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.

Travel through space with Lucy Hawking Cancellation

With deep regret, the University of Birmingham Astronomical Society announces that the Travel through Space event with Lucy Hawking is cancelled. Stephen Hawking is recovering from a chest infection in hospital in Cambridge and his family and carers, including Lucy, are with him while he gets better. Our sincere apologies for any disappointment caused.

Travel through space with Lucy Hawking - George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt" was scheduled for the 7th May 2009 at 7.30pm (with coffee and tea at 7pm) and will be replaced with Observing the Universe.

We will however, still be running an evening session for those interested. Our replacement event is "Observing the Universe" and will feature a talk "It all started with a big bang - a journey from the solar system to the beginning of the Universe" and this will be followed by "The Big space quiz with George" based on Lucy's book. As always our events are followed by observing and from around 9pm we will offer you the chance to take a look through our 127 year old Grubb telescope.

Other upcomming talks: "Struggle in Space - What I did with my Physics degree" by Rod Jenkins on 29th October 2009 at 7:30pm (with coffee and tea at 7pm)

Related IYA2009 events at Cannon Hill Park
- 14 Feb Astronomy and Space Discovery Day
- 20 June Summer Solstice Picnic; Solar Watch Astronomy and Space Discovery Station
- 12 Dec Park Winter Festival and Dark Sky Park Discovery

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: Our last public talk was "Poetry of the Night: A marvellous union between science and literature" by David H. Levy. On October 2, 1605, Londoners were treated to an almost total eclipse of the Sun at around the same time that Shakespeare's King Lear was exploring humanity's relation to the cosmos. "These Late Eclipses in the Sun and Moon" (a passage from the play) begins a sophisticated discussion of that relation, based on real events in the night sky. This is just one example of the richness of astronomical allusions in English Literature that was explored in the talk.

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.