Eight-inch Cooke refractor at Jeremiah Horrocks Observatory sees first light in 21 Century

Professor Derek Ward-Thompson, together with Preston and District Astronomical Society members John Hooper, Nigel Telford and Martin Whelan, made the first observations since the Millenium with the eight-inch Cooke refractor at the Jeremiah Horrocks Observatory on Moor Park on Saturday 14th September 2024 during the Heritage Open Weekend. They observed the Read More …

Jeremiah Horrocks Lecture: The Extremely Large Telescope-The Biggest Eye on the Sky

Speaker: Ruben Sanchez-Janssen, UK Astronomy Technology Centre The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is the world’s most ambitious ground-based optical-infrared astronomical facility. When it achieves first light in 2028 the sensitivity and spatial resolution provided by its 39m diameter primary mirror will dwarf those of existing facilities. In this talk I Read More …

Astronomers Unveil Strong Magnetic Fields Spiralling at the Edge of Milky Way’s Central Black Hole

An international team of astronomers, including those from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), has uncovered strong and organized magnetic fields spiralling from the edge of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). Produced by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration and seen in polarized light for the first Read More …