The 2025 British Astronomical Association Historical Section Meeting was held on Saturday 2025 May 31. It was an in-person event held at the Devon and Exeter Institute in the centre of Exeter. However, on the evening before the main event Mike Frost gave a presentation at the Norman Lockyer Observatory in nearby Sidmouth, on the early life and times of Norman Lockyer in Rugby.

On Saturday, twenty-five Historical Section members and friends met in the newly restored Blue Room of the Devon & Exeter Institute. The morning session began at 10:00am with an introduction by Mike Frost and was continued with Bill Barton talking about ‘Roger Langdon: the Ingenious Stationmaster’. One reason this meeting was held in Exeter was to mark Langdon’s bicentenary. In this presentation Bill brought to the attention of the meeting a complete biography of this amateur astronomer who constructed and used four telescopes, while raising a family and working as a village Stationmaster at various locations in Somerset and Devon. At the end, there was time for a short discussion. 

The morning session ended with a tour of the D&EI; among the highlights was a model hemisphere of the Moon constructed by Roger Langdon in 1874. The meeting then paused for lunch. The afternoon session started with Bea Steele giving a presentation on ‘The Norman Lockyer Observatory & Archeoastronomy’. Using slides from the photographic archive at the NLO, Bea outlined the work done by J N Lockyer on prehistoric British monuments and their astronomical interpretation. Starting with sites in Egypt, Lockyer sought to demonstrate their alignment with certain celestial objects at specific points in civilisation’s history. In this he was following the Pyramid work of Charles Piazza Smyth. Lockyer then moved on to consider monuments in the UK. These were mainly stone circles. There was also a social aspect to his work.

The next speaker was Carolyn Kennett, who told the meeting about ‘Mary Proctor’. Carolyn is from, and is the SHA County Survey Coordinator for, Cornwall. In the course of Carolyn’s research, the name Mary Proctor come up repeatedly. Mary was interested in the Moon. Mary’s father, R A (Richard) Proctor, had written a whole book devoted to the Moon. He also edited ‘Knowledge’ magazine, and Mary occasionally wrote articles for him under the pseudonym Stella Occidens. In 1888 R A Proctor died, and the family life was disrupted. At 26 Mary needed to start to earn her own living. Mary took to writing and did some teaching. Her career really began with an address at the 1893 World Congress of Women. She had a poetical style of writing. Mary also gave lectures. In all her career lasted some 45 years, but the world moved on and by the time she died in 1957 she had sunk into obscurity. Carolyn closed by pointing out that the lunar crater Proctor is named for Mary not her father, as many people suppose. There was time for a few questions. 

The final speaker of the day was Wayne Orchiston whose subject was ‘John Tebbutt: a man in the Moon‘. After an introduction by Mike Frost, Wayne told the meeting about John Tebbutt, who was an amateur astronomer in Windsor, NSW, Australia and had an international reputation. His career in astronomy lasted from the 1850’s till his death in 1916. His observing and publishing output was so large that he was described as a ‘one man Greenwich Observatory’.

The meeting ended at 4:00pm.

On Sunday morning, a few section members visited the Norman Lockyer Observatory in nearby Sidmouth. They were shown several historic telescopes and a more modern planetarium. Finally, they went on to visit J N Lockyer’s final resting place in Salcombe Regis.

Bill Barton, Deputy Section Director

Speakers at the BAA Historical Section Meeting 2025.

L to R, Carolyn Kennett, Wayne Orchiston, Bea Steele, Mike Frost (Director), & Bill Barton (Deputy Director). Between Wayne and Bea is Roger Langdon’s 1874 plaster model of the visible hemisphere of the Moon.