Sad News – Legal Department: Richard Murtagh LLB, LLM, Barrister

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Richard Murtagh. Richard sadly died on 27th April 2018 if Pneumonia.  Richard was due to begin the second year of his GCSE (9-1) Astronomy with us after transferring from the old format. He had put a lot of time and effort into documenting his studies. Newton’s Notepad being one of his projects.

Richard also became a voluntary legal counsel to OAS Academy, assisting us in a number of issues. He will be sadly missed.

Alastair Leith FOASA B.Sc (Hons) – Founder and Director.

Alastair Leith is himself a qualified tutor holding both the Award in Education and Training, TAQA Assessors qualification, and the TAP Cert. He is also an e-learning consultant and media designer. He does not tutor as much but does have a hand in course writing and design. Also running, supporting, and administering the VLE.
He has also been an amateur astronomer for over 30 years. He is the founder of the Online Astronomy Society Academy which he started in the wake of the passing of his hero, Sir Patrick Moore. The happy union between his passion for Astronomy and training. When not running OASA and OAS Alastair is interested in History, cooking, gardening, and Wing Chun Kung Fu.
He has a book coming out on Spectroscopy by beginners and has assisted Lucy Hawkings on several book projects. He is also a qualified First Aid Instructor and runs a consultancy training first aid. He lives in Northampton (not far from Shaun Badmin) with his wife, Cathy, and three children, Alexander, William, and Abigail

His astronomical interests are particularly in Solar Astronomy, Spectroscopy, outreach and education (you probably guessed that!). He has written and created much of the material on the academy including;

The Astronomy for Beginners
Solar Astronomy with a PST
Spectroscopy for beginners
Astrophysics and Space Exploration (co written with Dr Nigel Marshall)
Imaging with a webcam

Dr Nigel Marshall (GCSE and Astrophysics & Space Science course manager and tutor)

Dr Nigel Marshall has taught Astronomy at GCSE level for the last 20 years.  He is also an experienced examiner having been Principal Moderator for Coursework and, more recently, Chief Examiner for the subject.  His book GCSE Astronomy – A Guide for Pupils and Teachers is now in its fourth, full-colour edition and it has become the established textbook for students of GCSE Astronomy; it attracts favourable 5-star reviews on Amazon.co.uk and is frequently top of their best-seller list for educational books in Astronomy and Cosmology.

Robert Ratford FOASA –  Senior GCSE Astronomy tutor

Robert is a semi retired tutor based in Dagenham, Essex. When not teaching Astronomy he loves to work on his other sideline, servicing Microscopes.