Stargazing In Staffordshire

James Bacon and Dr. Emma J. King

James Bacon and Dr. Emma J. King

James Bacon offers you the stars next summer in Staffordshire, England where he and Dr. Emma J King, an award-winning science communicator with a Ph.D. in cosmology, will inaugurate astro.CAMPhw.uk, an annual astronomy event, August 7-9, 2015.

People of all ages and from all walks of life are invited to enjoy a series of astronomy-related talks, workshops and activities led by experts in the field. Each night there will be star gazing, facilitated by experienced astronomers.

Attendees will camp in Huntley Wood, a 170-acre outdoor event venue in the heart of the Staffordshire moorlands.

Huntley_Wood_2

The date has been picked because it is during the summer holidays, when families can attend together, also because the second weekend of August tends to be near the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, one of the best and brightest meteor showers in the Northern Hemisphere

The programme for the weekend already includes bestselling popular science author Simon Singh giving a talk about his book Big Bang, which tells the story of the Big Bang theory from its birth in the 1920s to the observational evidence that backed it and then clinched it.

There will be a talk from Prof. Paul Roche, Director of the Faulkes Telescopes Project, the UK National Schools’ Astronomer and the Space Ambassador for Wales. He has spent over 20 years researching massive stars, neutron stars and black holes, and working in astronomy education, outreach and science communication.

Also speaking is Dr. Ed Trollope founder of science website Things We Don’t Know

Ed studied at several UK universities before cruelly being exiled to “get a job and a haircut!” After originally studying space physics he turned to the dark side (spacecraft engineering), then realised how poorly structured his code was and opted for software engineering too. Now he works in Germany, where he helps to land robots on other worlds and predict the weather.

There will be workshops by Emma Wride of AstroCymru, plus an undercover 3D Celestia and Stellarium, just in case the weather turns bad.

More items will be added, as well as fun activities suitable for children. No previous experience or knowledge of astronomy is necessary to enjoy astro.CAMPhw. Tickets are already on sale via the website which offers an early booking discount.

Keep up-to-date with the event through its website, http://astro.camphw.uk, Facebook (facebook.com/astrocamphw) and Twitter (twitter.com/astrocamphw).

6 thoughts on “Stargazing In Staffordshire

Comments are closed.