Bradford looks to heavens for community stargazing event

Footage from the Bradford Robotic Telescope – operated by the city’s university but based on a cliffside in Tenerife – will be shown a the big screen in the city centre as part of a range of activities organised by the Space Connections charity.

The event has been organised with the BBC following on from the success of the Stargazing programme presented by Brian Cox and comedian and amateur astronomer Dara Ó Briain.

Space Connections, which run the city’s annual science festival, is also offering the chance for people to stargaze themselves with telescopes provided by the Keighley Astronomical Society.

The city’s Mirror Pool will be drained and the lights surrounding the pool turned off to allow people to search the skies.

The event will also include talks from Robert Massey, the secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society and Usama Hasan, a senior researcher in Islamic studies, and Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society who will talk about the history of Islam and astronomy.

These talks will take place at the new city library which was launched in new premises in City Park last month.

The library will also host sessions allowing people to make comets out of dry ice.

Helen Barraclough from Space Connections said the event built on the success of a project which the charity has been running in Bradford using Islam’s links with astronomy as a way of promoting science to children attending madrassas in the city.

She said; “There is something for people of all ages. We have arranged for a mobile planetarium to be installed inside City Hall so that if the weather is bad tonight people will still be able to do some stargazing.

“It is an inflatable dome which can hold up to 30 people at time and there will be the chance to have a stargazing session with a real astronomer.”

The event will see the big screen next to Bradford’s City Park used to show a film about space while the nearby Forsters Bistro, will be providing campfire street food.

There will also be a chance for visitors to try rocket building and sample real astronaut food as part of the event. It has been partly funded by Bradford Council’s diversity and cohesion team as it aims to bring together different communities in Bradford to stargaze together in the City Park.

Council leader Coun David Green said: “The event is a great way of allowing people who have an interest in astronomy, at all levels, to learn more from the experts and participate in an exploration of the night sky while enjoying the surroundings of Bradford’s award winning City Park.”

The Bradford Robotic Telescope, which is being used for the event, is a collection of telescopes and other instruments which is based in Mount Teide, Tenerife.

The university says the observatory, situated at an altitude of 2,400 metres, is the best of in Europe. Bradford’s Robotic Telescope can be used remotely by visitors to a website and is regularly used by schools.