Seeing the beauty and detail of the night sky can be an amazing experience for individuals but it seems to occur less frequently in our lives. It might be light pollution drowing out our ability to see celestial wonders, the lure of mobile phone screen, or our busy lives driving us to look down and forward, racing to the next thing on the list. Prof Stephen Hawking wrote:

“Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up“

We can bring that experience to you, subject to ameniable weather forecasts. Large telescopes, both traditional and computer controlled, can be set up by volunteers in school playgrounds or community spaces. Crewed by Simon and, for larger numbers, volunteers from Bath Astronomers, all can get to see what’s going on in Near Earth Orbit, the Solar System, and our local galactic environment that evening. A typical session will involve an introduction to the night sky whilst everyone’s night vision improves, a visual tour of the night sky, its bright stars and constellations, and specific targeted views of celestial objects such as the Moon, the planets, star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies. Electronically assisted astronomy is used to compensate in areas where light pollution is problematic so even what seems hidden by modern life can be seen.

Sessions can run for several hours although to make a generalistion most young people are engaged for up to 30 minutes and so for school visits the recommendation is to run a carousel of activities of 30 minutes of which stargazing in the playground is one. Astro Thoughts can supply the other teacher/parent led activities.

The Weather

Coping with the UK weather is a bit of a problem, but we’ve been doing it for years now. The strategies are:

• Book two different dates and run on the first date with a good forecast. A school/organisation can hold two stargazing bookings at a time and simply rebook if the clouds don’t permit.
• Book one date and run a carousel of activities with a replacement activity for stargazing if the weather is inclement. A popular option is the mobile planetarium as the fallback activity so young people still get to see stars.
• Book two dates and if the reserve is needed, run whatever using the mobile planetarium or similiar as a replacement activity.

Astro Thoughts use multiple forecasts to make a decision on whether stargazing will be possible. The earliest decision will be 48 hours prior to the booking although when the weather is changeable a final call 24 hours prior will be made.

Seasonal Start Times

Stargazing is easiest to undertake after sunset, in the later part of twilight. For ease, the end of nautical twilight is chosen as the standard start time. This time varies throughout the year and you can see the effect of start times in the table below. So for Primary school audiences, the season is from end of October to late February to ensure the latest we finish a playground stargazing event is 20:00 (8pm).