Experience a free night of stargazing in Cambridge to coincide with the BBC’s “Stargazing Live” when it returns to our screens in January.
Experience a free night of stargazing in Cambridge to coincide with the BBC’s “Stargazing Live” when it returns to our screens in January.
We are incredibly excited to be working with BBC Learning to put on a fantastic event for all the family in celebration of Stargazing Live 2013.
Carolin Crawford
A free evening of stargazing at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge has been announced to coincide with the return of the BBC show, “Stargazing Live”, in January 2013.
Running from 6pm to 9.30pm on 9 January, the event will give people the chance to use astronomical equipment, meet astronomers from Cambridge, and watch as information is transmitted back from telescopes. There will also be a range of activities for families and younger visitors, as well as talks for adults.
The event is free but people wishing to attend will need a ticket. These can be booked from today (30 November) by visiting the BBC Shows and Tours website at www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours. Tickets will be allocated by random draw.
It is one of a range of different stargazing events which are being run around the country at the same time as “Stargazing Live” is being shown on the BBC.
Visitors to the Institute of Astronomy, on Madingley Road, Cambridge, will be able to use two historical telescopes to peer at the night sky, and watch a floorshow as output from the Institute’s equipment is transmitted back on to large screens. Members of the Cambridge Astronomical Association will be on hand to provide some expert commentary.
As well as constellation and star-spotting, there will be opportunities to find out how rockets and telescopes are built and learn about the Big Bang. Younger visitors will be able to meet and write a message to an alien, and there will be slideshows and meteorite displays, plus a variety of stunning photographic and scaled planet exhibitions.
“Stargazing Live” itself begins on BBC Two on 8 January and will run over three consecutive nights. It is hosted by Professor Brian Cox and Dara O’Briain. In this series the team will be hunting for asteroids and strange, “spider”-like features on Mars. While the TV show is being broadcast, different astronomy organisations and other institutions around the UK will be hosting their own events, including the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge.
Around 113,000 people took part in Stargazing Live events around the UK last year. Dr Carolin Crawford, from the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge, said: “We are incredibly excited to be working with BBC Learning to put on a fantastic event for all the family in celebration of Stargazing Live 2013”.
Further details about the programme can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019h4g8 from early December. The Institute of Astronomy also runs a wide range of public activities, including open evenings every Wednesday during the winter. For more details, visit https://www.ast.cam.ac.uk:443/
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