A Visit to the Sherwood Planetarium and Science Centre
Last week, I took the opportunity for a quick stop and tour of the new Sherwood Planetarium and Science Centre, Sutton in Ashfield. The facility is home to a great collection of models and displays and not to mention a fantastic planetarium.
Considering the facility has only just opened, they have on display so many things, many of which donated by the volunteers of the affiliated astronomy society and local residents and I can well imagine that as time goes on, they will only grow the size on their collection. After a quick look around, we headed back up to the reception area and then further up to the top floor which provides the main entrance to the planetarium itself.
Continuing my brief tour, we left the planetarium and headed for a very welcome coffee in the onsite café. I could have quite happily spent the rest of my day in there, chewing the fat and catching up with Karen. It's worth going just as somewhere to pop in for coffee!
The café overlooks some of the original features of the societies former smaller site, with their observatory dome and radio astronomy facilities. It was there we headed after we finished out coffee.
After managing to set off the intruder alarms in both the observatory and planetarium apparently simultaneously, it was time to have a quick peek at the societies original meeting hub and their main telescope. The dome accommodates a reflector telescope, with a 600mm mirror which was made professionally and is research grade. The rest of the telescope is a fantastic feat of home made engineering in it's own right, made from many different bits ranging from scaffold poles to bits of car. Sadly, being there on a grim day in broad daylight, there was nothing to be seen, but just to see the telescope and the dome itself was a real treat.
Alas, sadly, that was the end of my very brief tour, but I was so glad I took the opportunity to stop by and visit. I hope to visit again soon and next time, if timings allow, take in one of their shows. It's such a fantastic facility and an incredibly worthy charity to support. If you are into space, astronomy or just generally intrigued and curious to see something very different, arrange a visit and I can promise you, you won't regret it.
I arrived on the coldest of days, ahead of a front of bad and snowy weather so it wasn't going to be a long visit and unfortunately, not long enough to be able to take in one of their planetarium shows, but there's always next time. I was met by an very good friend of mine, and fellow astronomer, Karen who was kind enough to give me a quick tour around the facilities.
The site itself has a really interesting and quite quirky history, being a former underground Victorian reservoir once used to store and supply water locally but long since out of use. On arrival, the first part of the tour took us straight down the steel staircase into the depths of what was the old reservoir, now completely transformed into a clean and bright red-bricked display area with an array of different exhibits and information displays all around the room.
Considering the facility has only just opened, they have on display so many things, many of which donated by the volunteers of the affiliated astronomy society and local residents and I can well imagine that as time goes on, they will only grow the size on their collection. After a quick look around, we headed back up to the reception area and then further up to the top floor which provides the main entrance to the planetarium itself.
As we entered the planetarium, I was greeted by a very dark room and an amazing dome stretching above my head, extending left and right and an arrangement of terraced seating facing into the dome. Even though there was no show on at the time, and I didn't have time to stay for the next scheduled one I was fortunate that the planetarium operator was in the process of preparing for the next show and was able to give me a really quick demo. The dome is kitted out with a 4k projector which gave a very clean and crisp image on the black interior of the dome. It wouldn't take too much to imagine what it would be like in full use, but even the 5 minute snippet I saw left me wanting to go back for a full show.
Continuing my brief tour, we left the planetarium and headed for a very welcome coffee in the onsite café. I could have quite happily spent the rest of my day in there, chewing the fat and catching up with Karen. It's worth going just as somewhere to pop in for coffee!
The café overlooks some of the original features of the societies former smaller site, with their observatory dome and radio astronomy facilities. It was there we headed after we finished out coffee.
After managing to set off the intruder alarms in both the observatory and planetarium apparently simultaneously, it was time to have a quick peek at the societies original meeting hub and their main telescope. The dome accommodates a reflector telescope, with a 600mm mirror which was made professionally and is research grade. The rest of the telescope is a fantastic feat of home made engineering in it's own right, made from many different bits ranging from scaffold poles to bits of car. Sadly, being there on a grim day in broad daylight, there was nothing to be seen, but just to see the telescope and the dome itself was a real treat.
Alas, sadly, that was the end of my very brief tour, but I was so glad I took the opportunity to stop by and visit. I hope to visit again soon and next time, if timings allow, take in one of their shows. It's such a fantastic facility and an incredibly worthy charity to support. If you are into space, astronomy or just generally intrigued and curious to see something very different, arrange a visit and I can promise you, you won't regret it.
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