comets

Comets – Ancient Icy Visitors from the Edge of our Solar System

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March Star Stories at Abriachan Forest

Join us up at Abriachan Forest on March 25th (a Dark Sky Discovery site) for an evening of stargazing and storytelling.

For March we welcome HAS’s Maarten De Vries as our guest astronomer with a talk titled “Comets – Ancient Icy Visitors from the Edge of our Solar System”. Maarten had his first experience with comets when he was 11 years only and has been an ardent observer of the night sky ever since.

Additionally we welcome Fiona Macdonald our guest storyteller for the evening, sharing tales over the campfire.

Plus outdoor naked eye stargazing with astronomer Stephen Mackintosh if conditions are favourable.

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.

Ticket can be purchased here.

Comet Swan

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Image of Comet Swan, now a naked eye object at magnitude 5.1. Unfortunately views will be challenging this far north due to sky brightness and low viewing altitudes. Friends further south might have some luck especially near the end of May, but best views will be in the southern hemisphere.  I’ll post more observing details later this month.  Stay tuned to my FB site meanwhile.

GSC On Tour

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Ross teaching us how to make a comet in a bin bag!

We had a great day of outdoor and indoor astronomy learning with our guests from Glasgow Science Centre on Saturday.

Ross and Andrew travelled all the way up the A9 loaded with space and science kit to kick off our first 2019 daytime event for the Star Stories programme.

Ross ran a fascinating hands-on Comet making workshop in the outdoor woodcraft shed, demonstrating how Comets form and disintegrate as they travel around the Sun.

Meanwhile Andrew presented an indoor planetarium show using a projector and Stellarium software, taking audiences across the night sky and explaining some of the science and mythology of the constellations.

Everyone seemed to have a great time and we’re looking forward to continuing the summer programme with our Summer Solstice event on the 21st June.  Please check my facebook page for booking details in the weeks ahead.

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Interactive exhibits kept the youngsters entertained between learning streams

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Outdoor astronomy learning

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Andrew’s star hopping presentation

 

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Star Stories – Glasgow Science Centre On Tour Special

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As part of the Star Stories programme up at Abriachan Forest we’ve invited the On Tour outreach team at Glasgow Science Centre to kickstart our daytime events on April 27th.

The GSC team will deliver indoor stargazing activities as well as meteorite handling, and comet and crater making. They’ll also be bringing a sample of their interactive science exhibits.

If you’d like to attend please book via the eventbrite link here and also look out for more astronomy events over the brighter months.  We have plans to purchase a Hydrogen alpha telescope in the next few weeks which will form the basis for some outdoor solar events.  Follow this blog or keep tabs on my facebook page for developments.

There’s still a few tickets left for the last dark sky observing session in March available here.