Stories in the Sky – Cultural interpretations of visible patterns and rhythms

Charles Barclay, Associate Fellow and convener of the annual Astronomy for All Lectures, spoke at this year’s virtual event on Stories in the Sky – Cultural interpretations of visible patterns and rhythms.

If you were unable to attend the event, you can watch the lecture below:

Perhaps now, more than ever, we are realising the loss of our connection to our environment. This highly illustrated talk will explore the interpretations that came with patient observation of the night skies, of the patterns, cycles and rhythms, the need to build cosmologies and belief systems to provide structure for an otherwise bewildering existence. It will examine some of the stories that were common across the globe and that played a role in preliterate human development, and which in a busy, modern, light-polluted, world have largely been forgotten.

Charles Barclay is an Associate Fellow of Green Templeton College, University of Oxford  where he is convener of the annual Astronomy for All Lectures. He is an Outreach Astronomer, Director of the Blackett Observatory at Marlborough College and Academic visitor in the Astrophysics sub-department. He is a past Vice President of the Royal Astronomical Society.