RAS Library and Archives

White marble depicting William Huggins and Margaret Lindsay Huggins.

Good to finally see the plaque dedicated to pioneering astronomers Willam and Margaret Huggins in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral this evening. Installed in 1917.

There aren't many other women commemorated in the 500 or so monuments here, but this post reveals more: lookup.london/women-of-st-....

BBC Four - The Sky at Night, Greenwich: A Journey Through Space and Time The team celebrate the 350th anniversary of the Royal Observatory.

Sky at Night - BBC 4 tonight at 21.50 - celebrates the 350th birthday of Royal Observatory Greenwich, and we get to talk about time and black holes. It's genuinely a great episode - please watch. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Left to right: Sean Prosser, Pam Rowden Adam Boal.

Left to right: Sian Prosser, Pam Rowden and Adam Boal, ready for visitors at the RAS @royalastrosoc.bsky.social stand at the Lambeth Country Show. @astrolibrarian.bsky.social @oxfordacademic.bsky.social Come and meet us to learn more about the RAS and engage in some fun activities.

Amazing #histastro acquisition of a rare catalogue annotated by Flamsteed himself! Congratulations to @jasonwdean.com and the Linda Hall Library.

Cover of a program for “Libraries of Science” at the Royal Society” with a picture of lots of old book spines.

Something a bit different for me today - attending this event on “Libraries of Science” talking later about my “Astronomers Library” book. 🔭👩‍🔬🎢

A woman in front of a stone building with the label “R. Astronomical Soc.”

Book plate saying “Presenter to the Royal Astronomical Society by Karen Masters”

A woman standing by a quilt in a library. The quilt is Astronomy themed patchwork.

A man and a woman standing in a library holding a book called “The Astronomers Library”

Nice visit to the @royalastrosoc.bsky.social today - got to see my book in the library (and some other books) meet my editor, Roland Hall, in person and see the famous quilt. 🔭👩‍🔬

“Individual contributions are all too often forgotten, overshadowed, or never acknowledged; lost in the gaps among objects.” - Professor Stephen A. Harris, Druce Curator of Oxford University Herbaria. (Adapted from the foreword to Gem Toes-Crichton’s book.)” In this talk, Gem Toes-Crichton shares h Interstices | The Hidden Histories of Women in Botany

This #InternationalWomensDay, watch our fascinating talk from Gem Toes-Crichton on her visual research exploring pioneering women in botany.

She features Elizabeth Blackwell, Anna Atkins, and the 1994 winner of our Jill Smythies prize, Rosemary Wise.

Watch: www.youtube.com/watc...

#IWD2025

A photo portrait of Beatrice de Cardi

A photo of Gertrude Bell seated at an excavation site with male colleagues.

A photo of Margaret Stokes recording archaeological observations outside.

A profile photo portrait of Joan Evans.

On #IWD2025 we're celebrating the lives and legacies of four remarkable female scholars: Gertrude Bell, Beatrice de Cardi, Joan Evans, and Margaret Stokes. #AccelerateAction

See the whole thread for stories of women and (history of) astronomy for #IWD2025 - but nota bene historians of science: nominations sought for the 2026 RAS prize for historical research #histsci

Thanks to @rhiggitt.bsky.social for contributing Agnes M. Clerke posts forn #IWD2025 - you can read a fuller tribute here: www.pascal-theatre.com/biographies/...

Seven women members of the Liverpool Astronomical Society in an 1888 photograph.

As women gained increasing access to education in the late 1900s, they played an influential role in institutions like Liverpool Astronomical Society, which was founded in 1881. Seven of 49 members depicted in an 1888 multiple portrait photograph were women.

Graphic celebrating International Women's Day on a colourful galaxy background.

Happy International Women’s Day! 👩🏾‍🔬👩🏼‍🚀👩🏻‍🔧

To mark #IWD2025, the @royalastrosoc.bsky.social is celebrating some of the women who helped shape the history of astronomy.

Follow this thread to find out more…

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"The Job Is Not Done": Gender diversity in Australian astronomy - CSIRO PUBLISHING Toner Stevenson, author of an open access research article in Historical Records of Australian Science, sheds light on the challenges faced by women in astronomy between 1966-2023.

Ahead of #WomensDay tomorrow, we spoke with historian Toner Stevenson who recently co-authored an #OpenAccess article in Historical Records of Australian Science about gender diversity in Australian astronomy.

blog.publish.csiro.au/gender-diver...

#HistoricalRecordsAS #IWD #WomenInSTEM

Science Museum to open three new galleries in next five years - Museums Association Transformation includes closure of Exploring Space gallery after four decades

News | Science Museum to open three new galleries in next five years – transformation includes closure of Exploring Space gallery after four decades

YouTube video by IllinoisRBML Sacrifice to Truth: John Flamsteed, Isaac Newton & the destruction of the 1712 "Historia Coelestis"

The video of my talk @illinoisrbml.bsky.social about Flamsteed's 1712 "Historia Coelestis" is now up! Thanks to @lynnemthomas.com for the invite and @hillemmalouise.bsky.social for the collab on our man, JF. Enjoy, and share! #HistSci 📜 📚 #histSTM #astronomy #histastro 🗃️🔭
youtu.be/E0ofUoEv4cc?...

8 women in Scotland who shaped the history of science | National Museums Scotland Many of the scientific endeavours featured in our collections are the work of women with a connection to Scotland. Below, we've highlighted key contributio

For #WomeninScienceDay, here's a listicle of women linked to @ntlmuseumsscot.bsky.social collections and stories #histstm www.nms.ac.uk/discover-cat...

