Speaker: Mary McIntyre

Some of you may remember Mary's previous talks to Witney u3a. She is an astronomy speaker, writer, astrophotographer and astronomy/space artist based in Oxfordshire. Mary gained a love of the Moon from her Mum and has been giving numerous astronomy presentations for many years. She has presented a webinar for Sky at Night Magazine and had many articles appear in the magazine. Mary has made many appearances on radio and TV and is a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and a member of the British Astronomical Association. This year Mary joined the Go Stargazing team of on-board astronomers for Fred Olsen Cruises. 

With her first telescope at age 11, she managed to view the Moon through it using instructions from a book! Her basic understanding and passion were re-ignited when Mary became disabled and had to give up work for several years. She studied via the Open University and now has her dream job. Mary and her husband are keen astrophotographers and enjoy imaging from their home observatory.  Shadows are everywhere, here on Earth, on the surface of the moons and out in space causing eclipses. Our understanding of solar system bodies has been transformed by studying the shadows visible in images taken by the cameras on space probes. The talk takes you on a shadowy quest across the Earth and the rest of our solar system.