Description:

The first day of our visit to the islands of Islay and Jura was a split day between Bowmore Primary and Port Charoltte Primary School. One of the team came to Port Charlotte and spent the full day with the P5-7 class, thereby giving them an extensive introduction to astronomy. The day started with a look at the Nature of Light, and why it is so important for astronomers to explore the cosmos in many types of light, most of which are invisible to the human eye. The pupils then looked at the solar system, which involved making a scale model of the planets using playdoh. To take us up to lunch, the pupils looked at the history and evolution of modern telescopes.

After lunch, attention was switched to robotic telescopes, which allowed pupils to try out some image processing software and conduct some basic measurements on real data. We finished the day with the ‘Space Exploration’ talk, where we were joined by the rest of the school. A lovely day on a lovely location all told.