We hold regular monthly meet-ups for informal talks about astronomy (and occasionally other things!) on the last Wednesday of the month.
All with an interest in astronomy are welcome from beginners to old hands.
| Date | Time | Meeting/Activity | Location | Audience |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wed 25th June | 19:30 | Members’ talk night | BRLSI (Duncan) and Zoom | Members and visitors |
| Wed 24th Sept | 19:30 | Dr Robert Massey, Deputy Executive Director of the Royal Astronomical Society and Supermassive Podcast fame. | BRLSI (Elwin) and Zoom | Members and visitors |
| Wed 29th Oct | 19:30 | Andy Briggs. Founder of Space Oddities on Gravitational Waves | Sleight Bar, Bath and Zoom | Members and visitors |
| Wed 26th Nov | 19:00 | AGM followed by Dr Victoria Scowcroft on the Cosmic Ladder | BRLSI (Duncan) and Zoom | Members and visitors |
| Wed 21st Jan ’26 | 19:00 | Dr Anne Inkenhaag, Transients in host galaxies | BRLSI (Duncan) and Zoom | Members and visitors |
| Wed 25th Feb | 19:00 | Members’ talk night | BRLSI (Duncan) and Zoom | Members and visitors |
| Wed 25th Mar | 19:00 | 50th Anniversary Celebration | BRLSI and Zoom | Members and visitors |
| Wed 29th Apr | 19:00 | Jonathan Powell. Time | BRLSI and Zoom | Members and visitors |
| Wed 27th May | 19:00 | Wil Cheung of Wil Photography and TwiceBrewedInn Stargazing | BRLSI and Zoom | Members and visitors |
| Wed 24th Jun | 19:00 | [Pending booking] | BRLSI and Zoom | Members and visitors |
We usually meet in either the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, 16-18 Queen Square, Bath, or the gallery of the Herschel Museum of Astronomy, 19 New King Street, Bath, BA1 2BL. Simply come along 15 minutes before the gathering and you should find the door unlocked/open.
Past Events
| Date | Speaker/Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Wed 28th May | Prof. Gemma Attrill – How is the aurora created? | Hybrid – BRLSI and Zoom |
| Wed 30th Apr | Dr Meganne Christian – From Antarctica to Space | Hybrid – BRLSI and Zoom |
| Wed 26th Mar | Hugh Allen – Sir William and Margaret Huggins | Hybrid – BRLSI and Zoom |
| Wed 26th Feb | Mike Foulkes – Saturn | Hybrid – BRLSI and Zoom |
| Wed 29th Jan | Dr Nicolas Peretto – The formation of stars: From Sun-like to the most massive ones | Hybrid – HMoA and Zoom |
| Wed 22nd Jan 2025 | Talk by Andy Burns – Planning your Spanish Eclipse 2026 | Hybrid – BRLSI and Zoom YouTube.com |
| Wed 11th Dec | Meyrick Williams – Exploring the Atmospheres of the Solar System | Hybrid – BRLSI and Zoom YouTube.com |
| Wed 27th Nov | Astrophotography Exhibition and a beginner’s guide to stargazing | BRLSI |
| Wed 30th Oct | Prof. Chris Lintott, Gresham Professor of Astronomy | BRLSI |
| Wed 25th Sep | Prof. Catherine Heymans, Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom |
| Wed 26th Jun | Talk by Pete Richardson – the 20″ homebuilt telescope | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom |
| Wed 29th May | Talk by Dr Penny Wozniakiewicz – high velocity impactors | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom |
| Wed 24th Apr | Talk by Prof Leigh Fletcher – JWST: A New Voyager for the Outer Solar System | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom |
| Wed 27th Mar | Talk by Dr Emma Curtis Lake “Discoveries in the distant Universe with JWST” | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom YouTube.com |
| Wed 28th Feb | Members’ Night Talks | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom YouTube.com |
| Wed 31st Jan 2024 | Talk by Dr Carolin Villforth – Feeding Supermassive Black Holes | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom YouTube.com |
| 13th December | Talk by Richard Hook “The Quest for monster telescopes” | Herschel Museum |
| 28th November | Talk by Dr Becky Smethurst “How to grow a Supermassive Black Hole” | Bath Literary and Scientific Institution |
| 25th October | Talk by Steve Warbis “Quick Astrophotography under a light-polluted sky” | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom YouTube.com |
| 27th September | Talk by Simon Holbeche “Twinkle Twinkle” | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom YouTube.com |
| 28th June | Talk by Mary McIntyre “A History of Women in Astronomy Part 2” | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom YouTube.com |
| 31st May | Talk by Dr Hannah Wakeford “Diving through exoplanet atmospheres” | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom YouTube.com |
| 3rd May | Talk by Ian Ridpath “When we Walked on the Moon” | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom YouTube.com |
| 29th March | Talk by Martin Lunn “Asteroids, Comets and the Death of the Dinosaurs” | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom YouTube.com |
| 22nd February | Member’s Evening | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom YouTube.com |
| 25th January ’23 | Talk by Dr David Tsang “Astra in Extremis: The fascinating afterlives of undead stars” | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom YouTube.com |
| 7th December | Talk by Lee Pullen “Taking your astrophotography to the next level “ | Herschel Museum |
