Students and staff from a local primary school were impressed with the outreach activities delivered by members of the Jeremiah Horrocks Institute. On Wednesday the 10th of September, Lecturer Dr Joanne Bibby and PhD student Dominic Bowman entertained staff members and pupils of New Longton All Saints Primary School. The class of thirty year 5 students were shown around the Wilfred Hall Telescope Dome, recently opened to schools following a successful Institute of Physics (IoP) public engagement grant back in 2013. The dome houses an historical spectacular 15 inch telescope on loan from the Royal Astronomical Society and the pupils were awestruck by its size and complexity.
Complimenting their space topic at school, the pupils and teachers were shown the Two Small Pieces of Glass movie which was published by the International Astronomy Union (IAU) in 2009 as part of the international year of astronomy and explores the history of telescopes, how they work and their discoveries which help astronomers understand our place in the universe. The pupils also had the opportunity to explore the night sky and the Solar System with the Planetarium, looking at the moons of Jupiter, Saturns’ rings and thinking about the Curiosity Rover on Mars. James Maloney, their teacher was pleased with the enthusiasm that the students showed towards the subject and said that they all learnt a lot, himself included.
Click here for video highlights of the day (credit: New Longton All Saints Primary School and James Maloney).
If you are interested in visiting Alston Observatory, you can find out more information on our own webpages http://www.star.uclan.ac.uk/alston/
or email us on our email address alstonobservatory@uclan.ac.uk