The Astronomer – An Unexpected Journey

Posted on 30 September 2014 by Jenifer Millard

It was the summer of 2012 and we’d had our new telescope for a few months. A go-to mount, more inches, more power – more frustration. A go-to mount, we thought. Brilliant, we thought. We’ll be able to find everything we want at the touch of a button … we thought. Months down the line
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Celebrating Science, Art and Culture at the Gravity Fields Festival

Posted on 29 September 2014 by Sarah Roberts

In the late summer of 1666, a 23-year-old man saw an apple from a tree on the outskirts of Grantham, Lincolnshire. That man was Isaac Newton, and that small act of nature sparked the discovery of the principle of universal gravitation. Over 300 years later, this discovery is celebrated every two years at the Gravity
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Postgraduate student is a Science Showoff

Posted on 22 September 2014 by Haley Gomez

Postgraduate student Matt Allen, participated in the somewhat terrifying Science Showoff competition earlier this week.  Science Showoff is an open-mic night for scientists to flex their funny bones and, well, pretty much show off. Matt talked about a hypothetical manned NASA mission in 2057 to the centre of a black hole. Going through the gory
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Pythagorean Astronomy: in conversation with Alastair Reynolds

Posted on 18 August 2014 by Chris North

August marked the arrival Loncon 2014, the annual science fiction convention which visits a different city every year. There’s also a lot of science fact presented at such meetings – we were showcasing the results from Herschel and Planck, for example. In fact there are a lot of places where, to a greater or lesser
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Universe in the Classroom: Impact Figures

Posted on 10 July 2014 by Sarah Roberts

The last Universe in the Classroom workshop for this academic year wrapped up last week in Cardiff. We’re well on target to reaching our goal to hand out 100 Universe-in-a-Box toolkits to 100 welsh primary schools by March 2015! Between January and July 2014, Universe in the Classroom hosted seven full-day teacher training sessions, reaching 73
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Primary School Students’ Guide to Surviving in the Solar System

Posted on 1 July 2014 by Sarah Roberts

“What would you take with you on a trip to Venus?” “Suncream!” “A million bottles of water!” “Goggles!” The latest Universe in the Classroom school workshop took 60 kids on a journey to the most extreme environments in the Solar System, as we wrapped-up their topic for the term: “Castaway”. The children of Hengoed Primary
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Pythagorean Astronomy: National Astronomy Meeting 2014

Posted on 30 June 2014 by Chris North

Between 23rd and 26th June 2014 over 600 astronomers gathered in Portsmouth for the annual National Astronomy Meeting. This meeting, organised by the Royal Astronomical Society, provides the opportunity for physicists, astronomers, space scientists and cosmologists to discuss the latest developments in their areas of research. It covers a huge range of topics, so cosmologists
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LittleBits and the Great Exoplanet Hack

Posted on 27 June 2014 by Edward Gomez

This blog is a cross posting from Dark Matter Sheep blog by Edward Gomez. This week I have been at the National Astronomy Meeting in Portsmouth. There have been many great talks and I particularly enjoyed organising the “Engaging the public and schools with astronomy” session with the famous Jen Gupta. Wednesday was Hack Day
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Over Half Our Universe-in-a-Box Toolkits Are Now In Welsh Primary Schools!

Posted on 20 June 2014 by Sarah Roberts

Universe in the Classroom has now handed out more than half our Universe in a Box toolkits! Yesterday, six more Welsh primary schools received a toolkit during a teacher training CPD, along with a range of other astronomy-based resources, including our brand new Welsh language Cosmos in Your Pocket activity books. Membership of Universe in
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How to teach an entire school in one day

Posted on 18 June 2014 by Sarah Roberts

A STARS workshop yesterday managed to reach an entire primary school in Newport — in just one day! Two of our Physics undergraduates spent the day at Monnow School getting kids excited about science, and also training year 5 pupils to use Universe-in-a-Box to teach astronomy to the rest of the school! The teachers of
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