Mark Thompson

As a presenter on the RTS nominated BBC Stargazing LIVE (alongside Professor Brian Cox and Dara O Briain) Mark Thompson has helped inspire 4 million viewers to get out and enjoy the night sky. A specialist presenter on ITV's This Morning and Radio Five Live, Mark has also been a key contributor to the BBC Sky at Night, The Alan Titchmarsh Show and The Culture Show. He has written a number of books for Philip's, including Philip's Stargazing With Mark Thompson and Philip's Astrophotography With Mark Thompson, and his articles can regularly be found in Astronomy Now, Discovery News and Sen.

Born in Norfolk, Mark has had a fascination with the sky ever since he was a small boy. At the age of 10 he got his first view through a telescope of Saturn, rings and all, hanging there against a velvet black sky. It was for real, not a picture in a book – another world billions of miles away. This ignited a passion that has stayed with him ever since. Over the last 20 years Mark has lectured on a vast array of astronomical subjects, from the Moon to black holes and the end of the Universe. His research interests have chiefly centred on deep space, the study of stars exploding at the end of their lives and distant galaxies believed to host supermassive black holes.

Mark's enthusiastic outreach work has led him to serving on the Council of the Royal Astronomical Society and speaking at a number of national events including the National Astronomy Meeting. Find him on Twitter @PeoplesAstro