The Astronomical Society of Edinburgh (ASE) has been holding meetings in Edinburgh to inform members and the general public about astronomy since 1924. We aim to have something happening at least three times a month. The first Friday of each month will be a hybrid meeting at 7:30pm at the Augustine United Church, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh. This will also be broadcast on Zoom for ASE members and YouTube for visitors. Our second talk, sometime around the middle of the month, will just be on Zoom and YouTube.
“The name of the Society shall be The Astronomical Society of Edinburgh and its objectives shall be to advance the education of the public about the science of astronomy and to promote astronomical research chiefly in the area of the City of Edinburgh and the Lothians.”
Officers
President
Mark Phillips
Vice-Presidents
Peter Black
Nigel Goodman
Secretary
Seán Wixted
Treasurer
Alan Ellis
Honorary Presidents
Prof. Catherine Heymans MPhys DPhil FRSE
Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh
Astronomer Royal for Scotland
Prof. Andrew Lawrence BSc PhD FRSE FRAS
Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh
Councillors
Sarah Bulman
Pat Devine
Will Joy
Neil Martin
Ramsay McIver
April Robertson
Ian Smith
Radim Stano
Lorimer medal
The Lorimer Medal of the Astronomical Society of Edinburgh is awarded from time to time for meritorious work in diffusing the knowledge of Astronomy among the general public. It was established in memory of one of our Past Vice-Presidents, Mr John Henry Lorimer, RSA, who left the Society a substantial sum of money when he died in 1936.
City Observatory
The Astronomical Society of Edinburgh had the use of the City Observatory from 1938 to 2008, and had met regularly at the Calton Hill since 1953. Unfortunately, in the years leading up to our departure, vandalism had caused so much damage to the buildings and fittings that we had to recognise that the site was no longer usable.
It is with great reluctance that the Council of the Society took the decision to move our meetings and to remove all our property. We hope that the City of Edinburgh Council will manage to restore the site to something approaching its earlier glory when it was quite rightly awarded Listed status and that the Society may, some day, have renewed access to what was once one of the country’s premier civic observatories.
The Society produced a short Guide to the City Observatory.