SW 2016 - Y5 to Y9 Visit European Southern Observatory

The European Southern Observatory kindly welcomed children from Y5-9 on Monday 2nd May.  We learnt about: galaxies; the size of planets and stars; how to line up telescope mirrors; infrared radiation and what a comet is made of. 

Looking at the solar flares through a special, solar telescope at ESO. 

Cool! Is this what we look like in Infrared?!  

Nah… this is a much better scale for seeing Infrared radiation – look you can see the heat of our hand prints on the paper!

Making a comet using dry ice – after we had all made a very solemn promise to stay in our seats! 

Just… want… to …. get this to line up.

Some careful work lining up mirrors – seeing how the inside of a telescope works.

Years 7-9 were lucky enough to have a live skype chat with an astronomer in Chile. Chile was the first of the ESO’s two host nations (Germany became the second in 1980). They were able to learn about life as an astronomer and to understand some of the work that is currently been carried out at the ESO.