Speaker profile
Dr Julian Onions
FRAS, MinstP
Available for booking
Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England
180 miles travel distance
Academic Lecturer
Research Astronomer
Professional Astronomer
Summary
Julian is an experienced presenter who loves sharing his enthusiasm with all types of audience.
Affiliations
Lectures
Cold Dark Matter - is it cold, dark and does it matter?
We hear a lot about dark matter in astronomy. Some people consider it a fudge. In this talk we'll go through the evidence for dark matter and the history of it, and answer the questions in the title. No particular prior knowledge is assumed.
A universe from scratch
Astronomy is mostly a visual and non-experimental science. We can only look at what is out there but can't brings stars and galaxies into the lab. However we can build them inside computers and attempt to simulate them. In this talk, we will see how simulations can show us how the universe evolves and what we can do with them, and what areas we are still struggling to make models of.
Galaxies - one gigayear at a time
What are galaxies, how are they classified, how are they formed, what do we understand about their lives, and how many pretty pictures can I fit in one talk.
Observing at the INT - you just press the button right?
An observing trip to the Isaac Newton telescope. I got a chance to do some observing with the 2.5 m Isaac Newton telescope, should be straightforward? Just click and point? Not quite! So what does it actually take to set up and use a professional telescope? How do you plan and execute an observing run?
The far side of the moon - is it full of aliens?
The Moon is a shy body, it only ever shows one sides of itself to the Earth. Before the space age, we had no idea what was on the far side of the Moon. This has led to a number of conspiracy theories that it is a haven for aliens. In this talk, we'll chart the progress of how we got to see what was on the far side of the Moon, and what we found there. Tin foil hats are optional!
Crazy interstellar rockets
What sort of rockets or spaceships could we use to go to the distant stars. We will explore some of the crazier designs that have been proposed over the years, most of which have some possibility of working. The future may be nearer than we think!
Black Holes - are they really that bad?
Black holes have got a pretty bad rap from films and books, being looked on as terrifying objects that suck spaceships and astronauts to their doom. Are they really that bad? How are they made? Can you escape from one?
Aperture Fever - does my mirror look big in this?
After a very brief review of how telescopes work, we look at some of the existing telescopes, both visible and other wavebands, and consider why they are so big, what they can and can't see and what the telescopes planned for the next few years will deliver.