Dr Andrew Wilson, University of Exeter

The image is a photo of the young star cluster and nebula IC 1396 © Dr Andrew Wilson

Our modern ideas about star formation date back to Immanuel Kant’s nebular hypothesis of 1755. Over the past 270 years, advances in telescopes and computing have allowed us to confirm and add details to our understanding of the process. Star formation begins with an interstellar cloud of cold gas and dust which has started to collapse under its own gravity. The contracting cloud forms an accretion disc with a protostar at its centre. As the star evolves, the cloud dissipates revealing the newly formed star. The dust within the disc clumps together, leading to the formation of a planetary system. Andy will explain our current understanding of star formation and how it connects with his research into the distribution of star formation and starspots on young stars.

Dr Andrew Wilson

Andy Wilson has been interested in astronomy since the 1980s. He studied Astronomy and Physics at University College London in the 1990s, after which he pursued a career in IT. He retained his interest in astronomy and went back to university in 2001 as a part-time student. First studying for a mathematics degree with the Open University, followed by a PhD in astronomy at the University of Exeter which he completed in 2024. He is now a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Astrophysics Group at the University of Exeter, where he carries out research into star formation and young stars. He is a member of the WEAVE Stellar, Circumstellar and Interstellar Physics Team, using the WEAVE spectrograph installed on the William Herschel Telescope on La Palma. He is using WEAVE spectra to follow up on candidate young stars identified by an explainable machine learning classifier he created to analyse the distribution of star formation in the nearby Milky Way. He also uses spectra obtained with the Very Large Telescope in Chile to investigate starspot coverage on young stars. Andy still does amateur astronomy and is involved with the British Astronomical Association, where he manages the photometry and spectroscopy databases of the Variable Star Section.

A video recording of this lecture will be available here shortly.

Dr Heather Fenwick Johnston, University of Exeter

The image is © NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Judy Schmidt

Giant planets like Jupiter play a key role in shaping the architecture of planetary systems. However, they make up only a tiny fraction of the 5,000+ exoplanets known today. Giant planets are found most frequently around stars 1.7 times as massive as the Sun, and the occurrence rate drops to zero around stars 2.5 times as massive as our Sun. My talk will explore how giant planets form, why they are special, and the rise and fall of the giant planet occurrence rate.

Dr Heather Fenwick Johnston, University of Exeter

Heather Fenwick Johnston is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Exeter where she works on all things to do with planet formation and evolution.  Everything from asteroid belts and meteorites to building giant planets like Jupiter.  

She completed her undergrad in Physics at the University of Dundee in 2020 and her first research project was studying spots in young stars. She then moved to the University of Leeds to do her PhD in planet formation around different kinds of stars and got her doctorate in 2024 before moving to the south west where she works now.

A video recording of the lecture will be available shortly.

Herschel Society Members receive a discount code in the announcement that is mailed to them.

Penllergare Equatorial Observatory

Stuart Rice, General Manager, The Penllergare Trust

Tuesday 11th February 2025 7.30 pm in the BRLSI, Bath, and on Zoom

The image is a view of the observatory © Stuart Rice

John Dillwyn Llewelyn presented his daughter, Thereza, with an Observatory on her 16th birthday, helping spark a family interest in astronomy and astrophotography. This very observatory was used by the father-daughter duo to take one of the earliest photographs of the moon; John worked the camera and Thereza moved the telescope for a longer exposure time.

The family had connections with John Herschel whose interests included both astronomy and the chemistry of photography and William Henry Fox Talbot from nearby Lacock, the photography pioneer. In addition to early astrophotography, John Dillwyn Llewelyn’s pioneering photography included charming informal family groups.

The Penllergare Trust is now in the process of trying to restore the building and give it the opportunity to inspire future generations.

Stuart Rice will provide an overview of the family’s pioneering work in astrophotography and the Trust’s journey to restore the Observatory as a future planetarium.

Stuart Rice (General Manager, Penllergare Trust) has led the ambitious project to save, restore and safeguard the building for future generations.

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

Hugh Allen

2024 is the bicentenary of the birth of Sir William Huggins, the Victorian pioneer of astronomical spectroscopy. The talk is a celebration of William’s life and work, and also of the contribution of his wife and scientific collaborator Margaret Huggins. By using extracts from William and Margaret’s scientific papers and correspondence, and illustrated with some of the speaker’s own astronomical spectra, Hugh will bring to life the birth of astrophysics.

Hugh Allen MA (Cantab)

Hugh is an industrial chemist with a lifelong interest in amateur astronomy. He is Chairman of the Wells & Mendip Astronomers and a member of the Herschel Society, and is a regular speaker keen to share a passion for astronomical spectroscopy.

A recording will be available here soon.

Elisabetta Strickland

Friday 1st March 2024 7.30 pm in the BRLSI, can be attended either in the BRLSI or remotely on Zoom

Part of a BRLSI series of events around International Women’s Day to celebrate Extraordinary Women.

The image is at Somerville College, the artist is James Rannie Swinton (1844).
Photo credit: Somerville College, University of Oxford (CC BY-NC).

It is an astonishing experience to go back in time and explore the world where study and research for women were forbidden by law. The fascinating life of the Scottish scientist and popular writer Mary Fairfax Somerville (1780-1872) brings us back in this past and, in the same time, describes the fight of one great dame for equal rights and opportunities for women. Her fight was not political, in a sense that she did not try to influence the public opinion with her words or her actions, but by winning the respect of the scientific world. Her extraordinary mathematical talent only came to light through fortuitous circumstances. Barely taught to read and write as a child, all the science she learned and mastered was self taught. By giving this example of scientific competence, she backed the struggle towards education opportunities for women that lead to their access to schools. The Somerville College in Oxford was named in her honor in 1879 and produced famous graduates like Dorothy Hodgkin, Indira Gandhi and Margaret Thatcher.

Elisabetta STRICKLAND is honorary professor at the Department of Mathematics of the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. She has been Vice-President of the National Institute of Advanced Mathematics (INdAM) from 2007 to 2015. From 2014 to 2022 she has been a member of the Women in Mathematics Committee (WIM) of the European Mathematical Society. She is Honorary President of the Central Committee for the promotion of equal opportunities, workers’ welfare and non discrimination (CUG) of the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. She is also co-founder of the Gender Interuniversity Observatory GIO over the state Universities in Rome. Since 2016 she is Ambassador of Italy in the Committee of Women in Mathematics (CWM) of the International Mathematical Union.

In 2013 she has been awarded from the Capitoline Administration the Prize “Excellent Women in Rome”.

A recording will be available in April 2024.

Please note that you can also buy tickets for the whole BRLSI Extraordinary Women programme through the above link. A list of all the talks with links to more information can be found here.