The new stargazing season at Abriachan Forest gets underway on November 2nd with a special musical event featuring local analogue synthesiser group QRM. In addition to the usual stargazing and astronomy, QRM will play a fully live synthesiser set against a backdrop of space and astronomy themed cosmic visuals.
Further details and ticket links for this launch event (and others) will be posted here on my blog or Facebook page in the next few weeks.
You can sample some of QRM’s live performances here. We anticipate the Abriachan performance to be about 30 minutes long with some Q&A with the band afterwards.
I’ve simplified my local astronomy and stargazing tours based out of Inverness. The offering is now open to small groups of between 1 and 4 people. All tours now go ahead irrespective of sky conditions with vehicle based planetarium tours offered as a backup if conditions are poor.
Previous offerings were too complex to manage based on conflicting schedules and weather cancelations.
I’ll be working with the Kingsmills Hotel starting this observing season, delivering bespoke stargazing experiences based out of Inverness for small and medium sized groups.
Here’s some facts and figures highlighting the impact of the Star Stories astronomy programme, running up at Abriachan forest since 2018 (after a pilot in 2017). As principle researcher for the Spark Award grant I’ve been sharing impact data with STFC, who’ll use it to better target future funding for science and astronomy outreach.
Local schools, scouting and astronomy organisations engaged with
High quality home baking by @Judith Mackintosh
Examples of astronomy topics and themes explored during the events:
Meteors, Venus, Life of Stars, Saturn, Aurora, Variable Stars, Night sky photography, Buying a Telescope, Orion, Island Universes, Scale of the Universe, Mesolithic Stargazing, Renaissance Astronomy, Globular Clusters,Summer and Winter Solstice, Moon, Gravitational Waves, Multiverses, Lord Kelvin, Age of Universe, Planetary Nubulae, Black Holes, Space Telescopes
Astronomy speakers:
Martin Hendry
Steve Owens
Graham Bradshaw
Maarten De Vries
Claire Rayne
Anthony Luke
Eric Walker
Catherine Haymans
Stephen Mackintosh
Glasgow Science Centre team
Storytellers:
Barbara Henderson
John Burns
Suzann Barr
Trish Matthews
Daniel Allison
Allis Balance
Chris Holland
Fiona Macdonald
Clelland McCallum
Gordon MacLellan
Key Findings
To engage wide audiences try to blend science and culture.
Binoculars are an empowering and inexpensive tool to access the night sky with large groups
Well managed social media pages are a great way to build communities and drive engagement
Audiences, particularly young people, are highly engaged by very challenging and abstract cosmology (don’t dumb down)
The ‘wonder’ of the night sky is a highly motivating vehicle to increase engagement in science and mathematics
The Future
Star Stories is now a well established astronomy outreach programme within the Highlands, close to the city of Inverness. Its events continue to sell out each season . Our new programme of events will kick off at the start of the 2024 winter season in October. We look forward to expanding the scope of the work, reaching new audiences and developing new and exciting content that will forge a bridge into science, mathematics and astronomy.
Our 2023/2024 season of astronomy outreach at Abriachan Forest ended on a high note this Saturday with a visit from Martin Hendry, Professor of Gravitational Astrophysics and Cosmology. Since 2022 Martin has been acting vice principle at the University of Glasgow and was formerly head of the school of Physics and Astronomy.
Martin’s packed talk was broadly about the age of the universe, but touched on the age of stars, stellar classification, cepheid variables, rates of cosmic expansion, and the important work undertaken by female astronomers like Henrietta Leavitt, Annie Jump Cannon and Williamina Fleming, who were instrumental in helping us calculate the distances to star clusters and galaxies. A special tribute was also paid to Lord Kelvin on the 2024 bicentenary of his birth.
Alas, we were not graced with clear skies for open air stargazing, so following Martin’s talk we both hosted a virtual planetarium tour instead, referencing many of the clusters, galaxies and some stars mentioned in the main talk.
Thanks to Suzann for the Kelvin and Constellation witches fingers which captivated some of the younger audience members, and my wife Judith for the excellent home bakes. I look forward to announcing our new new 2024/2025 program in October. Stay tuned for details.
Calculations of the age of the universe using a variety of datasets and methodologies, including galactic red shifts and globular clusters have broadly placed the age of the universe at about 14 billion years old.
Due to heavy snow this winter my Tales of the Moon event (with Steve Owens) has moved to February 17th and our scheduled event with Professor Martin Hendry is now March 9th. The former event has sold out but the Eventbrite links for March have just gone live. Please see details below if you wish to book:
Join us up at Abriachan Forest (a Dark Sky Discovery site) for an evening of stargazing with guest astronomer Martin Hendry, professor of Gravitational Astrophysics and Cosmology at the University of Glasgow.
Event format is weather proofed so please book with confidence. As well as our indoor guest speaker talk from Martin on the Age of the Universe (and Lord Kelvin) we’ll have outdoor (or indoor) night sky guiding with astronomer Stephen Mackintosh, possible telescopic views of Juipter and more family focused activities with the Abriachan team.
Refreshments and home bakes available. Due to site and classroom capacity, booking via Eventbrite is essential. Admission is free for under 16s with accompanying adults but please inform Abriachan of any large booking requests.
I’m delighted to announce the return of three excellent astronomers and guest speakers to Abriachan Forest this season.
On December 9th – Maarten De Vries (talking about Meteor Showers)
On January 20th – Steve Owens (joins me to Explore the Moon)
On February 10th – Martin Hendry (discusses Lord Kelvin and the Age of the Universe)
All guest speaker talks will be followed (or proceeded) by naked eye and binocular stargazing led by myself, or a backup indoor sky tour on planetarium software if clouds roll in. Plus storytelling and other activities led by the Abriachan team. Refreshments and home bakes provided.
Ticket links will go live roughly four weeks prior to each event so please stay tuned to my Facebook page for details as they do sell out very quickly.
| Modulo | Universe 