Seeing stars at Bayfordbury’s new season of 2013/14 open evenings
The new 2013/14 season of public open evenings at the University of Hertfordshire’s Bayfordbury Observatory starts on Friday 11 October 2013.
Bayfordbury is a fully-operational, professional observatory and regarded as one of the finest astronomical teaching observatories in the country. The ever-popular open evenings provide the opportunity for members of the public, from children to adults and budding amateur astronomers, to come along and discover more about the stars and planets in our own galaxy and beyond.
Dr. Marc Sarzi, from the University of Hertfordshire’s Centre for Astrophysics Research, said: “As Autumn starts and the nights draw in, our series of open evenings at Bayfordbury kick off for a new exciting season.”
“Visitors will be able to visit our seven optical telescopes to view interesting objects in our skies – weather permitting of course! On a clear night, there’s just so much to see: from the relatively nearby Moon and the planets of our Solar system, to the star clusters and nebulae of the Milky Way and galaxies hundreds of millions of light-years away. This year may even see the arrival of a comet called ISON, although at the moment we don’t know if it will be bright enough for us to see.”
As well as the optical telescopes, visitors will get a demonstration of the radio telescope plus a wide range of indoor activities such as labs and computer experiments, talks from our staff and students and planetarium shows! So even if it’s not a clear night for the telescopes, there’s still plenty to see and take part in during the open evening.
Marc added: “In fact, we always try to vary our indoor program and give a theme to our open evenings. Our first event, on 11 October, will be about our own atmosphere - how it makes stars twinkle, how it shields us from dangerous sorts of light, and how it reflects back the light from our cities and makes it harder to observe celestial objects.”
There are still a few places available for the first open evening on Friday 11 October – so to book your place or to find out more visit go.herts.ac.uk/visitbayfordbury
Set in the 372 acre Bayfordbury estate, near Hertford, the observatory is far enough away from the glare of streetlights. The surrounding countryside helps with dark, steady skies for the optical telescopes, and less interference for the radio telescopes.
ENDS
For more information, please contact Julie Cooper, University of Hertfordshire Press Office on 01707 284095, Email: j.cooper5@herts.ac.uk
Notes to Editor
About the University of Hertfordshire
The University is the UK’s leading business-facing university and an exemplar in the sector. It is innovative and enterprising and challenges individuals and organisations to excel.
The University of Hertfordshire is one of the region’s largest employers with over 2,650 staff and a turnover of almost £233 million.
With a student community of over 27,200 including more than 2,800 students from eighty-five different countries, the University has a global network of over 175,000 alumni.
It is also one of the top 100 universities in the world under 50 years old, according to the new Times Higher Education 100 under 50 rankings 2012.
For more information, please visit www.herts.ac.uk
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