Radar remote sensing: Monitoring our homes, skies, and planets ~ Dr. Matthew Brolly (University of Brighton)

Radio detecting and ranging, or radar, has been a vital technology since World War 2 and its development and secrecy, maintained by the Allied forces, was instrumental in defeating Nazi Germany. Following the end of the war, in which this technology saw rapid development, a surplus of brilliant engineers were left without a focus for their efforts. Two new civilian streams of research were born Radio Astronomy and Radar Astronomy. Thanks to these civilian developments radar is now in mainstream use in civilian and military aviation, interplanetary exploration, and for the constant monitoring of our home planet. This talk will focus primarily on radar and its development as an Earth observation tool looking at the ways it has, does, and will help us to enjoy, manage, and protect our home planet for today and future generations.

Black Holes, Spacetime and the case for Gravitional Waves ~ A discussion lead by Mike Oakes, Simon Allen, Tony Baxter and David Pulley

Last month saw the momentous announcement of the discovery of gravitational waves giving, after 100 years, further confirmation of Einstein's theory of General Relativity.  Tonight we take an overview of this recent discovery and discuss some of the issues behind it and what it means for the future of astronomy.