Stirling gets starry-eyed for observatory
By Peter Humfrey
The Observatory has opened it’s doors for the evening as part of the Stirling Science Festival, giving locals a chance to see inside one of the city’s hidden gems.
The event, yesterday evening, was hosted by the Stirling Astronomical Society, the custodians of the observatory and it’s Newtonian reflector telescope.
More than 120 people attended, greatly exceeding expectations, with chairman, Deirdre Bryce, describing the turnout as “excellent”
Groups of people were taken up a narrow spiral stairway to the roof of the old High School, now Stirling Highland Hotel, and from there into the small wooden observatory.
Observatory guide, Bert Mackenzie, was on hand to talk about the observatory and explain the use of the 133-year-old telescope and answer questions from visitors.
The plan had been to gaze out at giants such as Saturn, Jupiter, and Earth’s closest planetary neighbour, Mars. Sadly the weather had other ideas and, faced with poor visibility the telescope was instead pointed at the Wallace Monument to show off its powerful zoom.
Chairman Deirdre Bryce, the society’s first female chairperson, spoke of how it was “very nice to know people are interested enough to turnout to something they didn’t know existed”
Speaking to The Stirling Scope, Bryce spoke of her path into astronomy, with a Christmas present of a telescope from her eldest son, before joining both Falkirk and Stirling’s astronomical societies when she moved north to Scotland.
The observatory has a storied history, dating back to 1889, being a gift from then MP for Stirling Burghs, Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who was later knighted and went on to serve as Prime Minister from 1905 to 1908. The observatory tower was designed by former pupil, and architect, James McLaren, who sadly died before it’s completion.
The centre-piece of the observatory, the 9ft telescope, was designed, constructed and installed in 1889 by 27yr-old, and later knighted, William Peck, City Astronomer of Edinburgh. From 1906 onward it fell into disuse until the appearance of Comet Kohoutek in 1974 prompted staff and pupils to begin work on restoring the old telescope. By April of that year the telescope was restored and has been used regularly ever since.
For those inspired by last night’s event, or who simply have the time, next week on Tuesday is a partial solar eclipse. For those viewing the eclipse it is advised you do not stare directly at it but instead make use of a pinhole viewer, of which the instructions on how to make one are available online.
Anyone interested in joining the society or seeing what it’s all about they meet on the last Friday of each month at the Stirling Highland Hotel. Other than it’s historic telescope in the observatory, the society also has an array of smaller telescopes they loan out to members.