the 2017-2018 session
The ASG's free public lectures for the 2017-18 session are as follows, the dates and titles are shown below. They are normally held in Room 6.41 Royal College, Strathclyde University unless otherwise advised. Access is via the Montrose Street entrance, take the lift to Level 3, exit the lift and take the 2nd set of steps on your left, go through the double glass doors. Room 6.41 is on your left approximately half way along the corridor. The lectures start at 7:30pm and are preceded from 6:45pm by either a presentation on the month's skywatching highlights or by a social event giving you the opportunity to meet other members.
The lecture programme for the 2017-18 session is as follows:
| Thursday 21st September 2017 | Should We Fear Solar Tornadoes? The Eric Tomney Lecture Dr. Nicolas Labrosse, Senior Lecturer in the School of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Glasgow |
| Thursday 19th October 2017 | Radio Astronomy from your Back Garden Prof. Graham Woan, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Glasgow. Director of the University Observatories and head of the Astronomy and Astrophysics research group in the School of Physics and Astronomy |
| Thursday 16th November 2017 | The Universe is full of noises: a new perspective from gravitational waves Mr. Daniel Williams, PhD candidate and researcher working in the Institute for Gravitational Research in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Glasgow |
| Thursday 21st December 2017 | Attaining the ultimate resolution limits of large ground-based astronomical telescopes Dr. Stewart McKechnie, Member of the ASG |
| Thursday 18th January 2018 | METI – Messaging to Extraterrestrial Intelligencies The Tannahill Lecture Dr. Alan Penny, Honorary reader and visiting scientist in the Astronomy Group of the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews |
| Thursday 15th February 2018 | Members' Night Talks |
| Thursday 15th March 2018 | The Gaia Mission: unravelling the composition, formation and evolution of our galaxy Dr. Nick Rowel, Researcher and developer with the Wide Field Astronomy Unit at the Royal Observatory of Edinburgh |
| Thursday 19th April 2018 | The Sun's Evolving Magnetic Skeleton The Leon Davies Lecture Prof. Clare Parnell, Professor of Applied Mathematics, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews |
| Thursday 17th May 2018 | Asteroid Exploration and Exploitation : from nanoprobes to asteroid engineering Prof. Max Vasile, Professor of Space Systems Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Strathclyde |
| This lecture will be followed by the Society Annual General Meeting |