Welcome & introduction

Want to know more about astronomy? Want to see the wonders of the Universe?

Welcome to our public outreach and events pages. Talk, Tea and Telescope is a series of public lectures organised by the University of Birmingham Astronomical Society and the School of Physics and Astronomy. These lectures are aimed at members of the general public and are free to all. Future event details will be posted here accordingly. The lectures generally take place on a Thursday evening and are followed by night sky observing with a combination of telescopes focusing on the Astronomical society's historic Grubb telescope (dating from 1872) - of course this is weather dependent and if we are beaten by the weather then you can guarantee that there will be time for tea and discussion after the talks.

Small Problems with the Universe - is Physics letting us down?

The Universe is being explored with increasingly sophisticated instruments and techniques and yet there still remain fundamental questions about the laws of Physics that govern its existence and evolution. This talk will discuss our present view of the Universe and the areas of Physics that are causing uncertainty and how these may be investigated.

The next talk in the Tea Talk and Telescope program will be given by Professor Mike Cruise from the University of Birmingham. The talk will be on Thursday 22nd March, 2012 at 7:30pm. Tea and coffee will be available from 7:00pm. For more information please see here.

Talks Location: Unless otherwise stated the talks take place in the Large Lecture Theatre (S02) of the Poynting Physics Building (R13 on University Map) at the University of Birmingham. Directions to the University can be found on the University's visitor information pages and a campus map can be found here.

Our last talk: From Barsoom to Pandora: Science Fiction and Astronomy in dialogue by Alastair Reynolds

As a former scientist, and now full-time science fiction writer, I'm fascinated by the way science and science fiction have been in dialogue with each other. Although it's mostly the case of science influencing science fiction, the traffic hasn't been entirely one-way. I will discuss some of the changes in science fiction over the last century or so, with a particular emphasis on space-based fiction, and the impact of astronomical ideas (such as our understanding of the solar system, and our wider place in the universe) on those books and stories.

Other Events: We run a variety of events aimed at the public and students, see our outreach pages, for example on Oct 4th 2008 we ran "Birmingham Space Day" - this event was aimed at all ages of the general public and featured talks and interactive workshops (such as making rockets and mars landers). For more information see the space day site. A similar event was held on March 14th 2009 to celebrate "Pi Day - the mathematics of the Universe.".

Past Talks: In the past we have had talks by: Dr David Malin (AAO), Dr Fred Watson (AAO), Dr David Whitehouse (BBC Science Correspondent), Mr Mario di Maggio (ThinkTank Planetarium Director), Dr David Gregory (BBC West Midlands), Prof. John Brown (Royal Astronomer for Scotland and Glasgow University), Prof Ian Morison (Jodrell Bank and Gresham College), Dr Brian Cox (Manchester University, CERN), Dr Paul Roche (Cardiff University, FT), Dr Martin Hendry (University of Glasgow), Dr Mike Hapgood (RAL), Dr Lucie Green (MSSL) and Prof Peter Kalmus (QMUL). Much more info can be found on our talks pages.

Dr Paul Roche - "The Faulkes Telescope" - talk about the The Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network and how it is opening professional instrumentation to children worldwide. Dr Paul Roche is the director of the Faulkes Telescope and a University of Cardiff Lecturer. The Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGTN) is an independent, non-profit private operating foundation based in Santa Barbara, California, that is building a global network of remotely operated telescopes, to be used for both educational and scientific research purposes. LCOGTN operates the largest telescopes in the world partially, but consistently, devoted to astronomy education. LCOGTN is building a global network of 18 x 1-meter diameter telescopes (the Research Network - 18 'scopes in total) in clusters of 3 at each of 6 observatory sites. It will initially deploy clusters of 4 x 0.4m diameter telescopes at 7 observatory sites (the Education Network - 28 'scopes in total) distributed around the world, over the next few years.

Some of these talks have been funded by a Science and Technology Facilities Council Grant.