Bayfordbury Observatory – 9th October
15 Presdales Students from Years 9-13 had an opportunity to visit Bayfordbury Observatory.
Student review for the Bayfordbury Observatory
Starting with the one hour talk on a variety of astrophysical phenomena (leaving out the safety briefing as entertaining as it was), despite it being just over an hour in length we found it very interesting and engaging, firstly because we genuinely have a passion for physics and astrophysics, and the fact that the presenter (Calum) had a one of a kind personality that boosted the attractiveness of the whole experience. Since we were both the only Sixth formers attending we were able to answer a variety of questions put forward to us, which added to the value of it all. Additionally there were a few extra astrophysical concepts such as “the great attractor” and our surrounding galaxies that we did not know much about, and some that we did know about but needed a nice refresher on (the parsec for example). Although the planetarium room was perhaps a little too small for the sheer number of us, we still got to see a multitude of solar (and beyond) objects situated in the celestial sphere, and familiarise ourselves with the constellations, guided by Millie.
The final part of the visit was in our opinion the greatest: the observatory’s telescopes. Unfortunately the weather did not permit any observations, on the other hand watching the large structure of the optical telescopes move so freely above our heads and again, with the entertainment of Calum, made it an enjoyable experience. To briefly conclude, the trip was certainly worth our time and has opened our eyes to studying at Hertfordshire University, and any opportunity to visit again, perhaps in more depth (and with better seeing conditions!), would be taken as soon as we could. Thank you for your time.
Sam Dimes and Lydia Botting
I found the ‘science made simple’ presentation very interesting. We were shown lots of exciting experiments that famous STEM people have performed to help them make their discoveries. In one of the experiments, we wore glasses that showed us the different colours that came from the different lights. I enjoyed it because it gave me a different perspective on the colours we see around us and that lights are not just the colour they seem. From the presentation I learned that when we send someone to Mars we won’t be able to bring them back because we wouldn’t be able to store enough fuel in the rocket. I became interested in the topic because it made me think about the different ways we could make fuel last longer or how to make fuel on Mars. I also learned that Cecilia Payne discovered that Hydrogen and Helium are the dominant elements of the Sun and stars. Her boss didn’t believe her at first until lots of other people repeated the experiment and agreed that she was correct. Overall, I found ‘science made simple’ very fun. Especially as they included us in their presentation. They also related the work of previous STEM people to modern day jobs that you can study for if you are interested in those particular discoveries.
