Astronomy (and physics, to a slightly lesser extent) has been an interest of mine since I was 10 years old. I am a member of the South Peninsula Astronomy Club (SPARC), which was founded in November 2004 by Wolfgang Lange. The club meets once a month in Fish Hoek (a suburb of Cape Town in South Africa) ; contact me if you'd like to join the club or attend one of our meetings.
| I've given talks on the following subjects at the South Peninsula Astronomy Club: |
| The Life Cycle of Stars | 28 April 2005 |
| Lesser Objects of the Solar System | 27 October 2005 |
| Relativity Demystified | 24 May 2006 |
| The Astronomical Magnitude Scale | 28 February 2007 |
| Black Holes | 26 April 2007 |
| The Big Bang | 31 January 2008 |
| Classifications of Stars | 30 April 2009 |
| Uranus, Ultraviolet and the Uncertainty Principle | 24 February 2011 |
| Space Exploration 1958-2011 | 29 September 2011 |
| Is there Gravity in Space? | 3 May 2012 |
| So exactly how many planets are there? | 7 June 2012 |
| Escape Velocity - a myth dispelled | 3 October 2012 |
| Stars for Beginners | 2 May 2013 |
| The Quantum Universe | 7 November 2013 |
| The Higgs Boson and the particle zoo | 5 March 2015 |
| Gravitational Waves | 7 July 2016 |
| Stephen Hawking's Life and Work | 3 May 2018 |
Still interested? Try any of the following books on astronomy and physics ; those marked with * are highly recommended:
| Title |
Author |
Remarks |
| * Big Bang |
Simon Singh |
An absolutely superb account of how the Big Bang theory of the universe's creation came to be generally accepted. Quite possibly the best general science book I've ever read. |
| * The Fabric of the Cosmos |
Brian Greene |
An excellent general explanation of the current state of the various theories in physics, from relativity to quantum mechanics to string theory. The main pages of the book are oriented to the layman, but much more detailed and mathematical explanations of many tricky concepts are included in an appendix. |
| Black Holes and Baby Universes |
Kip Thorne |
Everything you ever wanted to know about black holes and how Einstein's theory of general relativity affects them. |
| Warped Passages |
Lisa Randall |
Insightful explanations of some of the weird concepts of quantum physics, as well as an introduction to esoteric ideas such as Brane Theory. Parts of this book can be difficult to read. |
| The Trouble with Physics |
Lee Smolin |
A layman's overview of some the issues plaguing modern-day theoretical physics, principally concerning String Theory (which is still unproven and seemingly unprovable). |
| The Universe and Life |
G. Siegfried Kutter |
A detailed but readable explanation of cosmic evolution. |
| A Brief History of Time |
Stephen Hawking |
A classic book, written by the most well-known scientist of our era, but unfortunately quite hard to read. |
| * Quantum |
Manjit Kumar |
An account of the great debate between Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, which started in the 1920's and is still raging today. |
| The 4% Universe |
Richard Panek |
Insightful explanations of the two biggest problems facing astronomers today - Dark Matter and Dark Energy, which collectively comprise 96% of the known universe. |
| The Rough Guide to the Universe |
John Scalzi |
Part of the excellent "Rough Guides" series, this is an outstanding introduction to everything in the known universe. Very good for beginners or if you want to look up something that you can't quite remember. Well structured and laid-out with plenty of photographs, illustrations and diagrams. |
| The Universe - A Biography |
John Gribbin |
A good, very up-to-date summary of everything we know about the universe. The book describes how the universe began, what the early universe looked like, how its structure (stars, galaxies, etc) developed, what emerged to hold it all together and how life as we know it emerged. |
| * In Search of Schrödinger's Cat |
John Gribbin |
An excellent layman's explanation of quantum physics. |
| A Short History of Nearly Everything |
Bill Bryson |
Not strictly-speaking a serious science book, but I've included it because Bryson is an outstanding writer and manages to explain complex issues simply, clearly and with his characteristic sense of humour. |