LUAstro Newsletter - January 2026
Looking back on the 56 years of an Astronomy Society at Lancaster University
Welcome, and (a belated) Happy New Year from all of us at LUAstro! This month’s newsletter is a special-edition on the history of the society, which has its origins back in 1970 - making our society only 6 years younger than Lancaster University itself!
As well as this, we will be sharing some of our best photos from this month - including some fantastic photos of the Northern Lights and Jupiter, by Leo O’Hara!
Back to the beginning
In 1969, the year that Humanity first went to the Moon, Allan Chapman arrived at Lancaster University as a mature student. Since he first saw the Moon in a telescope at Torquay Harbour, he grew fascinated with Astronomy. He went on to build his own telescope (at only around the age of 12) out of an old pair of spectacles and a Watchmaker’s eyeglass, and was an early member of his local Salford Astronomical Society, back when it was founded in 1965.
Upon joining Lancaster University, he immediately set about creating an Astronomical Society of his own - the group we know today as LUAstro.
He was informed that the University Offices had a telescope which he was free to use - a Japanese-made 3-inch Equatorial Refractor with a tripod. That could have been as far as the Society went, but Chapman decided to go further. He wanted to create an observatory for it, on campus and by hand, for use by students and staff alike.
The Observatory rapidly took shape in my mind, and from the six College Student Unions then in the University, I raised about £100 to fund it. Permission was granted for a small observatory on the University Field Station off the lane leading down to Galgate, and I prepared a set of drawings (I was always a good draughtsman) for submission to the University Architect. The plans were accepted, and I began work on the Observatory in early July 1970. I was allowed to retain my room in Fylde College during construction, and returned to my native Swinton & Pendlebury on my small motorcycle every few days.
- Dr Allan Chapman, 2024
Ultimately, the entire Observatory was designed and mainly constructed by him in less than one month - an accomplishment made even more impressive by the fact that he studied neither Physics nor Engineering, but was a reader in History. As it was a summer vacation when it was being constructed, no students were around to witness the construction. Once they returned the term later, however, the Observatory attracted hosts of students, who mostly wanted to view the lunar craters through the 3-inch refractor and to see the dome rotate.
The Bailrigg Observatory was an excellent success for the Society, and marked some of the first practical Astronomy done by students at the University (predating both the University's first focus on Astrophysics and Cosmology in the early 1980s and the formation of the University's Observational Astrophysics Group which was set up in 2015). In fact the Physics Department itself was only officially set up a year before, in 1969, and the main Physics Building only constructed a couple of years prior too.
A notable motivator for the Observatory's construction was the Mercury Transit of the 9th May 1970. This was key in growing an interest in Astronomy across the university at the time by showing the true potential of the Society's original 3-inch refractor - and thus encouraging funding for an Observatory to house it.
Dr Chapman received the Queen's Award in 1970 for the highest first-year exam marks in his degree, and went on graduate with a high 'First' Grade two years later; going on to receive a doctorate in the History of Astronomy at Oxford. After he left, the observatory field was taken for the further development of the university, the wooden observatory building demolished, and the six-foot dome acquired by Denis Buczynski, a serious Lancaster Amateur Astronomer, who took it for his new home and Observatory in Scotland.
The Early Society
After Dr Allan Chapman left Lancaster in 1972, his Observatory was dismantled - but with that, was left a vacuum. At some point in the following six years, a new Observatory was built to fill this - Fylde Observatory. It was situated beside the accommodation of Fylde College on the University Campus, from which it got its name, with access via a bridge walkway into an adjacent room.
Unfortunately, the sequel doesn’t always hold up to the original. Fylde Observatory was a joint project between Physics and the Environmental Sciences Department (led by Professor Lionel Wilson, with members of his Lunar and Planetary Unit, amongst others). This setup of the Observatory as an inter-departmental project led to a variety of complications. Access was seemingly controlled through Environmental Sciences, but, as a joint Physics-EnvSci project, the actual responsibility of the Observatory was shared between the departments. The bureaucracy of this greatly restricted its use by students, and it was mainly used by staff of each department as a result.
It boasted an impressive 11" Newtonian telescope on an Equatorial mount, but its location at the centre of campus along the South Spine caused light and heat pollution to restrain the observation of any deep-sky objects using the telescope; causing it to be used solely for Lunar observations. Alongside this, reports detail that the observatory’s dome was particularly unstable, with the observatory’s shutter known to frequently blow off onto the South Spine in strong winds!
