Friends of RAS (only) Lecture: Capturing the Moment - an illustrated personal journey through four decades of practical amateur astronomy. Speaker: Sally Russell

Capturing the Moment
Credit
Image is NOT in the public domain; it is annotated with title and copyright Sally Russell.
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Abstract

Practical amateur astronomy has changed markedly over the past few decades, from the isolated amateur telescope maker pursuing a lonely visual hobby with relatively basic kit, to today’s ready availability of a huge range of equipment and astronomical information, plus the means to easily capture and share digital images. This evolution is described from a personal point of view, the core of the discussion being the constant desire to record observations for posterity and the changing methods being used to enable this, from traditional sketching through to afocal smartphone photography, and the DWARF II smart telescope.

 

Speaker bio

Sally Russell is an avid amateur astronomer and artist who has developed a particular passion for lunar and solar observing and sketching. She also likes to observe and capture rare and fleeting astronomical events such as planetary transits, solar outbursts, and those uncommon visitors to our skies, observable comets. Her contributions to the field of practical amateur astronomy include creating and presenting talks and workshops on astronomical sketching, co-authoring “Sketching the Moon” and “Solar Sketching” for the Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series, and having numerous sketches published in various astronomy books and magazines.

 

Venue Address

The Royal Astronomical Society,Burlington House

Map

51.5085763, -0.13960799999995