On Thursday 17th November about 24 of our members went along on an organised visit to the Rosse Observatory, near Carlton, Pontefract for an evening of star gazing. We weren’t disappointed! After days of gloomy, murky November weather (albeit mild) our expectations for seeing any stars were pretty low. However we were more than delighted when the gloom broke to produce a glorious sunny autumn day which continued through into the evening giving excellent clear skies. The clear skies meant the Observatories star attraction, the telescope, could be put into action and we were all treated to spectacular views of Jupiter together with it’s 4 moons clearly visible though the scope.
We split into two groups and while one group climbed the ladders to the observation deck, the other group were treated to an illustrated talk all about the solar system with some mind blowing facts and figures – it’s not only Prof. Peter Cox who knows his stuff!
We swapped over and repeated the process and once everyone had seen Jupiter, the computerised telescope was turned towards the galaxy Andromeda, a spiral galaxy some 2.5 million light years away from earth: Awesome!!
The Rosse Observatory is well worth a visit. Here is a photo, thanks to member Roger Gaynor, taken on the evening to give some idea of the size of the telescope.
