Hugh Allen, the chair of Wells & Mendip Astronomers, is popping over to BRLSI, 16-18 Queen Square, Bath to give a talk on the mother and father of astronomical spectroscopy.
Sir William Huggins was the Victorian pioneer of astronomical spectroscopy. 2024 was the bicentennial of his birth. The talk is a celebration of life and work of the William and his wife and scientific collaborator, Margaret Huggins. 24th March this year was the 110th anniversary of her passing. Hugh plans to transport us back to the latter half of the 19th century to bring to life the birth of astrophysics using extracts from William and Margaret’s scientific papers and correspondence as well as some of Hugh’s own astronomical spectra.
William and Margaret Huggins took the existing lab bench spectroscopy quite literally to new heights looking to the heavens by combining spectroscopy with photography. Their major discoveries included distinguishing between nebulae and galaxies. Both appeared as faint fuzzies through telescopes of the day. They demonstrated that nebulae have the spectral characteristics of gas whilst galaxies have the characteristics of individual stars. They were also leaders in measuring the shift in spectra lines due to the movement of astronomical objects towards or away from the viewer, the Doppler Effect, and recorded results for the star Sirius.
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