# Popular Astronomy Lectures
for Schools
and General Audiences

**Source**: https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/reachlist.html
**Parent**: https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/?page_id=60

# *Popular Astronomy Lectures for Schools and General Audiences*

Above is a montage of some title pages for lectures
which
I have developed as part of  "Reach for the Stars" - a project
funded
initially by the [Particle Physics and
Astronomy Research Council](http://www.pparc.ac.uk).  All lectures have been prepared
in
PowerPoint, and many are available (with accompanying notes) for download.  Click [here](#complete_list) for a complete list of presentations.

**If you are interested in arranging a lecture at
your
School, or gaining web access to copies of the lectures, email [martin@astro.gla.ac.uk](mailto:martin@astro.gla.ac.uk)**

Talks aimed particularly (but not exclusively!) at
secondary
schools' physics students are:-

|  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Title** | **Topics covered** | **Level** |
| **Rocket Science** | How do rockets work in space?   Newton's laws of motion and gravity;   Gravity in Einstein's universe;   Future space travel: solar sails and fusion rockets;   Black holes, hyperspace and warp drive?.... | Standard grade   Higher grade   Advanced Higher |
| **Extra-Terrestrial Life:**   **Is there Anybody Out There?** | Life in the Solar System: Greenhouse effect, tides   Extra-Solar Planets: making stars 'wobble'   Doppler effect; the Bohr atom; atomic spectra   Detecting Earth-like planets using spectra   SETI: the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence | Standard grade   Higher grade   Advanced Higher |
| **Getting the Measure**   **of the Universe** | How planets move - before and after Copernicus   Galileo's telescopes, Kepler's laws and Newton's gravity   Measuring planetary distances: Pythagoras at work   Measuring the speed of light using marshmallows!   Atomic spectra and extra-solar planets | Standard grade   Higher grade   Advanced Higher |
| **The Life and Death of Stars** | Energy from the Sun: Solar flares and Solar storms   Forming stars and planets: gas pressure and gravity   Hydrogen fusion: fuelling the Sun's nuclear furnace   When the fuel runs out: red giants and white dwarfs   Supernovae explosions: putting the Iron in Irn Bru! | Higher grade   Advanced Higher |
| **Light in Lumps or Ripples** | Newton's early ideas about light; reflection and refraction   Measuring the speed of light   Young's slits and the interference of light   The ultraviolet catastrophe and the Bohr atom   The photoelectric effect: Einstein triumphs again!   De Broglie waves and quantum mechanics   Heisenberg, Schrodinger's Cat and non-locality | Higher grade   Advanced Higher |
| **The Runaway Universe** | Measuring astronomical distances   Hubble's law and the expansion of the Universe   Random and systematic errors   Will the Universe expand forever?   Echoes of the Big Bang: the Microwave Background Radiation   Dark Matter and Dark Energy | Higher grade   Advanced Higher |
| **Einstein's Universe** | Newton's laws of motion   Newton's gravity: 'action at a distance'   Measuring the speed of light   The elusive ether and Einstein's Special Relativity   Spacetime and moving clocks   General Relativity: gravity and spacetime warps | Advanced Higher |

**Complete List of
Presentations**

- [Did we land on the Moon?](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/moonhoax.jpg)
- [Astronomy, from Galileo to Hubble and
  Beyond](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/hubble_ex1.jpg)
- [Cosmic Catastrophes](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/catastrophes.jpg)
- [Cosmology in the Third Millennium](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/third_millennium.jpg)
- [Dark Energy](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/dark_orkney.jpg)
- [Death of the Dinosaurs](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/dinos.jpg)
- [Deep Impacts](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/deep_impacts.jpg)
- [Echoes of the Big Bang](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/echoes.jpg)
- [Einstein's Universe](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/rel_kgs.jpg)
- [ET Life: Is There Anybody Out There?](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/etlife.jpg)
- [Five Millennia of Scottish Astronomy](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/scottish.jpg)
- [Getting the Measure of the Universe](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/measure_rse.gif)
- [A History of Astronomy at Glasgow
  University](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/history_glasgow.jpg)
- [Hubble Vision](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/hubble.jpg)
- [In the Beginning](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/cosmo_grafton.jpg)
- [The Life and Death of Stars](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/life_death.jpg)
- [Light in Lumps or Ripples](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/light_orkney.jpg)
- [Overwhelmingly Large Telescopes](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/owl_a3m.jpg)
- [The Physics of Star Wars](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/starwars.jpg)
- [Putting the Iron in Irn Bru](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/irnbru.jpg)
- [Quarks to Quasars](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/quarks.jpg)
- [A Recipe for Galaxy Formation](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/recipe.jpg)
- [Rocket Science](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/rocket.jpg)
- [The Runaway Universe](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/runaway_rse.jpg)
- [Sacred Sites and the Archaeo-astronomical
  Work
  of Alexander Thom](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/thom.jpg)
- [The Search Beyond the Sun](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/search.jpg)
- [Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/mexico.jpg)
- [The Solar System - from Galileo to Galileo](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/galileo.jpg)
- [Strings Membranes and Cosmic Foam](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/strings_foam.jpg)
- [Sun and Moon, Clocks and Calendars](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/calendars.jpg)
- [To Infinity and Beyond](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/infinity.jpg)
- [The Transit of Venus: Captain Cook
  and the Cosmic Yardstick](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/venus_transit.jpg)
- [What if the Moon Didn't Exist?](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/moon.jpg)
- [Why are We Here?](https://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/martin/outreach/why_here.jpg)