BBC Stargazing LIVE with Dark Sky Wales

January 19th, 2012 by admin

Pembrokeshire College hosted a variety of activities as part of the BBC Stargazing LIVE season.  120 primary school pupils linked to the Buzz club took part in a rocket building workshop as well as a session in the Planetarium where they learned all about our solar system.

 

Jupiter is the largest planet is our solar system, it’s known as a gas giant because it is composed primarily of gas and liquid matter.  When looking at the picture of Jupiter above, on the left hand side you can see a spot.  This is called the Great Red Spot and it is a giant storm system that is larger than the Earth!

 

Constellations are patterns of stars in the sky that have been named after mythological characters, objects and animals.  There are 88 recognised constellations.

  

The Great Bear constellation is also known as Ursa Major which is its latin name.  Within this constellation is the Plough which is also known as the Saucepan and the Big Dipper.

Orion was a great hunter but he had a big ego.  Orion’s Belt can be clearly seen in the picture above on the right.  In the night sky if you look through binoculars below Orion’s Belt,  a stellar nebula can be seen which is where hundreds of young stars and exoplanets are forming.  Through the binoculars it looks like a blurry star.

 

Pleiades is a star cluster which is also called the Seven Sisters.  They are found in the constellation of Taurus.  It is clear from the picture that the stars are blue in colour.  This means that they are young stars and they are the hottest because they have lots of hydrogen to burn.  As a star comes closer to the end of its life it becomes red in colour and they are the coolest stars because they are running out of fuel (hydrogen) to burn.

 

 

 

The activities continued into the evening with workshops delivered to the public.  Dark Sky Wales and their team carried out hands on workshops on robotics and rockets.

 

 

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