The Star that Changed Colour

Guest Speaker

Thursday, 23rd October 2025 (19:45 - 22:00)

Venue: Meeting Room

Adam McMaster will be exploring HD 36451, a star in the constellation Auriga.

Although not among the most famous stars, HD 36451 holds interest because it appears in the double‑star catalogue and presents a nice example of how even “ordinary” stars carry stories worth telling.

His goal: to uncover what we do know about it, what remains uncertain, and what questions it invites for further study.

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Speaker: Adam McMaster

I am an astronomer at the University of Southampton, specialising in time-domain astronomy and the classification of astronomical light curves through citizen science. I lead two Zooniverse projects: Black Hole Hunters, which searches for black holes in self-lensing binary systems, and SuperWASP Variable Stars, which catalogues variable stars using archival data from the SuperWASP all-sky survey.

My research interests include astrophysical transients, variable phenomena across the universe, and the application of machine learning techniques to the analysis and classification of large astronomical datasets.