| 30th November | Talk by Dr Patricia Schady “Tracing the enrichment of the Universe with Gamma Ray Bursts” | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom YouTube.com |
| 26th October | Talk by Dr Jenifer Millard “Exploring the Invisible Cosmos Through Island Universes” | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom YouTube.com |
| 28th September | Talk by Martin Griffiths “Bright Asterisms in Binoculars and small Telescopes” | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom YouTube.com |
| 29th June | Talk by Dr Megan Argo “The next blink of a cosmic eye: astronomy in the next 200 years” | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom [Private YouTube.com] |
| 25th May | Talk by Bernard Henin on Other Worlds with the JWST | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom YouTube.com |
| 27th April | Talk by Chris Starr, Cassini-Huygens: Mission to Saturn | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom [Private YouTube.com] |
| 30th March | Talk by Mark McIntyre on “Meteors: an Observers’ Guide” | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom YouTube.com |
| 23rd February | Members’ Night | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom YouTube.com |
| 26th January | Talk by Dr Tim Gregory on Sky Stones | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom [Private YouTube.com] |
| 12th January 2022 | Talk by Dr Emma Curtis-Lake on JWST | Online talk using Zoom [Private YouTube.com] |
| 24th November | Talk by Hannah Sergeant on the Lunar Regolith | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom YouTube.com |
| 24th November | Annual General Meeting | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom YouTube.com |
| 27th October | Talk by Prof Lucie Green on solar research | Hybrid – Herschel Museum and Zoom [Private YouTube.com] |
| 29th September | Talk by Pete Richardson on Making your own 10″ Dobsonian | Online talk using Zoom YouTube.com |
| 30th June | Members’ talks. 8 personal experiences of the interest we share | Online talk using Zoom YouTube.com |
| 26th May | Talk by Peter Williamson on Moons of the Solar System | Online talk using Zoom YouTube.com |
| 28th April | Talk by Mary McIntyre on Constellations: Mythology to Modern Day | Online talk using Zoom YouTube.com |
| 31st March | Talk by Dr Julian Onions on Aperture Fever – does my mirror look big in this? | Online talk using Zoom YouTube.com |
| 24th February | Talk by Nora Eisner on Planet Hunters TESS: discovering exoplanets using citizen science | Online talk using Zoom |
| 27th January | Talk by Nick Howes on Oh my God, we’re goin’ to die | Online talk using Zoom YouTube.com |
| 13th January 2021 | Talk by Damian Peach on High Resolution Astrophotography | Online talk using Zoom YouTube.com |
| 16th December | Social and quiz night | Online Chat/Quiz |
| 25th November | Bath Astro AGM. Talk by Bud Martin on A life on Mars | Online talk using Zoom YouTube.com (AGM) YouTube.com |
| 24th November | Getting to Grips with the night sky | Online talk using Zoom YouTube.com |
| 28th October 2020 | Talk by Stephen Tonkin on Two eyes are better than one | Online talk using Zoom |
| 30th September 2020 | Mark Radice on Observing the Planets | Online talk using Zoom |
| 24th June 2020 | Roger Hyman on Photos to Wow!! images | Online talk using Zoom YouTube.com |
| 27th May 2020 | Dr Ezzy Pearson on A Brief History of Rovers and Landers | Online talk using Zoom YouTube.com |
| 29th April 2020 | Bob Mizon on 8 Great Astronomers | Online talk using Zoom |
| 26th February 2020 | Owen Brazell on Observing Planetary Nebulae | Herschel Museum of Astronomy, Bath, UK |
| 29th January 2020 | Member’s Night – a series of short talks | Herschel Museum of Astronomy, Bath, UK |
| 27th November 2019 | Roger Pickard on Variable Stars | Herschel Museum of Astronomy, Bath, UK |
| 30th October 2019 | Mark Woodland on Exoplanets for Amateur Astronomers | Herschel Museum of Astronomy, Bath, UK |
| 25th September 2019 | James Fradgley on 4 Short Talks | Herschel Museum of Astronomy, Bath, UK |
| 26th June 2019 | Pete Richardson on DIY Optics for Astronomy | Herschel Museum of Astronomy, Bath, UK |
| 24th April 2019 | Simon Holbeche, If it ain’t broke, fit it | Herschel Museum of Astronomy, Bath, UK |
| 28th February 2019 | Abi Chown on Measuring the Universe | Herschel Museum of Astronomy, Bath, UK |
| 29th November 2018 | Hugh Allen on Spectroscopy | Percy Centre, New King Street, Bath, UK |
| 25th October 2018 | Simon Holbeche on Comets | Percy Centre, New King Street, Bath, UK |
| 27th September 2018 | Charles Draper on Autumn & Winter Skies | Percy Centre, New King Street, Bath, UK |
| 28th June 2018 | Simon Holbeche on Solar Observing | Percy Centre, New King Street, Bath, UK |
| 26th April 2018 | Pete Richardson on Telescope Astrophotography | Percy Centre, New King Street, Bath, UK |
| 29th March 2018 | Andy Burns on Wide Field Astrophotography | Percy Centre, New King Street, Bath, UK |
| 22nd February 2018 | Simon Holbeche on the Moon | Percy Centre, New King Street, Bath, UK |