* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: York observatory

Blobrana · L

Martin Lunn can tell a lot from looking up at the stars.
On a clear night he can plot the various constellations with consummate ease, he can gauge the temperature of the brightest stars and should he ever find himself marooned on desert island, a quick glance to the heavens and he'd be able to tell the direction to home.
He and the rest of the world's astronomers can also have a good go at producing long-term weather forecasts, and the news for the UK, which has already spent the last month or so shivering beneath freezing temperatures, is not good.

York Observatory's Perihelion Party - Stargazing Live will take place from 5pm-8pm on January 3. Entry is free, but for more information call 01904 687687.
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Blobrana · L

Budding astronomers are invited to a free event tonight to learn how to get the best out of their telescopes.
The event - called A Telescope is for Life, Not Just for Christmas - will be held at York Observatory, in Museum Gardens, from 6pm to 8pm.

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Blobrana · L

It's a reassuringly rural scene. A herd of cows contentedly chew the cud near the ruins of an old monastery. There are pig pens, a tumbledown house and a group of stoop-backed farm labourers with tools slung over their shoulders.
It could be an illustration from a Thomas Hardy novel. Look closely, however, and you might just recognise it.
The scene is none other than St Mary's Abbey, with its Gateway and Gateway House, painted in about 1801 by Thomas Rowlandson. Today, the Abbey is still a ruin. But, thanks to the efforts of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, it stands not in open farmland, but in a three-acre precinct that is home to a botanical gardens, an observatory and the Yorkshire Museum.
The York Observatory, the oldest working observatory in Yorkshire, was built in 1832-3, and between 1835 and 1871 the gardens themselves were stocked with tropical and other plants from all over the world. In the early 20th Century, a new lecture hall, the Tempest Anderson Hall, was built with the help of a generous bequest from the society's then President, Tempest Anderson.

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Blobrana · L

On a good night, you can see Saturn from York Observatory, and now the building is open to the public during the day - thanks in part to The Press.
The observatory, in the Museum Gardens, welcomes visitors every Tuesday and Thursday, from 1pm until 4pm, and every other Friday at the same time, after a successful volunteer recruitment campaign.
The volunteers, who have been trained by the museum's curator of astronomy, Martin Lunn, have been employed to help people explore the building and explain its history to them.

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Blobrana · L

Stargazers rejoice - a little-known York observatory could open to the public seven days a week for the first time in its history.
The historic Museum Gardens facility is in full working order, but only usually open its doors for a couple of weeks a year.
But now the York Museums Trust, which looks after the "hidden treasure" observatory, has launched a volunteer recruitment drive with the ultimate aim of opening the building every single day, starting this summer.

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