Use the links below to find out more about the Earth and Beyond at The University of Manchester...
Discover the excitement of astronomy with the Children's University of Manchester. Ian Morison, well known astronomer at The University of Manchester will be your guide!
Astronomer Ian Morison is operations engineer at The University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Observatory. He also lectures in astronomy at the University. In the 1970s Ian helped design the MERLIN telescope - a 217km network of telescopes from the Welsh borders to Cambridge, which are linked to form one of the world's most important radio telescopes.
Ian also co-ordinated Project Phoenix, which was hoping to find alien life by detecting radio signals that might be coming from extra-terrestrials. He lectures in astronomy at night-classes throughout the North of England and to astronomical societies across the United Kingdom. He has co-authored two books, "Astronomy" and "Pocket Stars", whose aim is to encourage observation of the beautiful objects that can be seen in the heavens and to explain what they are.
In 2003, Ian Morison was over the moon when he had a minor planet named after him. Just five miles across and now called Ianmorison, it is visible only as a tiny dot of light but Ian has been given a very nice image taken with the Faulkes Telescope on Hawaii. Despite it being described only as a minor planet, Ian is delighted - "I've had a smile on my face ever since I found out." This "minor" honour is in recognition of Ian's role at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, Cheshire, and of his work in bringing astronomy to a wide public.
Ian Morison, who made his first telescope from lenses he obtained from his optician when he was 12, was told about the honour on his 60th birthday.
He said: "It gives you a touch of immortality as it will still be there long after you have gone."
Join Ian and discover more about the sky at night in Manchester...