News

Astrofest Quiz 2013 - The quiz, the answers and the winners.

Over 250 visitors tried their hand at the Astronomy Quiz at Astrofest 2013.

The main prize winners were:

Lee Banwell from Croydon (Friday), and J Salmon from Kensington (Saturday).

The winners of the junior prizes were Nina from Surrey (Friday) and Gwenedd from Harrow (Saturday).

Modules Availability and Fees for 2013/14

The module availability has now been updated for start of courses Oct 2013 with a look ahead until 2015/16. See Module Availability page for details. The module fees for 2013/14 Astronomy Distance Learning Courses have now been approved for next year. We are please to say that we have been able to keep them down to comparable to last year for most students.

UClan Astronomers discover largest structure in the Universe

An international team of astronomers, led by academics from the University of Central Lancashire, has found the largest known structure in the universe. The large quasar group (LQG) is so large that it would take a vehicle travelling at the speed of light some 4 billion years to cross it. The team publish their results in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Draft Module Schedules for 2012/13

Draft module schedules for 2012/13 are now available for the modules starting in October 2012.

They are linked under 'Draft Schedule' for each entry on the 'View all Modules' page.

They show provisional Course Work deadlines and on-line classroom dates.

Start of Course 15 October 2012

This year's courses will all be starting on the 15th October 2012.

If you have been asked to enrol online, please ensure that you have completed on-line enrollment. This will enable you to see your list of modules when they become available to students on Blackboard on approximately the 15th October 2012. See Current Students' tab for updates.

Please will any one who has received a payment request but not yet paid do so as quickly as you can as this enables the enrollment process to get started.

Over the next few days we will post additional news.

Alston Observatory Weekend 2012

The annual Alston Observatory weekend took place on February 17-19 2012. Students enjoyed the astronomy activities, observing, talks and interaction with other students and Course Team staff.

Invited public talk by BSc student

One of the students on our BSc (Hons) in Astronomy has been invited to give a series of talks to the Newcastle Astronomical Society.

AstroQuiz 2012 - the answers!

A copy of the Astroquiz we took to Astrofest in London, and the names of this year's winners!

Applications for Oct 2012 start are now open

Applications are now open for new students wishing to apply for one of our Distance Learning courses for October 2012 start.

Alston weekend 2011

The annual Alston Observatory weekend took place on February 25-27 2011. Students enjoyed the astronomy activities, observing, talks and interaction with other students and Course Team staff.

Astrofest Quiz - the answers!

A copy of the Astroquiz we took to Astrofest in London.

Applications for 2011 start are now open

Applications are now open for new students wishing to apply for one of our Distance Learning courses for October 2011 start.

Stargazing Live events at UCLan

The University of Central Lancashire will host two Stargazing Live events in January 2011.

Distance learning students capture solar eclipse

First graduates of BSc in Astronomy

Two distance learning students were awarded their BSc (Hons) in Astronomy at a Graduation Ceremony in Preston.

Results now available and prizewinners

Results for all our courses have been released and prizewinners for our entry point courses announced

Alston Observatory weekend 2010

The annual Alston Observatory weekend took place on March 12-14 2010. Despite the overcast weather, students enjoyed the astronomy activities, talks and interaction with other students and Course Team staff.

Applications for 2010 start are now open

Applications are now open for new students wishing to apply for one of our Distance Learning courses for October 2010 start.

UCLan Astronomer on the Jodcast - January 2010

On a recent research visit to the University of Manchester, Dr Stewart Eyres took some time out to give and interview to Dr Tim O'Brien for inclusion in the January 2010 Extra Jodcast. He spoke to Tim about the fascinating born-again giant star Sakurai's object, ranging over stellar evolution, planetary nebulae, white dwarfs and the contribution amateur astronomers can make to modern science.

Induction for courses starting 2009 October

Our courses commence during the week beginning the 12th October. We will be releasing materials via WebCT, sending out induction packs and beginning the process of tutoring students. See the Current Students link on this website to check on progress of the induction process for your module, and to troubleshoot any problems you may encounter.

Astrophysics students in South Africa

Three astrophysics degree students have recently returned from a trip to South Africa, where the University has invested in the Southern African Large Telescope. As well as touring SALT, they carried out observations on research-class telescopes, visited amazing and historic sites around South Africa and spoke to children in a number of schools.

Prize Winners 2009

Results Day for the Distance Learning Courses is Friday 26th June 2009. Congratulations to all our students who have successfully completed their modules. Special congratulations go to our Prizewinners for 2009.

Part-time PhD bursary at UCLan - new date

Modelling chemical evolution in Elliptical Galaxies and Spiral Bulges: UCLan is funding a number of Part-Time PhD places through the Arnoux bursary scheme. One of these is available within the Extragalactic Astrophysics group, in the subject area of understanding stellar populations in galaxies. The student will work at UCLan's main campus in Preston.

Jeremiah Horrocks Institute launch

The Centre for Astrophysics will transform into the Jeremiah Horrocks Institute for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (JHI for short) over the course of 2009. This new institute draws in researchers making use of high-performance computing in areas as diverse as soft matter physics, bioinformatics and the structure of galaxies.

Astronomy research success at UCLan

The astrophysics research at UCLan has come out well from the recent government assessment, with a large fraction of our work judged to be of international standing.

The Universe is twice as bright as we thought!

Astronomers from UK Universities, including UCLan, working with colleagues from Germany and Australia have calculated that the Universe is actually twice as bright as previously thought. In the latest Astrophysical Journal Letters (10th May), the astronomers describe how dust is obscuring approximately half of the light that the Universe is currently generating.

Invisible sunspots uncovered with Astrogrid

A team of scientists led by Silvia Dalla, of the Centre for Astrophysics, have discovered that 44 percent of new sunspots forming in the West of the Sun are invisible to our best telescopes. They analysed nearly 7,000 sunspots that were observed over a 25 year period and found some areas of the Sun's disk are missing new sunspots compared to others.