How far away is the sun?

HOW FAR AWAY IS THE SUN?

Professor Don Kurtz, Centre for Space Research, Physics Department, North-West University, Mahikeng, South Africa                            

Monday 27 January  3.00 pm  COURSE FEES R110; Staff and students R55

Everyone is taught as a child that the Sun is 150 million kilometres away from the Earth. But how do we know that? Have a look at the Sun at sunset sometime. Is it obvious to you how far away it is? The Sun is ½° in angular size, but then so is the Moon, which is only 384 000 kilometres away. So we cannot determine the distance to the Sun from just looking at it. Finding its distance was the major scientific challenge of the eighteenth century. This lecture will tell a story involving a stone tower, a dungeon, a great Dane, a hypochondriac, Shakespeare, a child prodigy, a genius, sea battles and voyages of discovery, royal observatories, a clockmaker, a gentleman returned from the dead, and even Dixieland jazz.

TO BOOK: https://www.webtickets.co.za/v2/performance.aspx?itemid=1554942060