Wed 25th Jan 2023
Time: 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm
Place: St. Francis of Assisi Church Hall
Category: Monthly Society Meetings
At our January meeting, Mat Irvine will give a talk titled Visionary: the life of Arthur C. Clarke.
Mat Irvine is a founding member of the Astronomical Society of Haringey. The Society grew out of a suggestion from Sir Patrick Moore and the Patron is Sir Arthur C. Clarke. He is also a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society. Mat knew Sir Arthur C Clarke, and other members of the Clarke family, for about 40 years. His lecture will be based on his published book of the same title. This is a look at his life and times, particularly some of Arthur C Clarke’s many ideas, inventions and visions.
Mat developed an early interest in space and astronomy and built up one of the largest collections of spacecraft models in the UK. The interest became work when he joined the BBC in 1969, first working for BBC News photo library. From there he went on to work in the BBC Visual Effects Department for 20 years. Amongst the more usual TV fare of dramas and comedies, he worked on two of the Corporation’s main SF fare, Doctor Who and Blake’s 7 and also the multi-award winning Edge of Darkness. On the non-fiction side he supported programmes about Apollo-Soyuz, Skylab, Viking and the first flights of the Space Shuttle, plus many science and space-oriented documentaries and programmes, for Tomorrow’s World, Horizon, The Sky at Night and QED.
The Meeting will start at 7.45pm. The hall doors are open from 7:00pm and members are welcome to attend from this time to assist, set up the hall and socialise.