AstroThoughts

Thanks to Oldfield Park Junior School for inviting me to talk in an Assembly today for Years 5 and 6.

It was all about the safe use of the eclipse glasses Bath Astronomers and AstroThoughts have donated to the school. Everyone now is ready for the Partial Solar Eclipse on Wednesday 12th August.

It was amazing to be invited to supported Hayesfield Girls' School Enrichment Week with an astronomy workshop on our nearest star., the Sun.

The girls got to see the Sun in Hydrogen Alpha light through specialist telescopes and sketch the surface features including sunspots, filaments, and prominences.

We had two Coronado Personal Solar Telescopes and a Daystar Quark set up on the grounds of the school as well as a DWARF3 from DWARF LAB to show live images whilst still in the classroom.

It can be really fun to ask students to sketch the Sun at the eyepiece as part of Astro Thoughts solar workshops.

Tomorrow the students at Hayesfield Girls' School will have an opportunity to draw the photosphere and chromosphere of the Sun 150,00,000 kilometres away.

Find out more at https://astrothoughts.uk/workshops

To help busy teachers let their classes know about the upcoming partial solar eclipse on 12th August, we created a page of resources at https://astrothoughts.uk/eclipse2026

By creating some new resources and collating those from the European Space Agency and elsewhere, this should get classes all ready for the event at the end of a busy summer term.

In September, it'll be the 2026 Jane Austen Festival and Bath will be again celebrating the Regency period.

As a fan of Alexander, Caroline and William Herschel, I'll be firmly two decades earlier in the earlier Georgian fashions of the late 1770's when welcoming Regency visitors to the Herschel Museum of Astronomy on the evenings of 14th, 16th and 18th September.

Well dressed astronomers thanks to Bath Theatrical Costume Hire who have a fetching aladin's cave of costume at their warehouse in Frome.

An early class on Thursday in Mrs Champion's History Room with Year 7 and 8 students talking about eclipses at Monkton Prep.

Lots of great questions and the demonstration of intense light on the back of the eye using lasers and latex balloons made everyone jump out of their skins.

It was great to visit the children and staff at Victoria Park Primary School earlier this week to talk at assembly about the history of our understanding of eclipses and how asking questions can lead to rewarding STEM careers.

Helping to kick off the STEM week with workshops for Year 5 on telescopes too - from spectacles to the extremely large telescope.

60 miles driving around Somerset and Wiltshire this afternoon to deliver bulk orders of solar glasses to 7 more schools.

Today the visits were to:
- Bathwick St Mary Church School
- Newbridge Primary School
- St Nicholas Church School
- St Patrick's Catholic Primary School
- Saltford CofE Primary School
- The Meadows Primary School
- Westwood With Iford School

That's 4,600 pairs delivered so far.

Thanks again to Neill at Go Stargazing and Grant at First Light Optics