The Rambling Astronomer

Following the Norman invasion of Britain in 1066 there was a period during the next 200 years of a series of building not only building castles but also Abbeys and Monasteries. In Yorkshire alone there were over a dozen built, and these were built of stone and replaced the wooden Anglo Saxon structures. They did have one thing in common though; they had extensive libraries, which allowed them to become great places of learning, and as we all know knowledge is power.


Some of the richest abbeys and monasteries in England were in Yorkshire at places like St Mary’s Abbey in York, Fountains Abbey near Ripon and Rievaulx Abbey near Helmsley. In addition to the religious aspect of their lives they were also great natural philosophers noting everything that was happening around them into natural world.

The Anglo-Saxon period is often known as the Dark Ages because we know so little about it, but astronomically it could not be more interesting. During this time there were several major events with global effects. In Britain it was a time of diverse views about the heavens, with Celtic, Greek, Saxon and Viking ideas all competing with each other.

When we think of astronomy we sometimes foget about the prehistoric pwriod, apart from the meteor which destroyed the dinosaurs an Stoneheneg.

In the firt of a new series I will take you back 35 million years to when a meteor landed in what is now the Noeth Sea. Then we move forwrad to around 5,500 years ago and look at the Thornborough Henges. A series of henges that line up with Orion's Belt, yet pre date the pyramids in Egypt by 1,000 years. We end up with a series of standing stones near Boroughbrige called the Devi's Arrows.

Another little known Yorkshire astronomer, Herbert Hall Turner was born in Leeds and is prehaps not that well know, but he devised the astronomical unit of the parsec which is used by astronomers today and also plays a part in the naming of Pluto.

Sir Fred Hoyle was one of the most courful characters in astronomy. This is the man who gave us the term the Big Bang although he did not believe in the theory. The is the incredible story of a Yorkshire working at Cambridge.

Scriven Bolton 1883-1929 is a Yorkshire astronomer whose life and work is hardly known yet his contributions in particular in the field of astronomical illustrations were incredible and his work almost certainly influenced the famous American space scientist Chesley Bonestell.

Edward Milne was born in Hessle near Hull, his research included atomic physics, meteorological physics, and solar and stellar physics in particular stellar atmospheres and the structure of the Sun and stars.

One of the most important meteorites on Earth, this is the amazing and incredible story of the Middlesbrough Meteorite.

Alfred Fowler was born on March 22nd 1868 at Wilsden on the outskirts of Bradford and would become one of the most important astronomers of the first half of the 20th century. His work in the field of spectroscopy would lay the basis of modern physical astronomy.

In 1919 he would become the first General Secretary of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) an association of professional astronomers active in research and teaching. The IAU still today the body that represents professional astronomers.

Although not born in Yorkshire Frank Watson Dyson attended the Heath Grammar School in Halifax before going onto Cambridge to study astronomy in mathematics.

He was astronomer royal from 1910-1933 but he is probably best known for his introduction of the six Greenwich time Pips timesignal in 1924.