Paying Pinball with the Stars’

Presented by Sarah Smedley, Institute of Astronomy ,

Public Open Evening at Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge

Wednesday 16th January 2013

7pm until 9pm

We braved the fog and ice to visit the Institute of Astronomy on the outskirts of Cambridge to listen to a talk about the stars presented by Sarah Smedley a student studying astronomy at Cambridge University. We learnt about the life cycles of stars, how they are born and what happens when they die. Sarah also showed us computer generated models of colliding stars and galaxies, something that might happen to our own galaxy when it eventually collides with the Andromeda Galaxy several billions of years in the future.

Viewing the night sky was cancelled due to the freezing fog but we were able to go out and look at the Victorian Northumberland Telescope. Carolin Crawford from the Institute of Astronomy gave us a short talk about the history of the telescope. The Northumberland Telescope was designed and built by G.B Airy in 1838. In 1846 it was used by Professor James Challis to search for Neptune. Unfortunately Challis was pipped to post by Johann Gottfried Galle who used the calculations of John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier to discover Neptune very close to its predicted location.

Filip Kusnir 8CH : ’It was the most interesting talk I have been to by far. I enjoyed learning about pulsars and supernovas. I also enjoyed looking at the Victorian telescope. The only bad bit was the bit about humanity not having much time but they said we shouldn’t worry about that!’

Mr A Bray (Community) : ‘Fascinating talk on ‘Stella Pinball’. I learnt a lot from this and thought the talk was very well balanced given the age-range of the audience. It was a real treat to get a look at the 12” telescope built I 1838. An excellent insight into the technology of that time.’

 Group photo by Northumberland Telescope: Back Row left to right: Mr Bray (Community), Steven Hinkley 10MR, Carolin Crawford (Institute of Astronomy), Filip Kusnir 8CH, William Payne 8GM, Shiv Sharma 8GM, Michael Whitting 10PM,

Front Row from left top right: Jess Cox 7EM, Brandy Sawadogo 7EM, Enni Nduka 7AS, Daniel Coleman 10MR, Lily Stevens 7TS, Miss Kang (Staff), Eleanor Fleming 7DS.