Discovering the stars at Southampton

Hundreds of local people descended on the University of Southampton to take part in a special astronomical event coinciding with the BBC’s Stargazing LIVE.

More than 200 people of all ages gathered at the University’s Highfield Campus to marvel at the wonders of the Universe as part of the free family event run by the Physics and Astronomy division.

Visitors were able to peer through the powerful rooftop telescopes at the night sky, enter the inflatable mobile planetarium – the Soton Astrodome - to learn about the visible Universe and what astronomers are doing to understand it. They also got to listen to talks from astronomy lecturers and astrophotography enthusiasts.

“This is the third year we have held this event in conjunction with the BBC’s Stargazing LIVE, every year we add more activities and I am always surprised by the numbers of people who turn up to find out more about astronomy, even when the weather has been bad for stargazing,” said organiser Dr Sadie Jones, Outreach Leader in Astronomy at the University of Southampton.

“It was wonderful to see so many people of all ages enjoying themselves and taking part in this great opportunity to investigate our local night sky and ponder the big questions of the Universe. Our talks on Black Hole Heartbeats and Saturn and Cassini proved very popular,” she added.

Also on offer throughout the evening were practical activities from the Astronautics Research Group who demonstrated their research into space debris and spacecraft systems engineering using interactive computer games, spacecraft test models and space activity packs.

While for the younger visitors there were hands-on fun activities where the students learnt about the moon phases and used inflatable planets and play doh to learn about the solar system.

The Stargazing LIVE event was just one of a number of different activities the Physics and Astronomy Outreach team organise every year. As well as visiting over 40 local schools every year they regularly take the Soton Astrodome to public places such as the Southampton City Art Gallery to encourage more young people and members of the public to gain an interest in discovering the secrets of the Universe.

For more information on the Soton Astrodome and its activities visit www.astrodome.soton.ac.uk or follow the team on Twitter @SotonAstrodome