Astronomy in the City—January 2019

Astronomy in the City is a series of (free) public events, each packed with astrophysics; stargazing, and tea and biscuits. Evenings begin with talks covering astronomical highlights and recent research, and a question-and-answer session (for everything from beginner's questions about the night sky to the latest work done here in Birmingham). Afterwards, if the weather cooperates, we have observing with telescopes on campus with members of the University's AstroSoc and the Birmingham Astronomy Society. A lucky few will be taken out to the University’s Observatory and our powerful telescope.*

Each Astronomy in the City event features a talk on a different astrophysical topic connected to the research done at the University of Birmingham. University of Birmingham Professor William Chaplin will discuss his research on the structure of stars, and especially Sun-like stars that have been discovered to host planets in a talk called “Sounding stars and the search for other worlds".

The first talk begins at 6:15 pm, in the Large Lecture Theatre of the Poynting Physics Building (R13 on the campus map) on the University's Edgbaston campus. The University's website has directions to the Edgbaston campus and how to find the Poynting Physics Building; the lecture theatre, refreshments and demonstrations are on the second floor. For more details, including a preliminary program, please see the event website.

Astronomy in the City is aimed at secondary school age and above. Children must be in Year 7 or higher to attend the Observatory tours. All under-18s must be accompanied by a parent/guardian/teacher.

* You are not guaranteed a visit to the Observatory. Due to limited space at the observatory we can only accommodate a total of 24–30 visitors to the Observatory on the night. We will be running a lottery system to allocate the spaces on these tours. Anyone arriving before the talks begin is welcome to enter the lottery, however, we ask that if you have already attended an observatory tour you consider not entering your name to allow those who have not yet seen it a greater chance. Tours take ~1.5 hr, the first leaves approximately at 7:30 pm and the last returns around 10:00 pm. Entry to the lottery closes at 6:10pm, so please allow time to enter yourself upon arrival.

This is the third Astronomy in the City of the 2018/2019 season, future events are planned for the 6th of March 2019.