Key-note speaker Dr Allan Chapman was positively effervescent as he enthralled the large audience at July's joint meeting with the Society for the History of Astronomy. We ran overtime and were getting 'looks' from the venue staff, but only a fool would not have seen it through to the end as the learned and animated professor held forth without notes and at extended length on the complete history of the telescope from its probable use by a circle of astronomical enthusiasts in South Wales in 1609 to the decision of a 20th century lawyer to change career direction and start photographing nebulae. His name was Hubble and without the fateful decision of this hitherto amateur astronomer we might have had no Big Bang Theory and as for the space telescope, we'd have just had to call it after somebody else!

The picture, snatched quickly after the lecture had ended and before we were chucked out of the room, shows the two chairmen Patrick Mill (Scientific Instrument Society) and Gilbert Satterthwaite (Society for the History of Astronomy) flanking Dr Chapman. More details of the day, including details of the four member's talks are to be found on the appropriate programme page.