The Isle of Wight has one public observatory and it is in Newchurch, almost opposite Thompson’s Garden Centre on Watery Lane. Built in 1998, the observatory celebrated its 35th anniversary in September and the current Director of the Vectis Astronomical Society (VAS), who own and run the Observatory, is Brian Curd.
“We’ve got about 120 members and we maintain that,” said Brian Curd. “That’s a manageable number for us. Ten to 15 are active at the observatory and I only live about 500 yards up the road.
“I always intended to do astronomy as a retirement hobby and then I moved to Winford and discovered that there was an observatory down the road, so retirement came early,” he laughed. “I’ve only been studying it about four years and have been the director here for two. You learn a lot in a short space of time if you’re keen.
“The original members of the VAS used to meet in hotels across the Island and always had plans to get their own observatory. Eventually John Smith got involved in the Society and he was on the Newchurch Parish Council and they decided that when they built the Pavilion next door that we’d have some land for an observatory. The money was raised in grants and long term loans.
“John Smith really kick started this observatory and we’re lucky enough to have a peppercorn rent and a lease with quite a few more years. We’re reaching a point where we need to think about replacing some of our equipment – an update.”
In the large classroom area are various telescopes, including a very large ‘mirror’ telescope that looks like two big metal boxes, the top one cylindrical. “There are two types of telescope: some use lenses and others mirrors,” explained Brian. “This big one is just made with mirrors and is for serious astronomy – it’s not the sort of thing you’d have at home.
“We’re a registered charity and part of our remit is public outreach; education on all astronomical subjects. This has become one of the most used bits of the observatory.”
Walking through into the smaller ‘viewing’ room, Brian pointed out some disconnected pieces of equipment and there is also a large viewing screen on the far wall. “We used to be able to control the telescope upstairs (in the observatory) from here, but now we have different options,” he explained taking out his iPhone. “There’s an app on here that allows me to control that telescope,” he said pointing upstairs. “If I had the control installed I could tap Jupiter into the keypad and the telescope would go there.”
Up in the observatory, Brian showed me the large telescope in the centre of the dome. “This is completely computer controlled and on top of it is another telescope. You can put a camera on the upper one to take photos of what we’re looking at,” said Brian. “A camera acts differently from an eye – it has permanent storage on it. You can see colour through a camera that you won’t see through an eye.
“The telescope tracks what you are looking at and you can have a ten minute exposure for example. Or you can use a close circuit television camera and we can take the feed out of this telescope and show it on the screen downstairs. That’s the sort of thing we’re playing with at the moment.”
“Every Thursday we are open to the public from 8pm (large groups please arrange your visit beforehand) and when you’re a member and have been trained up to use the equipment you can come down and use the observatory whenever you like.
“It’s the sort of hobby where you can disappear off into a small corner of it. Cameras or planets or galaxies – some people are just interested in looking and others sketch what they see. Our Chairman Faith Jordan is into deep sky astronomy and she sketches what she sees. Some people like looking at clusters of stars. This stuff is advancing at a rate of knots and it’s difficult to keep up.
“I was a technical author writing instruction manuals. My last job was the Help system for NTL Technical Support. We came from Wiltshire to the Isle of Wight – my wife Sue’s parents live on the Island – and that was eight years ago. We lived in Swindon and you could see stuff but it was hard work compared to here. I’ve been to Australia and seen wonderful views where there is no light pollution.
“I’m interested in lots of things: photography, natural history, golf…it was a case of not being able to do everything, but when I found this I couldn’t avoid it.”
Every month each member gets a copy of the newsletter about what’s going on and once a month the Society has a speaker at the Newport Parish Church Centre in Town Lane, Newport. Patrick Moore is an honorary member. “He rang up the other month to say thank you for sending him the magazine and how much he enjoys it,” enthused Brian.
“We have Stargazing events to coincide with the BBC Stargazing programmes. It’s a popular subject and we had at about 80 people to the last two and the BBC send educational material to give out to people.”
The next Stargazing Live event at the Observatory is on Friday 20th January 2012 from 8pm till 10pm. Hands-on activities and Stargazing will be supervised by the Society’s experienced amateur astronomers. The darkness of the sky will be measured by using a Sky Quality Meter and then you are invited to see how many stars you can see, and to repeat this in your own garden at home. If you live in the West Wight you may get a higher count at home as our darkest skies are between Whale Chine and Atherfield and around Compton/Brook.
