Friday 4th October 2024 The Discovery of Gravitational Waves

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Professor Mike Cruise

The image is an artist’s impression of gravitational waves generated by binary neutron stars.
Credit: R. Hurt/Caltech-JPL

In 1916 Albert Einstein predicted that his new theory of gravitation, now called General Relativity, included wave modes which could propagate in vacuum a little like electromagnetism. These modes- the “gravitational” waves- were predicted by Einstein to be so weak that they would “never be detected”.

Professor Mike Cruise

Mike Cruise has been active in Space Science for more than 50 years. He received degrees from University College London in 1968 and 1973 and went on to do research in X-Ray astronomy at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory using sounding rockets launched from Woomera, South Australia. In 1980 he was appointed to a lectureship at UCL and worked on Ariel VI and HIPPARCOS before leaving to join the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in 1986. First as Group leader for Astrophysics and then Division Head and Associate Director of RAL, Mike was involved in the management of ROSAT, SOHO, Cluster and Spectrum RG. He served on many national and international space policy and review committees.

In 1995 Mike was appointed Professor of Astrophysics and Space Research at the University of Birmingham and set up the gravitational wave group at Birmingham in 1996. He led the Birmingham work on LISA Pathfinder in addition to continuing his own research on the interaction of gravitational waves and electromagnetic fields. Mike was appointed Head of Physics and Astronomy at Birmingham in 1997 and then Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research at the University in 2002.

Mike Cruise has chaired space policy committees in STFC, the UK Space Agency and ESA. He was appointed Professor Emeritus on his retirement from Birmingham in 2012 and has subsequently served as Treasurer and President of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Mike has written over 200 scientific papers and co-authored one book.




Thursday 21st November 2024 An Astronomical Adventure Story

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From the Discovery of Uranus to the Astronomical Observatories of Ireland

Professor Michael Burton, Director of the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium

The image is a sketch of M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, by William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse in 1845.

William Herschel’s discovery of Uranus in 1781– the first new planet found by humanity since antiquity – made him famous overnight.  It also profoundly changed our conception of the cosmos and stirred the imagination, a driver for the Enlightenment and the emergence of modern science.

The consequences were many, one of which was the founding of an observatory in Armagh, now the longest running observatory in the British Isles that has been continuously used for its original purpose – of exploring the cosmos.

Richard Robinson, Archbishop of Armagh and the Primate of All-Ireland, knew Herschel from the time he spent in Bath in the years following the discovery of Uranus. He was inspired to found Armagh Observatory in 1790 by it.  A century later the famous “New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars” (the NGC) was compiled in Armagh by its then Director, John Dreyer. The NGC is the successor to John Herschel’s General Catalogue, made using the Grubb 10” telescope in Armagh that still works today. 

In Birr Castle, in County Offaly in Ireland, the 3rd Earl of Ross, William Parsons, was motivated by Herschel’s “40 foot” telescope to build his Great Telescope in 1845, with its 6-foot speculum mirror – the Leviathan – so succeeding Herschel’s 40 foot as the world’s largest telescope. Using it, and working with the Director of Armagh Romney Robinson, he uncovered the enigma of the spiral nebula, what we recognise today as other galaxies situated far beyond our own Milky Way,

Today the historic observatories of Ireland – Armagh, Birr and Dunsink (Dublin) – whose astronomers have worked closely together from their foundations – have come together as the Astronomical Observatories of Irelands with the aspiration to seek UNESCO World Heritage accreditation for their outstanding astronomical heritage, still very evident at the three sites today.

Each observatory also has ambitious plans for their sites. All are still active in scientific research and education in addition to their heritage, serving as beacons for the public communication of science in our challenged 21st century world, where many of the pressing problems faced by humanity must be tackled through the application of science.

As we approach the 250th anniversary of Herschel’s epoch-making discovery of Uranus in Bath – which will occur on the 13th of March in 2031 – it is timely to ask how might we mark this discovery and celebrate the achievements of all the Herschels in their pursuit of frontline science?

Professor Michael Burton is the Director of the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium as well as the President of the International Astronomical Union’s Commission C4 on “World Heritage and Astronomy”.

His own career in astronomy has followed in some of Herschel’s pioneering footsteps.  It began in Edinburgh studying cosmic sources of infrared radiation (as first discovered by Herschel) using one of the first telescopes specially built for the infrared – the UKIRT in Hawaii.

Over the past decade he has been studying the structure of our Milky Way Galaxy – of which Herschel drew the first map – using radio telescopes in Australia in order to map out the giant clouds of molecules where stars are forming.

Today he runs both the Observatory and Planetarium in Armagh, where research & discovery, education & outreach, history & heritage all come together and contribute to a sense of place and civic pride in the community.

Tickets will be available here (£3 for members of BRLSI or Herschel Society and students, £6 for others, proceeds to the BRLSI).

Friday 6th December 2024 New Results from Gaia

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Crystallising white dwarfs, spinning minor planets, and our Galaxy’s dark matter halo

Professor Michael Perryman

The image shows the integration of the M1 primary mirror on the torus of the Gaia spacecraft © EADS Astrium SAS, France


Science populariser Ethan Siegel has described the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission as “One of the most remarkable space science missions that most people have never heard of”. It is 10 years into its pioneering objective of mapping out the three-dimensional positions and motions of two billion stars in our Galaxy and beyond. This is providing great advances in understanding the way that stars are born and evolve, and yielding remarkable insights into the structure and evolution of our own Galaxy.

I will look at just three examples of how astronomers are using these data: to peer inside white dwarfs and understand how they are cooling over billions of years, to examine how solar radiation pressure is re-arranging the orbits and rotation of thousands of minor planets in our Solar System, and to look at the fossil records of cannibalised galaxies in our Galaxy’s outer halo to see how our own Milky Way galaxy came into existence.


Michael Perryman obtained a degree in physics, and a PhD in radio astronomy, at Cambridge University. During a 30-year career with the European Space Agency, he was the scientific leader of the Hipparcos space astrometry mission between 1981-1997, and of the follow-on Gaia space astrometry mission between 1995-2008. He was Professor of Astronomy at Leiden University, The Netherlands, between 1993-2009, and has received various awards for his leadership of space astrometry, including the Gold Medal of the French Astronomical Society, the Academy Medal of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts & Sciences, the Tycho Brahe Prize of the European Astronomical Society, and the international Shaw Prize in Astronomy 2022. He has held a position as Adjunct Professor, University College Dublin since 2013.

Tickets available shortly (£3 for members of BRLSI or Herschel Society and students, £6 for others, proceeds to the BRLSI).