The Colours of Double Stars

Guest Speaker

Thursday, 1st October 2020 (19:45 - 22:00)

Venue: Virtual Meeting

The Colours of Double Stars. This is based on an article published recently in the Antiquarian Astronomer, co-authored with my friend Bill Sheehan (a psychiatrist and historian of astronomy). My talk would cover how different astronomers have perceived the colours of specific double stars, contrasting Smyth, Webb and Franks in the nineteenth century/early twentieth century with three modern observers, while also looking at colour perception by the eye and the scientific colours of stars which is governed by their temperatures.

Speaker: Dr. Peter.J.T.Morris

I am a historian of chemistry and an amateur astronomer. I was in charge of the chemistry collections at the Science Museum in South Kensington for 24 years, after taking degrees in chemistry and history at Oxford. In recent years I have taken up the observation of double stars as it is not badly affected by light pollution and have observed around 1200 double and multiple stars.