Having finished the year with a bang by going back in time at the Kelham Island Museum, Dennis Ashton took us into the future on a Light Speed journey to the stars! Or was it back in time since the things we see from light years out in the universe happened light years ago! Whichever way you look at it, this morning’s talk was beautifully illustrated and excellently delivered, and it captivated us all. We boarded the spaceship Light Speed and travelled at over 186,000miles per second – that’s over 11million miles a minute and my calculator won’t go much further! We reached the moon in 3mins and the sun shortly after that. By the end of our journey, on the edge of space we were over billions of light years from earth – stunning. By our return to earth we had seen the planets, stars and galaxies and black holes – all inside 45mins! Brilliant! Have a look at his website – www.starman.org.uk where there is a host of information. For novice star gazes he recommended downloading http://www.stellarium.org/ which shows the sky at for each night of the year. I’m off to buy a telescope but first I must look on you tube at his monthly show which gives advice on just this topic – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2NqX4L81lU&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL9B512C8D48944207
