Elected Officers

Chair Carolyn Kennett

Ms Carolyn Kennett FRAS is a writer, researcher and astronomer who lives in Cornwall. She researches ancient communities and how they made connections to their skyscapes. She is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and her books include Sites of Prehistoric Bodmin Moor (2022), Uranus and Neptune (2022), Celestial Stone Circles of West Cornwall (2018) and Neptune: From Grand Discovery to World Revealed (2021). She is a communicator of all things astronomical and runs her own walking tours and outreach business Archaeoastronomy Cornwall, while being a director of Mayes Creative, who deliver arts, science and heritage projects throughout Cornwall.

Vice-Chair David Sellers

David grew up in the Calder Valley, near Halifax. He is a civil engineer by profession and, before retirement, was the Flood Risk Manager of Leeds City Council. He is a founder member of the SHA and is particularly interested in the history of positional astronomy – especially in the 17^th-18^th centuries.

David is the author of books on the transit of Venus and on the life of William Gascoigne, the first inventor of the telescopic sight and the telescope micrometer. Taking a special delight in the intertwining of social and technological history, he has also written a short book on the somewhat unsavoury topic of The History of Sewerage in Leeds. He is currently writing a biography of the Victorian astronomer and educationalist, Charles Thomas Whitmell. When not pursuing arcane historical research, he can often be found listening to Greek folk music.

General Secretary Mike Leggett

Treasurer Dr Geoff A. King  Geoff is a geophysicist by training and profession.  He spent much of his early working life in academic and industrial research and development, in later years moving to operations and technology management.  Having had an international career with several multinationals he is now retired from work and runs a small consulting company. His interests include solar, lunar, variable star astronomy, and learning more about the development of astronomy and cosmology from ancient civilizations to the present.

Membership Secretary  Graham Jones

Council Members

        SHA Survey Co-ordinator Kevin Johnson

Librarian James Dawson

James lives in Nottinghamshire and is an anaesthetist by profession, and he never tires of hearing jokes about putting people to sleep. As well as being the Librarian for the SHA he is also the SHA’s County Co-ordinator for Nottinghamshire, hoping to continue the excellent work Madeline Cox had begun. James is interested in solar system imaging and DSLR wide-field astrophotography, and about the life and times of Victorian and 20th century astronomers, both professional and amateur.

Publicity Secretary  Dr Geoff A. King

Editor, SHA Bulletin Kevin Walsh

Editor, SHA e-News David Sellers

Online Editor John W. Chuter

John has been interested in Astronomy from the age of seven when he read ‘The larousse Encyclopaedia of Astronomy’ from cover to cover, What fascinated him was the enormous scale of everything. Since then he has belonged to several local and national astronomical societies and joined the SHA when he realised that he was becoming increasingly interested in the History of Astronomy, both locally and further afield.

Co-opted Officers

Archivist John W. Chuter

Editor, The Antiquarian Astronomer Ian Ridpath

Ian is editor of the Oxford Dictionary of Astronomy and author of many popular books on astronomy. He is a winner of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific’s award for outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy. His main interests are the history and mythology of the constellations, which he wrote about in his book Star Tales, and he collects antique star atlases. Ian is a former Council member of the Royal Astronomical Society, and a member of the International Astronomical Union

Assistant Librarian Carolyn Bedwell

        Meetings Secretary  Mike Frost