MICHAEL MAUNDER FRAS  BSc CChem FRSC  CO-AUTHOR OF TWO BOOKS WITH SIR PATRICK MOORE

 

Michael Maunder's essential sense of fun lectures summed up - “let's discover something we can do” - hands on, if you like. Practical stargazing sessions whenever weather allows. But stargazing doesn't have to be at night and Michael also covers daytime phenomena and safe observing of the sun. Green flash is always on the agenda and a close weather eye will be kept for rarer haloes, arcs &c &c. Michael was President of the Junior Astronomical Society (now the Society for Popular Astronomy) in the '60s, served on its Council for many years and currently a Council Member of the British Astronomical Association. Michael was hooked on astronomy at a very early age and met Patrick Moore in 1956. That friendship lasted until Sir Patrick's death in 2012, co-authoring 2 books with him and inspiring a third “Lights in the Sky” on his own. Michael is in the “Guinness book of records” 3 times including 9minutes and 23seconds of sun eclipse totality on his last flight. Michael's science career is in forensic (CSI Miami stuff!) chemistry when his first job was analysing uranium ores, extracting multi-tonnage batches, onto gold whilst gaining a degree by part-time. He married and went to the Government Chemist Laboratory just as “Silent Spring” was published. His pesticides methods became the standard Government method for 2 decades. later, his drugs test kit is still used over 40 years later and an exhibit in the UK's Science Museum.In Government HQ Michael worked directly to the Chief Engineer and Scientist, before going private with an entrepreneural photographic chemicals manufacturing business – Speedibrews.Michael is a serial inventor and is currently working on a totally new photographic process that you can make and operate yourself, safely. This can be demonstrated, together with ordinary photography teach-ins. 

 

TOPICS:

 

ASTRONOMY – basics right through to practical sessions 

1. Basics

2. Equipment

3. Photography & How to

4. History

5. What's up there now

6. Northern Lights

7. Theory

8. How astronomy created the world we know since 1795

 

VOLCANOES

How I survived Krakatoa erupting-What is a volcano?-Global Warming, Global Cooling ,Climate changing?Travelogue

 

PHOTOGRAPHY

Basic techniques, Basic “tweaking” of your masterpiece, Practical picture taking,Equipment advice,How photography changed the way we live.