“Aspects of Astronomy” at Scarborough Philatelic Society

Gold medal awarded to John Herschel in 1826.

Andy Exton FRAS following an invitation to Scarborough & Ryedale AS members visited the Scarborough Philatelic Society on Tuesday 7th May 2013 to listen to the Aspects of Astronomy talk by Margaret Morris.  Margaret from the Glasgow Astronomical Society has a lifelong interest in astronomy which included working at the University of Glasgow observatories as well as a hobby in stamp collecting.

Gold medal awarded to John Herschel in 1826 (Reverse)

The evening was split into two parts.  The first was a fraction of Margarets’ stamp collection split into sections including eclipses, Copernicus, observatories, Captain James Cook (Margaret is also a member of the Captain Cook Society) and “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” – looking at distances and compositions of stars.

The second part of the evening looked at an area known as social philately and was a collection of mainly letters relating to 19th century astronomy.  This included letters between astronomers, publishers of almanacs, quotes for observatory building and more.  As well as letters, other exhibits included newspaper articles, books and also the gold medal awarded in 1826 to John Herschel by the Astronomical Society of London (later to become the Royal Astronomical Society).

A thoroughly enjoyable evening and a pleasure to meet Margaret again following her talk on the Transit of Venus for the society in 2012.