If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. Antoine de Saint Exupery
Since June 2008, the Highlands Astronomical Society has been the proud owner of a state-of-the-art observatory located near the NTS Visitor Centre at Culloden Battlefield. Two of the Society's Committee, chairman Arthur Milnes and events secretary Pat Escott, provide a tour of the features of the Jim Savage-Lowden Observatory and tell how it developed.
PREPARING FOR SEPTEMBER
This year's Orkney International Science Festival will take place from 6-12 September 2012, and we are delighted to say that the programme is taking shape well. In fact it's taking shape so well that we hope to have it near completion in the early spring, with an outline available in the near future. We are getting a tremendous response, with many ideas coming in from across the UK and overseas as well as within Orkney, and we look like having a very lively and varied programme to highlight.
SEE ORKNEY SKIES ON THE iPAD!
To promote the 'Dark Skies Orkney' event and Orkney astronomy generally, a new e-magazine has been produced for iPad and web access.
It includes a feature on astronomy in Orkney with auroral photographs taken by John Vetterlein in Rousay and night sky images from Michael Sinclair in Kirkwall. John and Michael are working to set up an Orkney astronomy society, which will enable Orkney to benefit from the full potential of its dark skies.
Also in the magazine you can find an interview by Amy Liptrot with Dr Marek Kukula at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, following his visit to Orkney in September for this year's Science Festival, along with a visit to the Highlands Astronomical Society's JSL Observatory at Culloden.
The new magazine has been approved by Apple and is now in the iTunes store worldwide for free access –follow this link.
It's also available on conventional web format, although this doesn't have quite the same impact as the iPad – follow this link for the web version.
The e-magazine will also be available soon in an iPhone format. AND SEE ORKNEY SKIES ON THE WEB
The British Astronomical Association recently featured as its Picture of the Week an image from Orkney skies. This was a photograph of Comet Garradd in the vicinity of the distant galaxy NGC 6408. It was taken by John Vetterlein at the Auroral and Magnetic Observatory in Rousay.
MIDWINTER ASTRONOMY FESTIVAL ENJOYING SOME FINE FROSTY NIGHTS
Amidst wind, rain and occasion flurries of snow, there were also several fine frosty nights for 'Dark Skies Orkney'. The midwinter astronomy programme of events was coordinated by the Science Festival to bring together activities involving community groups, schools and the tourism sector.
Astronomer Steve Owens gave a total of 34 talks to schools and communities, ansd was joined by lighting engineer Jim Paterson and Glasgow University astrophysicist Prof. Martin Hendry, who rounded off the events with a talk on the possibility of faster-than-light neutrinos and the search for the Higgs boson.
You can read about the progress of events in the News section of this site.
The full programme is on a special page of this site –Dark Skies Orkney– and can also be downloaded as pdf. PICTURES FROM THE 2011 FESTIVAL
You'll see the video of the Green and Medieval Afternoon featured at the head of this page. There are also three albums of photographs on our Facebook pages, with first of all an overall selection, then highlights of the Green and Medieval Afternoon, and then a selection from the Family Day.
DISCUSSION FORUM
Our new discussion forum is now online. We've been able to find a new user-friendly system, and we hope that we find it good to use. A number of particularly interesting topics have opened up at Festival events and we are looking forward to following these up on the forum.
Music and art, crafts and costumes, stories of people and ideas, all in the setting of the Earl's and Bishop's Palaces in Kirkwall, Orkney, in the 21st Orkney International Science Festival, September 2011
Rockets and robots, wave power and waste re-use - it was all part of the Family Day at the 2010 Orkney International Science Festival.
The Flashing and Banging Chemistry Show lived up to its name in the 2010 Orkney International Science Festival, under the direction of Prof. Donald MacPhee of Aberdeen University.
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