Making Pictures of the Sky: 200 years of astronomical imaging

Talk by Prof. Andy Lawrence, one of our Honorary Presidents. We will also have our AGM.

The Royal Observatory Edinburgh, where I work, is two hundred years old. Over that time, the way we make pictures of the sky, and the understanding of the cosmos that we get from our pictures, has transformed dramatically. Much of the technology and the science was pioneered here in Edinburgh. I will tell the story of how this happened, from Piazzi Smyth’s first mountain-top adventures, through to the latest infrared images from the James Webb Space Telescope. As well lots of amazing pictures, I will bring along examples of hardware and photographic plates for you to look at. If you want to see a glass spectrum of Nova Herculis from 1935, or see yourself live in the infrared, this is your chance!

Andy Lawrence is the Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh, and an Honorary President of the ASE. His main research these days is on the extreme variability in Active Galactic Nuclei, but he is also a keen advocate for Space Environmentalism.