It’s in the stars for St Peter’s Junior School astronomers

The school has already hosted an historic radio link chat with the International Space Station astronauts as they flew thousands of miles overhead in October.

And last week the mysteries of night sky proved irresistible to the school’s children in a link provided by their science teacher Nathan Williams and the Ramsgate Stargazer Volunteers.

More than a hundred people from St Peter’s families gathered at the Ramsgate boating pool on the town’s West Cliff to see into space through an array of telescopes.

It was Ramsgate Stargazers biggest ever crowd. Various timeslots were available for families to book by and a number of telescopes set up for people to use with stargazer volunteers helping people learn more about what they were seeing.

John Hislop from Ramsgate Stargazers told the gathering they should be able to see the craters on a crescent moon, the rings of Saturn and the moons of Jupiter.

The group spotted the Summer Triangle asterism – the stars Deneb, Vega and Altair in a large triangle shape, each in their own constellation – Cygnus, Lyra and Aquila. Looking north, they located the Plough and the link to Polaris.

            

 

Head Teacher Tim Whitehouse said: “It is a great spot for stargazing high up over the Ramsgate harbour as our children and their families continue their fascination with all things interstellar.

“It is integral part of our science learning and a community gathering like this is a perfect experience as our school continues its journey exploring space.”

Although the early evening event did suffer from a slightly hazy sky, there was still plenty to see – and the event was so popular that another session is in the pipeline.

And the boating pool café team opened up for the young astronomers so there were plenty of hot drinks and snacks to ward off the winter’s evening chill.