2024-2025 Lectures
For the 2024-2025 season, all lectures will take place at the Stirling Highland Hotel, Spittal St, Stirling FK8 1DU.
2024
Fri 13 September 19:30
- Douglas Cooper (Stirling Astronomical Society) "A live Demonstration of the Amazing Seestar S50 Smart APO Telescope"
Fri 11 October 19:30
- Professor Catherine Heymans (University of Edinburgh) "The Dark Side of the Universe"
For our October meeting, we are delighted to welcome Prof Heymans, Astronomer Royal for Scotland, in a recorded talk followed by a live video link-up for questions and answers.
Just over 95% of our Universe comes in the shrouded form of dark energy and matter that we can neither explain nor directly detect. Together, these two dark entities play out an epic cosmic battle with the gravity of dark matter slowly pulling structures in the Universe together, and dark energy fuelling the Universe’s accelerated expansion, making it ever harder for those structures to grow.
Catherine Heymans has used the world’s best telescopes to map out the invisible dark matter in our Universe and confront different theories on the dark Universe. She will explore this dark enigma and explain why she thinks in order to truly understand the dark Universe, we will need some new physics that will forever change our cosmic view.
Fri 08 November 19:30
- Two short talks by Society members:
- Bert Mackenzie "Outreach. Some simple ideas and aids to help you pass on your knowledge of astronomy to others"
- Douglas Cooper "Advanced Newtonian collimation"
Fri 20 December 2024
- Alan Cayless (Stirling Astronomical Society) "The Solar Cycle"
2025
Fri 10 January 19:30
- Douglas Cooper (Stirling Astronomical Society) "Nearby Galaxies"
Fri 14 February 19:30
- Alan Cayless (Stirling Astronomical Society) "1925 - A year of discovery in astrophysics"
Fri 14 March 19:30
- Erin Donaldson (Stirling Astronomical Society) "Black Holes - an introduction and summary to 2025"
A brief history on the speculation and discovery of black holes, how they work, why they look the way they do, and how they have been photographed, as well as some fun facts. This presentation is a summary of everything we know about black holes in a manner that anyone can understand.
Fri 11 April 19:30
- details to be confirmed
Fri 09 May 19:30
- details to be confirmed
2025-2026 Lectures
Fri 12 September 19:30
- Nathan Garden (Aberdeen) "Mars"
October 2025 - May 2026
- details to be confirmed
These lecture meetings are free and anyone with an interest in astronomy is welcome to attend, whether a Member of the Society or not.
