astronomy – Inside HSM Oxford

‘Women and Science’ Series – From burnt toast to the Big Bang: How galaxies at the beginning of time affect your breakfast

Emily Algar — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 13:00:00 +0000

Dr Rebecca Bowler is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Oxford. Rebecca’s research involves studying some of the early galaxies that formed within the first billion years in the life of the Universe. In this blog post, Rebecca talks about the thing that inspired her to pursue a career in astrophysics. Burnt toast, ... [Read more...]

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‘Women and Science’ Series – Women and Space: Inspiring the next generation of scientists

Emily Algar — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 16:01:57 +0000

Helen Pooley, the Museum’s Learning Officer, introduces the display in her blog, and talks about why inspiring girls and women to pursue their passions and curiosity in the sciences is important. The History of Science Museum has many wonderful objects. We also have some great paintings of illustrious scientists on our walls. Unfortunately, there aren’t ... [Read more...]

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Building time machines

Scott Billings — Thu, 28 May 2015 14:57:54 +0000

The Museum is famous for its collection of astrolabes, the largest and most significant in the world and particularly strong in Islamic instruments. An astrolabe is a brilliant astronomical device used, very roughly speaking, for timekeeping. But as researcher Taha Yasin Arslan explains, timekeeping in the medieval Muslim world involved many different things… by Taha Yasin ... [Read more...]

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The Robot Telescope

Scott Billings — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 14:26:13 +0000

In the late 1980s, amateur astronomer Jack Ells built an Automatic Photoelectric Telescope (APT) that, after a half-hour set-up, could operate unattended all night under the control of a BBC microcomputer. This ‘Robot Telescope’ was used to collect data about variable stars and was so well constructed that it could produce work of a professional standard. ... [Read more...]

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