Herstmonceux Trip 9/11/2010

On Tuesday 9th November the GCSE Astronomy class visited the Observatory Science Centre at Herstmonceux. This famous site was set up in the 1950s when too much light pollution in London forced the Royal Observatory in Greenwich to relocate. It is a picturesque site set in lovely country side.



It has 6 domes housing the following:
Dome A - The 30-inch Thompson Reflector
Dome B - The 36-inch Yapp Reflector
Dome C - The Hewitt Camera
Dome D - The 13-inch Astrographic Refractor
Dome E - The 26-inch Thompson Refractor
Dome F - The Congo Scmidt and The Domes of Discovery Exhibition

We travelled to Herstmonceux in an Uplands mini bus arriving at 6pm in dark, windy and rainy weather. This meant starting off inside on the excellent hands on exhibits, followed by a baked potato supper. It looked like it might clear, but it was still raining so we then went into dome E.
This dome is really big – so that the huge telescope in there can be moved around to point to any part of the sky. In order to reach the eye piece the floor of the building moves up. It was like being in a James Bond movie!
We then had pockets of clear sky between the cloud, so we moved to dome D where the 13 inch telescope was lined up on Jupiter and its 4 largest moons. A really great sight: the moons in a row around Jupiter, and bands of colour easily seen on Jupiter itself.
We then looked inside dome A to see a large reflecting telescope with its complicated set of mirrors so that the light can be used for spectroscopy in a separate dark room.
The rest of the evening alternated between outside observing (our host pointing things out with his 50mW green laser) and back inside on the exhibits to warm up.

A really great evening for which a special thanks goes to the great Herstmonceux staff. Uplands students were a credit to the school, being enthusiastic, polite and good natured.

Not too sure about the singing on the way home though...

Mr Pert