Higher Ability students trip to Herstmonceux

On Monday 8 July, 30 Higher Ability students from Years 7 and 8 visited the historic Observatory Science Centre at Herstmonceux in East Sussex.  The centre was once the site of the Royal Observatory, following its relocation from Greenwich in London.  The centre now preserves the collection of six historic telescopes in separate and distinctive copper covered observatory domes. 

The students were taken on a tour of four of the domes.  They learnt about the two types of optical telescopes: reflecting that use huge circular concave mirrors and refracting which use huge lenses.  They also learnt that one of the telescopes they visited was used to discover the Saturn’s tenth moon and a second was part of a mass observation at the time of the 1919 solar eclipse, the measurements from which helped to prove Einstein’s theory of relativity! 

Our students had many questions about how telescopes are constructed and built, especially the biggest ones, and how they are used.  We were all stunned by the size and scale of the universe that these telescopes have revealed, billions of galaxies and trillions of stars! 

In the largest of the observatory domes, we were all impressed when our guide started the mechanism which opened the huge shutters in the dome and then started the dome turning so that the opening lined up with the telescope. 

The students were also set some team challenges, working together to build a truss bridge in the quickest time and to build the tallest foam block tower.  Congratulations to Mr Skehan’s group who won both challenges. 

Between observatory tours the students had time to explore various hands-on astronomy and physics exhibits.  The day ended with time in the Discovery Park where various interactive structures demonstrated fundamental physics forces.