Public lectures by Ian Ridpath
Each lecture is accompanied by a highly illustrated presentation on Keynote
software
Stories of the stars
Constellations in myth, art and reality
Every night, a pageant of Greek mythology is enacted among the stars. Perseus
flies to the rescue of princess Andromeda, mighty Orion faces the charge of
Taurus the bull, the herdsman Boötes chases the Great Bear around the celestial pole, and the god Zeus flies
along the Milky Way in the guise of a swan. This talk will recount these famous
legends, illustrated by classic works of art, and identify the constellations
associated with them. Using images from the world’s most powerful telescopes, we will look in more detail at some of the fabulous
objects that modern astronomers have discovered in those same areas of sky,
from the birthplaces of stars to black holes and distant galaxies, which tell
real-life stories that are every bit as fantastic as the Greek myths.
Running time: 45 minutes. Sound required
Exploring the Moon
The Moon is our nearest neighbour in space, and still the only body beyond Earth
on which humans have set foot. This talk will introduce the main features of
the Moon that can be seen with binoculars and small telescopes, from its
ancient plains of solidified lava to craters the size of cities blasted out by
meteorite impacts. We then trace the history of lunar exploration in the
context of the East–West political rivalry of the time, from the first space probes to the Apollo
landings. The talk summarizes the scientific findings from those missions and
describes why astronomers now think that the Moon was born when another body
hit the Earth billions of years ago. Finally we will look ahead to NASA’s plans for returning to the Moon.
Running time: 45 minutes. Sound required
Apollo 11 – first men on the Moon
July 2009 was the 40th anniversary of the first manned landing on the Moon by
the astronauts of Apollo 11. This brief talk explains why humans went to the Moon, how they got there and back, and what we learned from the samples they collected.
Running time: 20 minutes. Sound required
This is a briefer version of the Exploring the Moon talk above, concentrating on
Apollo 11 alone, and is suitable for use as part of a larger programme or for younger
audiences.
Exploring the Solar System
Our home world, the Earth, is one of a family of eight major planets orbiting an
average star, the Sun, and is the only one known to harbour life. Copiously
illustrated with stunning pictures from space probes, this talk will outline
what we have discovered about our neighbour worlds. Starting with tiny Mercury
closest to the Sun we will travel out via hothouse Venus to the red planet Mars
and the distant gaseous giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, including
their rings and moons, not forgetting the ghostly comets. The talk will discuss
the reclassification of Pluto (once considered the ninth planet but recently
downgraded in status), and will end with a look at searches for planets around
other stars.
Running time: 45 minutes. No sound
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Comets –
ghostly wanderers in space
Comets appear in our skies from time to time like ghostly apparitions. In the
past they were regarded as omens of disease, death and destruction. Now we know
that countless billions of them exist in the form of dirty snowballs at the
edge of our Solar System, remnants from the formation of the Earth and other
planets. We see them only on the rare occasions when they approach the Sun and
heat up, releasing gas and dust to form a glowing head and tail. Recent space
probe missions to comets have given us astounding close-up pictures and
first-hand information on their composition and structure. This talk will
explain scientists’ efforts to understand where comets come from, what they are made of, how they
were formed and their role in the origin and development of life on Earth.
Running time: 45 minutes. No sound.
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Fact or fantasy?
NEW for 2010
According to one estimate, around 100 UFOs are sighted worldwide every 24 hours – that’s one every 15 minutes. What’s causing all these reports? Are they, as believers claim, evidence that we are
being visited by aliens from other planets? Or is there a more prosaic explanation? This hard-hitting talk by Ian Ridpath, astronomy
writer and UFO sceptic, traces the growth of the flying saucer myth since the
first sighting in 1947, and demonstrates some of the most common causes of UFO
reports. The talk will discuss the implication of formerly top-secret
government documents recently released under the Freedom of Information Act,
and will end with Ian’s first-hand account of his own researches into the
Rendlesham Forest incident, a major event outside a US Air Force base at Woodbridge in Suffolk, still
widely regarded as among the best UFO cases ever.
Running time: 45 minutes. Sound required
Warning: Unsuitable for UFO believers!
Partners in exploration
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In 1781, a German-born musician observing with a home-made telescope from his
back garden in Bath, England, discovered a new planet, the first to be found
since ancient times. We now call it Uranus. This unexpected discovery, which
doubled the size of the known Solar System, propelled William Herschel to
international celebrity. But that was only the start. Sponsored by the king of
England, he and his sister Caroline spent the rest of their lives surveying the
heavens, making Caroline the first woman professional astronomer. This is the
story of their remarkable partnership and the revolution it wrought in our
knowledge of the Universe, with particular emphasis on the role of the usually
unheralded Caroline.
Running time: 45 minutes. No sound
When possible, this programme will be presented by Mona Evans.
Lectures for astronomy societies
The origin and history of the constellations
In the days before writing, storytellers used the sky as a picture book to
illustrate their tales of gods, mythical heroes and fabulous beasts. Those
pictures among the stars were the origin of our system of constellations.
Today, the entire sky is divided into 88 constellations of varying shapes and
sizes. This talk, which includes illustrations from some of the world’s greatest star atlases, will trace the origin of the constellation system back
to Greek times and explain who filled in the gaps between the ancient Greek figures, who decided on the official boundaries between constellations, and how the names of certain stars came about.
Running time: 40 minutes. No sound
New for 2010
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Until 1986, when space probes flew past Halley’s Comet, we had never seen the fount of a comet’s activity – the nucleus, an icy, dust-encrusted relic from the early days of the Solar
System. Since then, probes have photographed the nuclei of three more comets
(Borrelly, Wild 2 and Tempel 1), revealing a surprising range of shapes and
structures. Views of comet Hartley 2 are due in November 2010 and a second look
at Tempel 1 in February 2011. The Stardust probe has brought samples of
cometary dust back to Earth, Deep Impact has punched a crater in a comet’s nucleus, and in 2014 Europe’s Rosetta mission will orbit and land on the nucleus of comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko. This talk looks back at the exploration of comets since Halley’s appearance in 1986, what it has told us about these most ancient of Solar
System bodies, and what is to come.
Running time: 45 minutes. No sound
Note: This talk deals specifically with space probe missions to comets, and
assumes a basic familiarity with their appearance, structure and origin. For a
more general talk, see Comets – Ghostly Wanderers in Space, above.