Fylde Observatory was ostensibly a passion project of certain staff and researchers at the time. Such, with them moving onto new things or departing the University, it eventually fell into disrepair sometime in the 80s. Dr Ian Bradley, who used the Observatory when it was in its prime, explained his shock to me when he revisited it after so many years…
I returned as a new-blood lecturer in 1986... and needless to say, I enquired about the Fylde Observatory of Keith Wigmore... I was devastated when I went in there. The dome slit was only partially closed with the sliding hardboard partially up leaving a gap of around half a meter or so! The mount was a rusting wreck and didn't look salvageable. The telescope was not mounted on the mount but the tube was just stood upright. The mirror was lying uncovered on a bench, silvered side up, and covered in leaves... The Newtonian secondary and eyepieces had all gone... I removed the mirror in an attempt to keep it safe hoping at some point we could resurrect the instrument. Health and Safety stopped access to the dome given the dodgy nature, of that, and eventually the observatory was removed and the roof sealed.
Dr Ian Bradley, 2025
Despite all my looking, I’ve yet to find any images of Fylde Observatory itself. Dr Russell Harvey, manager of the Teaching Laboratories in the Physics Department, was able to save the only remaining part of the Observatory from being taken from storage - the mirror of the 11-inch Newtonian. Maybe someday it will be used again…
But what about the society itself at this time? Records suggest that Chapman’s original Astronomy society existed in some form at the university up until at least 1978, but after this information becomes scarce. Denis Buczynski, who bought Chapman’s original Observatory dome, went on to found the Lancaster & Morecambe Astronomical Society (or LaMAS) on the 11th January, 1978 - seemingly inspired by the growth of the Astronomy Society at the university. From them I’ve found a couple of newspaper clippings of events around this time.
The Inbetween Years
I spent a long time trying to find records of the Society during the 90s, to no avail. Initially, I assumed this was just due to me missing some records, but then I realised something crucial. Fylde Observatory was dismantled in the late 80s, with its main telescope considered unusable, and the staff whose passion built the project either having left the university or moved on to other projects. This, alongside how there was no Astronomy or Astrophysics-based module available for students, no departmentally-owned telescopes at all, and (as far as I can tell) not even one Astronomer / Astrophysicist in the Physics Department, explained this gap in the records completely. Due to this, there was likely no Astronomy Society at the university at this time. This started to change in the early 2000s, however…
At some point around 2000, Keith Wigmore - the only other person in the Department interested in amateur observation - met Dennis Buczynski (from LAMAS) and Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw, and it came up that there was her telescope sat at Dennis's house overlooking the Conder Valley, looking for a home... so Dennis and Glynn Marsh (from LAMAS and Preston and District AS) designed the dome structure which was built by Glynn's son who had a farm agricultural building construction business. I ended up designing the mount pillar and connection to SCT fork mount base, aligning then setting the SCT, and arranging the electronic control systems, so that project students could image from the warmth of the lab ... The dome was semi-motorised at a later date. ... We bought the SBIG cameras ... primarily for student projects.
Dr Ian Bradley, 2025
In 2001, the Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw Observatory was built atop the roof of the Physics Building; being opened officially by herself and Sir Patrick Moore a year later.
Following the opening ceremony, Sir Patrick gave a lecture entitled 'The Sky at Night' to a packed Faraday lecture theatre, in which he described highlights of the exploration of the solar system. As a token of appreciation for his visit, he was presented with a laser pointer by Professor Keith Wigmore (who was involved with the university’s earlier Fylde Observatory). Sir Patrick Moore was later guest of honour, together with Dame Kathleen, at a dinner in Cartmel College.
I am over the moon and half-way to Mars at having an observatory in my name ... I think Lancaster University Physics Department will become very famous for the research it is doing.
Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw, 2002
New Beginnings
The Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw Observatory remains to this day, although it is rarely used by the society at present due to a problem with the outer lens of its current telescope. On the 8th June, 2004, the 11-inch SCT donated by Dame Ollerenshaw was used by Dr Ian Bradley and his then-Masters’ student, Dr David Boyce, to observe the Transit of Venus across the Sun - with them even managing to detect the atmosphere of Venus. Not bad for some CCD cameras in Lancastrian weather!
In 2017, Antonio Coulton, a Physics student at the university, restarted the society in its current form (running it as President until 2020). Lots of events were run from this time - on the 12/12/18 they ran a Christmas Lecture Series in support of a local charity, stayed up all night on the 21/01/19 to view a Lunar Eclipse, and witnessed a partial Lunar Eclipse later on the 16/07/19. In Michaelmas Term, 2019, they attempted to run an Astrophotography Competition, a viewing of the Transit of Mercury on the 11/11/19, and even set up a “Lancaster University Space Program”! All of these events lead to the formation of the Society as it is today, and a huge growth in membership.
Various other students continued the society after Antonio. By 2022, the Society had an excellent range of equipment, lots of active members, and was taking some fantastic Astrophotography - some even good enough for official university outreach!
January Recap
So, that brings us to today! We have lots of exciting events planned for the term ahead (more details about them will be released soon), including a talk on the history of the Society by our President, John Ray, next week (more on which can be read about here).
For now, I’ll leave you with some photos members have taken to start off the new year.
cKeigue. | A guest post by
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