Speaker profile
Mr Les Brand
Available for booking
Upminster, Greater London, England
50 miles travel distance
Professional Astronomer
Astrophotographer
Planetarium Presenter
Summary
Astronomer, astrophotographer and science communicator.
Full biography
Les is a part-time astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich and regularly delivers exciting and informative shows to schools and the public at the Peter Harrison Planetarium. He also delivers the ever-popular Evening with the Stars events, showing people the wonders of the night sky from the heart of London. He teaches introductory online courses on astronomy and astrophotography.
Les has his own back garden observatory and owns several telescopes and cameras with which he battles London's light pollution and clouds! He was an advisor on recent BBC series Universe where he showed it was possible to capture an image of a distant galaxy from Canary Wharf. Les is a committee member of Havering Astronomical Society and as a STEM ambassador regularly gives talks to schools and leads the Young Astronomers club.
A Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and lifelong learner, his knowledge of astronomy and astrophotography is largely self-taught although he completed a masters degree in astrophysics in 2024 proving you're never too old to get the grey matter working.
In person or online talks (experienced across most platforms, Zoom, Webex, Teams)
Stargazing sessions
Mr Les Brand can host stargazing sessions including guided tours of the night skies and observing using telescopes or binoculars.
Affiliations
Lectures
Space, It's Big
General introduction to the solar system and the universe. Aimed primarily at young audiences and families, this talk is also great for non-astronomy groups
Is there anybody out there?
This talk covers the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe.
Introduction to astrophotography
How to get started with only a DSLR or mirrorless camera, lenses and a tripod. It covers the basics about setting up, navigating the night sky and introduces processing.
Variable stars and how to observe them
A summary of different types of variable stars and how it's possible to observe them using standard astro kit and produce light curves that can contribute to research.
