Public Lecture at Lauriston Castle

Professor Andy Lawrence will give a public talk as part of the Lauriston Castle series, entitled “Stars, Time and Mountains: The Legacy of Charles Piazzi Smyth“. As Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Piazzi Smyth created the One O’Clock Gun tradition, started the idea of mountaintop astronomy, pioneered stereo photography, measured the Great Pyramid of Gizeh (and came up with some strange theories…), wrote many popular books, and created large numbers of beautiful watercolours. In this talk, Professor Lawrence will look at his legacy in Science, Art, Photography and Egyptology, and show rarely seen treasures from the archives of the Royal Observatory Edinburgh.