We had a great turnout at our 4-Steps event, Navigating the Night Sky at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh last night. Alan Pickup gave a very engaging talk on how to find your way around the sky and what to see there. And Betelgeuse still hasn’t gone supernova…
Our 4-Steps to the Stars events are aimed at helping people to get into astronomy, including online advice on buying a telescope, workshops to learn how to use a telescope, finding your way around the sky and then imaging it.
Sean Wixted, our Secretary, hosted the event and introduced the Society and our other events to the visitors. Feedback from the event has already been very positive and there is clearly an appetite for more of these sorts of events, as well as public observing and maybe another Telescope Help Shop.
We had hoped to go outside afterwards and take a guided tour with our own eyes but the weather initially seemed to be against us. However, a few hardy souls hung around and were rewarded as the clouds rolled away and we could see many of the things that Alan had been describing. We managed to observed the Orion Nebula and Pleiades with binoculars as well as a few other objects. It was very cold and windy though!
We are hoping to do some public observing events later this year where you can look through our telescopes – let’s hope the weather helps us. Keep an eye on our website and Facebook page for details.
Many thanks to the ROE for allowing us to use their lecture theatre and especially Olivia for staying around to allow us to do this.