About the Lecture: Are you interested in the different cultures around the world? Many cultures have different ideas about society and this is also true for astronomy. As astronomers we know how the constellations divide up the sky in our culture. But what about other cultures? How have other cultures attempted to interpret the night sky. What legends exist in these cultures? This talk includes tales from the Aborigines, Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks and Chinese.

About the Speaker: Valerie was born in Oldham, Lancashire but grew up in the Northamptonshire village of Woodford Halse. She is still in touch with school friends at Brackley High School for Girls where she was Head Girl. 

She is an experienced writer and presenter. Her first book was “A Course on Programming in FORTRAN IV” and was published in 1969. This became an established text book on University Computer Science Courses in the UK, Spain and Russia. It went into 3 Editions and sold a total of 40,000 copies over a period of 20 years. Her second book, “Bomber Jack”, about her father, was published in 2009 under her maiden name of Valerie Ashton. 

Valerie was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society on the sponsorship of Sir Patrick Moore. She lectures extensively on Astronomy and her talks are very popular because of her light hearted and entertaining style. She has recently published her latest book “Cruising the Cosmos” which has been developed from her talks.

PLEASE NOTE: There are no physical tickets. Zoom login information will be emailed to you prior to the event.