Download CAC Kids Astronomy evening

CAC Kids and members astronomy evening
Monumentality and astronomy have long also enjoyed a certain synergy, there are countless
historical and contemporary theories concerning stone circles or chambered tombs and solar
or lunar alignment, with varying degrees of theoretical and experimental accuracy. We know
for example that a contemporary of William Stukeley, John Wood, the great architect of Bath,
in his Description of Stanton Drew and Stonehenge of 1740, suggested that Stanton Drew
was a “...perfect model of the Pythagorean system of the planetary world...”
Stonehenge of course is probably the world’s most famous monument to be associated with
astronomy. In 1770, Dr John Smith published the self explanatory paper, Choir Gaur: the
Grand Orrery of the Ancient Druids, called Stonehenge, Astronomically Explained, and
proved to be a Temple for Observing the Motions of the Heavenly Bodies.
Stonehenge – a Bronze Age observatory?
Without an understanding of the mindset of the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures, we are
unlikely to unravel the complete astronomical significance of monuments, but it certainly
seems not unreasonable to suppose that, in prehistory, the night sky played a much more
significant role in life, and maybe death, than it does today.
The eighteenth century was a busy time in the worlds of archaeology and astronomy, and
Wiltshire was no exception. Antiquarians such was William Cunnington and Richard Colt
Hoare were conducting their own “excavations” of as many tumuli as they could lay their
spades into, whilst in nearby Bath, some unique and ground breaking astronomy was taking
place.
William Herschel is frequently and justifiably described as the greatest observational
astronomer of all time. Born in Hanover, Germany in 1739, he moved to Bath in 1766 as a
music teacher and orchestrator. It was at Bath that Herschel embarked on a most ambitious
and extraordinary telescopic survey of the skies. With his first observation made in May
1773, he went on to systematically catalogue literally thousands of double and multiple stars
and nebulae. On March 13th 1781, whilst conducting his routine sweep of the skies, Herschel
noticed a blue green disk in the constellation of Gemini. This was Uranus, one of Herschel’s
finest discoveries and one for which he would forever be associated. Upon his subsequent
appointment as personal astronomer to King George III, Herschel was able to abandon his
music career and concentrate full time on telescope making and astronomy.
William and Caroline Herschel
William Herschel’s sister, Caroline joined William in Bath in 1772. Caroline would become
the world’s leading female astronomer, discovering no less than eight comets and numerous
star clusters and nebulae.
William Herschel’s son, John, would become an equally famous mathematician and
astronomer and would complete the compilation of his father’s catalogues and these would
become the basis of the New General and Index Catalogues, the standard catalogues of deep
sky objects that are still in use today.
And so it is the Herschel family, their West Country connections and our Wiltshire prehistoric
landscapes are the inspiration for our CAC “astrokids” event planned for November.
Our outing will commence with a trip up to Tidcombe Long Barrow, where we will note the
orientation of the monument and viewsheds. In 1750, the local population of Tidcombe,
perhaps experiencing a credit crisis of their own, decided to dig for treasure in the barrow, but
recovered nothing but a single skeleton. This is interesting in itself, maybe the excavation
revealed a secondary Bronze Age burial. We will be able to see the evidence of this
eighteenth century excavation for ourselves.
From Tidcombe, we shall head to Wexcombe for an evening under superbly dark skies. Using
some clever software, we shall consider the night sky as it would have appeared on a chilly
November night around 4500 BC and consider this in the perspective of Tidcombe Long
Barrow.
Once darkness has set in we shall look at some showpiece objects in the sky, some double or
multiple stars, galaxies, nebulae and of course, Uranus. We plan to explore the moon, subject
to the date of the event. Ideally we shall be able to point out landing site of Apollo 11 in the
Sea of Tranquillity, and, of special relevance to our evening, the crater Aristarchus.
Aristarchus of Samos (310 BC – 230 BC) was the first person known to have presented the
heliocentric model of the solar system – that the Earth was not the centre of the universe, but
rather that the planets revolve around the sun, and this is the key theme we would like our
CAC kids to take home with them. Heliocentricity would be illustrated in 1610 by Galileo
through his discovery of the Galilean moons of Jupiter, and we intend to replicate Galileo’s
work by making our own observations of Jupiter and its moons.
Aristarchus (the crater), brings us neatly back to William Hershel. For several nights during
April 1787, Herschel was convinced that he could see active erupting volcanoes in this
region, he even wrote to the King inviting him to watch this with his own eyes. Although
active volcanism on the moon in the eighteenth century is unlikely, Aristarchus has been an
area in which transient lunar phenomena has been seen - a little understood temporary
brightening and colouring (occasionally red) of specific areas of the lunar surface. Maybe this
is what Herschel was witnessing. We shall look for ourselves! And whilst on the moon, we
should also have look at the crater named after the great astronomer himself.
Our younger members’ attention span for astronomy will be limited, but we do hope that
these observations will inspire them and prompt their own thoughts on the night sky. William
Herschel believed that all the planets (and indeed the Sun) were inhabited, and maybe our
CAC kids will have their own thoughts on these matters.
The evening will progress with some structured observations of some of the brighter objects
in Herschel’s catalogue, or for those who prefer, some casual star gazing, or a glass or two of
wine.
Abby’s parents have kindly allowed us to convert their garden into our observatory for the
evening. We have a selection of astronomical telescopes to use, including 12” and 4½”
Newtonian reflective telescopes and an 8” Schmidt Cassegrain catadioptric telescope. We
shall also have some food and refreshments available.
Astronomy is of course, entirely reliant on the weather, we have selected three potential dates
for the event – November 5 th, November 19th and November 26th and we shall go with the
first of these Saturdays that has a reasonable forecast the day before. Notice will therefore be
short.
If you are interested to participate, please contact John or Abby and we shall keep you
updated.
An astrokid with William Herschel’s 7 foot
Telescope (replica)
and in astronomy action