Stuart Lowe

Astronomy Outreach

I did my PhD in radio astronomy at Jodrell Bank Observatory (now Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics). I worked on the One-Centimetre Receiver Array Prototype (OCRA-p) on the Torun 32m radio telescope in Poland and then on the European Space Agency's Planck spacecraft (I'm a Planck Scientist).

Over the years I've taken an inflatable planetarium to primary schools in the north-west of England, helped to run the Jodrell Bank transit of Venus event, coordinated two Harry Potter book launches/astronomy nights (for books 6 and 7), hosted Ask an Astronomer sessions, maintained profiles for radio telescopes on Twitter, curated the Jodrell Bank Twitter account, created the Twitter feed for Astronomy Picture of the Day, co-founded the UK's first astronomy podcast, developed Chromoscope, and created LookUP.

At LCOGT I've changed the way observations are organised on the website, created observation slideshows, added new output formats, experimented with FITS files, created embeddable views of the night sky, helped create Show Me Stars, and co-designed/coded Agent Exoplanet.

I also have a test area where I play with new ideas.