Astronomy is back on the radar in our county

Astronomy For Fun, which is made up of mostly Warwickshire people, organised the event as part of the BBC’s national campaign last month to get people more interested in astronomy - and its even its enthusiastic members were surprised at just how much interest it generated.

Among them is Gary Colville, who said: “More than 100 people turned up, which is a lot more than we had anticipated. It’s the first time we have done a Stargazing Live event but we are now really keen to do more social events like it.”

The group formed last September after members of a different, more academic astronomy group, were chatting on Facebook about how they wanted to be involved in something a little less serious in nature.

Gary said: “We are just a bunch of people who like a good laugh. We held an overnight event, camped out under the stars and we only had 90 minutes worth of clear sky over the whole night, but we had so much fun.

“So we formed our own group and called it Astronomy For Fun, because that’s exactly what we’re about. When the chance to do a Stargazing event came up, we jumped at it.”

The event, which included a barbecue provided by a local butcher and a presentation by group member Tracey Snelus on alternative ways of approaching astronomy, was welcoming of astronomy novices as well as the more experienced.

Gary said: “There were a lot of people who were new to it and a lot of people were asking us if we met regularly.

“At the moment, we don’t, but we want to. We need to find somewhere suitable for regular meetings. If there are any farmers around or sports clubs who would be willing to let us come down every so often, we would love to hear from them. There is an appetite for it.

“It really helps that people like Professor Brian Cox and comedian Dara O’Brain are on TV a lot talking about astronomy as it’s getting the younger generation to look up to them and interested in it, which is absolutely brilliant.”

The group has been asked to run a day-time activity at Baginton’s Party in the Park in July at which they will adapt a telescope to enable people to look at the sun during the day without hurting their eyes.

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