UCLan’s Jeremiah Horrocks Observatory, Moor Park, Preston

This year’s Jeremiah Horrocks Winter Lecture is about three North Country astronomers: Jeremiah Horrocks, William Crabtree & William Gascoigne, Britain’s first great research astronomers.

Three private individuals, fully informed of the European discoveries, were at the forefront of the next wave of astronomical innovation: Jeremiah Horrocks of Liverpool and Preston; William Crabtree of Salford; and William Gascoigne of Leeds. Working and corresponding between 1635 and 1644, these three men were the founders of the ‘new’ astronomy in Great Britain. And by the 1660s – by which time all were dead – they would be hailed by the new Royal Society in London, known in Paris, Leiden and Bologna, while Jeremiah Horrockses great Venus transit observation of 1639 – from the village of Much Hoole – would be published in Danzig (Gdansk) by his great Polish admirer, Johannes Hevelius, in 1662. The Three Astronomers’ story is such that one could scarcely believe it if it were not true.

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The lecture will take place on Tuesday, 8 December 2015 from 6.30pm to 8.30pm in the Darwin Lecture Theatre

University of Central Lancashire. Marsh Lane. Preston, PR1 2HE GB

You can book your free ticket here.

Are you interested in finding out more of the three North Country astronomers? Let us know in the comments below.