Atoms and Galaxies

The Norman Lockyer Observatory in Sidmouth houses over two hundred magic lantern slides concerning eclipse expeditions. These materials were intended for display during Lockyer’s public lectures, and date from the mid-1890s onwards, covering the last years of his astronomical career. They provide a unique glimpse into these expeditions, ranging from recreation to instrument rehearsals and coronal photography. Through these images, this talk will explore how these expeditions and their findings shaped the course of the "new astronomy", and how Lockyer's speculations anticipated the atomic age.

The solar corona is the outer layer of the atmosphere of the Sun. The corona is hot (getting up to more than one million degrees), but it doesn't always stay hot. In places it cools resulting in an incredibly beautiful phenomenon known as coronal rain. In this talk I will explore the heating and cooling cycles of the solar atmosphere and discuss why a rainy day on the Sun is really important for understanding the mysterious million-degree corona.

How many planets exist out there? Do they resemble those in our Solar System? I will describe the 30-year journey of exoplanet studies, from the first unexpected detections to the latest discoveries enabled by powerful ground-based and space-borne telescopes. We are now able to probe the atmospheres of exoplanets and even, thanks to direct imaging, to take pictures of some of them. With a new generation of instruments on the horizon, we are closer than ever to knowing how common Earth-like planets are and to searching for evidence of life.