Heavenly bodies

On cold, clear, winter nights my dogs enjoy longer walks. The reason? Well, on such nights, I'm often found at the top of our local hill, gazing upwards at the night sky.

The wonders of the Universe intrigue me. I ponder just how magnificent the complexity of life is and how everything we see came to be so. When I stand quietly and take in the vastness of it all, considering how remarkable it is to be there contemplating it, it can send a shiver down my spine.

Recently I decided to take the plunge and buy myself a telescope. The endless bounty of sights that wait for me on clear nights keeps me coming back for more. As we're all taught when we're young though, it's good to share, so I planned Coombes Valley's first ever stargazing event.

Coinciding with BBC Stargazing Live we aimed to do five nights of stargazing. The weather hasn't been kind though, and the first four had to be cancelled. On Saturday though, it finally went ahead.

I arrived at Coombes as the skies started to clear, and every few minutes I popped back outside to check whether conditions were improving. Fortunately, they seemed to be doing so, and as 6:30pm drew nearer the conditions were looking really good. By the time we started we had around 25 eager visitors waiting in the visitor centre, many of whom were first time visitors. It was lovely to see so many new faces.

The evening started with an introductory talk about the solar system, the planets within it, and our galaxy. Facts and figures were thrown into the mix and we made our own scale model of the solar system using a toilet roll, several balls and a peppercorn! Yes, really!

At this point, the lights were turned off and we had a tale of Greek mythology and the constellations, followed by a chance to see some remarkable things that were waiting above us in the heavens.

One of my favourites, guaranteed to draw gasps of amazement is the planet Jupiter. The whole group queued to look through the scope and see this beautiful planet with its moons orbiting closeby. Many queued for a second look. Most uttered words of astonishment when seeing this sight for the very first time.

(Jupiter image copyright NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

We went on to look at the Orion Nebula, a starforming region within the constellation of Orion, and also saw our nearest galatical neighbour, Andromeda.

It was truly a fascinating evening and I loved sharing my hobby with everyone who came along. We'll do it all again soon, so keep an eye on our events page.

In the mean time, I thought I'd share an astronomical photograph of my own. The streak of light in this image is the sunlight reflected by the International Space Station as it moves across the sky. Below it, the V shape pattern of stars make up part of the constellation of Taurus. The small cluster of stars to the top right is known as the pleidies, and looks spectacular through binoculars. Have a look at it on the next clear night and let us know how many stars you can see there.