I don’t believe it!  The Eskdale ‘Star night’ (Wednesday 22nd) unfortunately coincided with the only bad weather night of the week so our planned outdoor observations were quite out of the question.  No scopes then, but with a new looking inflatable planetarium brought over and manned by York University boffins, who needed clear skies.  All we needed was somewhere to use for the scale solar sytem(s).  An ideal location was at hand – the main school corridor, which at nearly 60 mtrs long was tailormade for our demo.

I say system(s) because two scale systems were laid out over the floor tiles; the Trappist1 system – recently highlighted in the media due to the number of ‘habitable zone planets’ detected, as well as our own system.  At less than half a metre, the Trappist system really didn’t stretch our legs along the corridor, but it did bring home just how ‘intimate’ this seven planet system is huddled around its red dwarf sun.  Our own system did though task the legs of participating school pupils and parents, the narrow confines seemingly focusing the mind on the distances of the outer planets.

Perhaps not the evening we were hoping for, but feedback post event was very positive, stimulating the old brain cells in young and old alike.  Thanks to both ‘Andies’ for their help, either making the Trappist system or assistance on the night.