Radcliffe Society Report
Following the restoration of the 10 telescope, the College have
embarked on a programme of public outreach and increased access
to the Dome under the auspices of the new post of a Director. The
level of interest in Astronomy both among locals and surrounding
primary schools had already been seen to be huge, following the
Venus transit event in June 2004. Initially, under the
Chairmanship of Mr Philip Wetton CMG, FRAS (founder of the Oxford
Chair of Astrophysics and donor of the University 16 reflector
telescope) a group, the Friends of the Marlborough Telescope, was
set up to run independently of the College. The Friends group was
launched in October at a party in the Marlburian attended by 60
guests including notable astronomers and founding supporters. Mr
Wetton and the Master (in an early public appearance) spoke
briefly. The number of Friends continued to grow and now includes
supporters both locally and even abroad. Sir Patrick Moore, who
has supported from the start, agreed to be Honorary Patron. A
Diary of events, lectures and observing evenings, was arranged
for the year and a brochure of the observatorys activities
published. There have also been public events advertised locally
via the town library, local press and on local radio and these
have been fully subscribed. The 14 local primary schools are
being invited one at a time and groups from Ogbourne, Bedwyn and
Preshute have attended so far. A firm link now exists with Oxford
Astrophysics and thanks to a small award grant from PPARC
(Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council) doctoral
students are able to assist at public and primary school events.
The grant has also covered the publicity for the venture. In
return, the College is now invited to bring pupils to internal
Oxford physics lectures and in June a Hundreds pupil will join
the research department for work experience. In April we were
able to join a post-doctoral research programme whilst in La
Palma as part of the College Astronomy trip and had two nights
observing alongside the 3 Oxford students. There have been two
main lectures during the year on Exobiology (Life elsewhere in
the Solar System) and the NASA sponsored 2005 Sun-Earth day
lecture on Archaeoastronomy (Ancient Observatories). During
Summer School, where the two astronomy courses are full,
Professor Roger Davies (Philip Wetton Chair of Astrophysics at
Oxford) will speak on Galaxies and black holes. Groups from other
schools, scouts and astronomical societies have visited and
included an ex-president of the British Astronomical Association.
The GCSE Astronomy course at Swindon New College are also now
linked to the Dome and will access the telescopes for coursework.
With the help of Oxford graduate Ryan Houghton the observatory
website has been designed and is run and updated daily form the
Dome [visit the site for more information on
www.blackettobservatory.org or via Google] Since September the
observatory has been active on some 50 days and open for 140
hours with 83 hours of observing. A total of 733 visitors have
attended events including 302 College pupils. A similar Diary is
proposed for next year with a lecture from Professor Jocelyn Bell
Burnell In pursuit of Pulsars (of which she is credited with the
discovery in 1967) in November. The 2006 Sun-Earth day event will
focus on the Solar eclipse on 29th March 2006.
CURRENT MOON