SCIENCESHOTS What does a scientist look like? Children are drawing women more than ever before

When asked to draw a scientist, school-age kids in the United States are increasingly sketching women, according to a study from 2018.

Read more on #WomenInScienceDay: https://scim.ag/4hOUuvx

Royal Astronomical Society President Professor Mike Lockwood opens European AstroFest 2025.

Professor Mike Lockwood addresses the audience.

A crowd of people listening to Professor Mike Lockwood at the opening of the European AstroFest conference.

We're at European AstroFest 2025 in Kensington, west London, today! 👋 🚀

@royalastrosoc.bsky.social President Mike Lockwood opened the two-day conference, which is one of the biggest astronomy shows of its kind in the UK.

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The last great naked-eye astronomer. Anybody cognizant with the history of astronomy in the Early Modern Period almost certainly thinks that the tittle of this post alludes to Tycho Brahe but in fact it refers to a man born ten years …

The Danzig astronomer Johannes Hevelius was born 28 January 1611 #histsci
thonyc.wordpress.com/2012/01/28/t...

The RAS logo with text reading "Join us! Apply now".

📝 Job vacancy 📝

The Royal Astronomical Society wishes to appoint an Editor for its flagship members' magazine Astronomy & Geophysics.

Want to apply or find out more? Visit: https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/news/job-vacancy-ag-editor

January A&G Highlight's Meeting RAS Meetings | Friday, 10 of January 2025 - 16:00 | January A&G Highlight's Meeting

To learn more, book a free ticket for the hybrid A&G Highlights Meeting and drop into the RAS Library to see our temporary display if you are at Burlington House! ras.ac.uk/events-and-m...

On “Relativistic Degeneracy.” A. S. Eddington; On “Relativistic Degeneracy.”, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 95, Issue 3, 1 January 1935, Pages 194, https://d

Chandrasekhar's paper, ‘The Highly Collapsed Configurations of a Stellar Mass’ received a response from Sir Arthur Eddington entitled 'On relativistic degeneracy' in which he was extremely critical of Chandrasekhar’s theory. academic.oup.com/mnras/articl...

A graph from S. Chandrasekhar's paper 'The highly collapsed configurations of a stellar mass' showing the relationship between the mass of a star and the radius of a star. The graph is labelled: "Figure 2 - the Full line curve represents the exact (mass-radius)-reation for the highly collapsed configurations. This curve tends asymptotically to the ---- curve as at M -> o."

Chandrasekhar’s paper on was read at a meeting of @royalastrosoc.bsky.social on 11 January 1935. Chandrasekhar showed that as the mass of a white dwarf reaches the maximum mass, the star’s radius becomes zero and the star shrinks to nothing – the Chandrasekhar Limit. academic.oup.com/mnras/articl...

The buff-coloured cover of a manuscript inscribed with the name S. Chandrasekhar and the title 'Tabulation of ϕ and the Auxiliary-functions (see M.N. 95.3 1935)'. This manuscript was deposited in the Royal Astronomical Society library and archive by Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. The tables accompanied Chandrasekhar’s paper “The Highly Collapsed Configurations of a Stellar Mass (Second Paper)” which was published in Volume 95, Number 3, of Monthly Notices of the RAS, in January 1935. The paper was read at a meeting of the Society on 11th January 1935.

Nilanjan P. Choudhury will be one of the speakers at the January A&G Highlights Meeting. His play about S. Chandrasekhar and Arthur Eddington has inspired archivist Kate Bond to curate a display relating to the 90th anniversary of the clash between the two astronomers ras.ac.uk/events-and-m...

Two biscuits stacked on top of one another, designed to look like a rotating diagram from an early modern astronomical book. The lower biscuit is circular and features a series of horizontal lines and tiny numbers in an early modern font. The top biscuit is roughly in the shape of boat: the 'mast' area reads 'zenith'; the main body of the shape features tiny figures in historical dress holding astronomical instruments and a Latin motto reading 'Nulla dies sine linea'.

Centuries ago, many astronomical books included moving parts to help readers interpret the world around them.

This biscuit recreates a diagram from Sacrobosco’s ‘De Sphaera’ (c.1550). It could be used to calculate the changing length of daylight hours through the year. 🍪

Thanks to everyone who took part in our tour this evening! Deborah Kent will be talking about the events of 1874 at the next A&G highlights meeting on Friday 13/12/24 - to book tour free ticket (in person online) go to ras.ac.uk/events-and-m... - more details will be added soon.

An archivist is turning the pages of a scrapbook/photograph album which supported on a book rest on a table in a library. She is surrounded by visitors looking at the album. As always, the overly large shades of the table lamps of the RAS library are in the foreground.

Thanks to Kate for hosting our behind the scenes tour of Burlington House! Here she is showing a scrapbook about the 1874 Transit of Venus expedition to Kerguelen island to our visitors.

Our Archivist Kate Bond kicks off our anniversary tour of @royalastrosoc.bsky.social

Late Astronomer Royal for Scotland and past winner of an RAS Gold Medal Professor John Brown.

Have you booked your ticket for this year's John Brown Memorial Lecture?

The talk, held in honour of the late Astronomer Royal for Scotland and past winner of an Royal Astronomical Society Gold Medal, will take place on Wednesday 4 December.

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To accompany Professor Ian Crawford's lecture on the Fermi Paradox, we've put together a display of 17th- and 18th-century speculations about life on the Moon, including lunar maps by Riccioli, Grimaldi and Hevelius.