St Richard's Gifted & Talented Yr8s

Yesterday, Mr Pert and seven Yr8 students from Uplands [Charlie Oliver, Oscar Silburn, Amy Walter, Reece Lyons, Amie Smith, Cambell Chase & Joe Smiles] attended a Gifted & Talented conference at St Richard's Catholic College in Bexhill. We were one of eight schools invited.

The highlight for the 60-odd G&T students (and Mr Pert) was the star of the morning, Johny Ball, who gave a very entertaining talk on mathematics in many forms, including topics as varied as the Egyptian Pyramids and binary numbers! As those who remember him, from television shows back in the 1970s to 1990s, might guess, Mr Ball applied his usual sense of humour and enthusiasm to his favourite topic!

Some schools (including Chailey, Grove (Hastings), Bexhill high and Uplands) remained after lunch to participate in the afternoon's Science Masterclasses. The students had the choice of three workshop groups: solar telescope; spectroscopy (flame tests based on Einstein's e=hf) and a Faulkes Telescope session run by Mr Pert.

Faulkes Telescope group:
Before the time they were booked to take control of the Faulkes Telescope in Hawaii at 2.30pm (BST), the students in Mr Pert's workshop had plenty of opportunity to talk about the telescope and to use the Stellarium program to explore the Hawaiian night sky in advance. They chose several interesting objects they would like to view and take images of. Normally, Mr Pert will check the images are within the telescope's range, and not too close to the horizon or other bright objects, such as the Moon, Jupiter or Saturn, but this time he took the plunge and let the students enter the RA and Dec of each object they'd found.

The first two came out nicely:

Cocoon Nebula Sky Object Name: cocoon
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Jul 12, 2010 13:36:23 UTC
RA: 21h53'24"
DEC: 47°16'00"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 30 secs.
Instrument: EM01


Triangulum Galaxy (M33) Sky Object Name: triangulum galaxy
Taken By: Uplands Community College
When taken: Jul 12, 2010 13:44:08 UTC
RA: 1h33'54"
DEC: 30°39'00"
Filter: RGB
Exposure time: 30 secs.
Instrument: EM01

Unfortunately, as luck would have it (and weather is one of those unpredictable things in life we often put down to luck!) it clouded over half way through the session, producing these two disappointing images:

M72 and M59
. . . .

Once control of the telescope came to an end, the group were able to look at the images, discuss the session and answer questions.

Thanks to St Richard's, Johny Ball and those who ran the workshops, the day was thoroughly enjoyed by all!

College Newsletter article from St Richard's, Bexhill

In an invitation to Mr Pert to return to St Richard's College for an up-and-coming conference on 12th July, Dr Durkin said of the previous visit ".... my Year 8 Astronomy potentials were absolutely buzzing and I hope to have a full class come September"

The 12th July conference will be aimed at the Yr8s from eight schools local to St Richard's as well as a few students selected from Uplands Yr8, and will feature Johny Ball , presenter of the popular science and technology television programs for children in the 1970s, 80s and 90s (eg. "Think of a Number" and "Think Again"), doing lectures in the morning. Mr Pert's Faulkes Telescope demonstration will be one of the practical activities in the afternoon. Sounds like a fun day.

This is the College Newsletter article from St Richard's (Thank you so much, Dr Durkin...It's always great to get feedback, especially when it's so positive!):



Year 8 Stargazing ‘taster’ lesson

On Wednesday 5th May, Year 8 pupils interested in starting the new GCSE Astronomy course in September, were treated to a visit from visiting Astronomy teacher, Mr. Iain Pert from Uplands School.
The pupils had prepared for the visit by identifying faint inter stellar objects, visible in the night sky over the Southern Hemisphere, using the newly installed (and free to download at home) stellarium software on the notebooks.


Guided by Mr. Pert, pupils identified binary star systems, nebulae and galaxies to observe and take images of, using the Faulkes Telescope in Hawaii.
At our allotted time, we were given remote control of the telescope and were able to aim it towards our chosen regions of space. Pupils observed and imaged three different galaxies, M98 (bottom right), M101 (middle right) and M64,the ‘Black Eye Galaxy’ (top right)’.

The ‘Black eye’ galaxy has been studied extensively by the Hubble Deep Field Telescope, in orbit around the Earth, and its distinctive appearance is thought to be due to an absorbing dust cloud which was produced as two star systems merged. First catalogued in the 18th century, it is located roughly 17 million light years away from Earth.

Congratulations to the pupils who took these amazing images.

Dr. Durkin