The lecture programme is held in association with the School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast. It runs from September until the end of April and is held in the Bell Lecture Theatre in the Physics Building, main campus, Queen’s University, Belfast. Meetings start at 7.30pm sharp and consist of a short talk given by one of our members followed by the main lecture, usually given by a Professional Astronomer. The lecture over, light refreshments are available free of charge. At this time members are free to mix and discuss the latest astronomical news and events. The meeting finishes at 10.00pm. Non-members are also welcome to attend!
The IAA Lecture Programme for 2020-21 commences on Wednesday 23rd September at 19:30.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic we cannot hold these lectures in the traditional way so we will be running them, as much as we can, using online media.
This will work two ways. Firstly, there will be a Zoom meeting which will carry the lecture and up to 100 people will be able to attend this. This is an interactive platform so it will be possible to ask questions etc.
This will also be replicated on our YouTube Channel.
This will not be interactive though comments will be allowed. It will also remain in place for those unable to watch live.
Zoom and YouTube addresses will be published before the events.
IAA Lecture Programme 2020/21
Sep 23rd – Prof Peter Gallagher (TCD) – “The LOFAR Telescope” (exact title TBC)
Oct 7th – Zoom Lecture – Nick Howes “How do you solve a problem like Debris-ahh?” on the problem of space junk etc.
Oct 21st: Dr Marc Sarzi (AOP). “The Hunt for Supermassive Black Holes: a Short History”
Nov 4th: Prof Alan Fitzsimmons (QUB) “What makes a comet great?”
Nov 18th: Dr Jorick Vink (AOP) “Thirty Years of Hubble: opening the Treasure Chest”
Dec 2nd: Prof Caitriona Jackman (DIAS)“Adventures in the Outer Solar System” (The Cassini Mission and more)
Dec 16th: “Dr Gavin Ramsay (AOP) “Gravitational Wave Optical Transient Observer” (A new project by Gavin and others at AOP to detect optical counterparts to GW events)
2021
Jan 6th: Prof Stephen Smartt, (QUB) “Searching for Kilonovae in the nearby Universe)
Jan 20th: Prof Lorraine Hanlon (TCD) ‘Gamma-ray bursts and the gravitational wave connection’
Feb 3rd: Pete Williamson (Astro Radio) “Remote telescopes for Public and Educational Access”
Feb 17th
Mar 3rd
Mar 17th
Mar 31st
Apr 14th (AGM)
IAA Lecture Programme, 2019
IAA Lecture Programme 2018-19
IAA Lecture Programme 2017 – 18
Sep 20th: Prof Mark Bailey, Emeritus Director of Armagh Observatory – “”Ancient Stones and Comets: Developing the Giant-Comet Hypothesis”
2018
IAA Lecture Programme 2016 – 17
Sep 21st: Prof Alan Fitzsimmons “Sungrazing Comets: Falling Into Hell”
2017
IAA Lecture Programme 2015 – 16
Sep 23: Leo Enright: ‘Pluto, New Horizons, and the Edgeworth (Kuiper) Belt’
Oct 07: Terry Moseley – “Our Sun: Friend or Foe?”
Oct 21: David Shayler, FBIS – “The Astronomer Astronauts”
Nov 4:Dr Maria Cullen, DCU: – “Anazoeing Mars”
Nov 18: Brian MacGabhann, GAC: “On the Shoulders of Giants; The Story of Our Quest to Understand the Cosmos”.
Dec 02: Prof Susan McKenna-Lawlor, NUIM, STIL: “Rosetta Mission, its Philae Lander, and the First Irish Satellite”
Dec 16: Tony Drennan (former IAA Pres) “ Sherlock Holmes, Pocahontas, and the Star Atlas with no stars”
2016
Jan 02: IAA New Year Party, Comber. Details later.
Jan 06: Dr David Asher, Armagh Obs. “When Earth encounters interplanetary matter: bananas, wings and Totoro”
Jan 20: Dr Heather Cegla, QUB: ‘Earthlike Exoplanets’.
Feb 03: Prof Mihalis Mathioudakis: “What we’ll learn from the biggest solar telescope in the world”
Feb 17: Prof Andy Shearer, NUIG: “What we don’t know (Dark Energy and Dark Matter)”
Mar 02: Dr Nick Howes “The Biggest Telescope in the World” (ALMA)
Mar 16: Michael O’Connell, MAC: “The Antikythera Mechanism: The World’s Oldest Computer”.
Mar 30: Kevin Nolan (The Planetary Society) “An Emerging Cosmic Perspective”
Apr 13: AGM + ??
Sep 24th: Leo Enright: “Latest Science Results from Rosetta at the Comet”
Oct 8th: Prof Don Kurtz: “The Kepler Mission: Exoplanets and Asteroseismology”
Oct 22nd: Prof Lawrence Krauss: “Cosmic connections: from the Big Bang to life on Earth”
NB: this will be held in the Larmor Lecture Theatre, Physics, QUB.
Nov 5th: Prof Andy Shearer: “Big Telescopes, New Detectors, Fast Processing: the new era in astronomy”
Nov 19th: Dr Mike Simms “What meteorites tell us about the early Solar System”
Dec 3rd: Prof Tom Ray: “The Einstein Lens and a Tale of Two Eclipses”
Dec 17th: Dr Ernst De Mooij (QUB) : Characterising the atmospheres of exoplanets
Lecture Programme 2015
Jan 3rd: New Year Party, details in form here….http://documents.irishastro.org.uk/nyp2015.doc
Jan 7th: John Flannery (IAS) – “The Sky by Eye – How to Rediscover the Soul of Astronomy”
Jan 21st: Prof Alan Fitzsimmons: “Rosetta: The Final Picture of a Comet”
Feb 4th: Tom O’Donoghue: “Astrophotography: From Single Pane to Mega-mosaic”
Feb 18th: Dr Jorick Vink – “Star Formation in the Milky Way and in the early Universe” (Note change of lecture)
Mar 4th: Dr John Mason: “Mysteries of the Aurora”
Mar 18th: Paul Evans: “The Deep Partial Solar Eclipse of 20th March 2015”
April 1st: Dr Kate Russo and Terry Moseley: “The March 20 Total Solar Eclipse – What we saw”
April 15th: AGM.