(adapted from Sophie Joshua’s Report in SHH)

Stedson  George, our local amateur astronomer, was invited to be our guest speaker for the month of March.  He was able to elaborate and delve into his passion of star study, touching on scientific theories and observations of what happens in the dark surrounding known to man as ‘space’ or the Universe..
The vastness of the Universe makes it difficult to know where is the central point, said Stedson, and in years gone by the feverish fascination humans had with space continued to grow, opening opportunity to form new theories and make further observations.

They were aware that stars had fixed positions in the sky, in relation to each other.

They identified various constellations and studied how the constellations moved through the year, and how it affected human behaviour, known popularly today as astrology.
Even more fascinating were the singled out “wanderers”, or planets of the sky.

He went on to say how asteroids form the remainder of our solar systems orbiting bodies and how they occasionally bump into each other, some thought to have even entered the Earth’s atmosphere and wiped out the dinosaur population many years ago. 

The sun is one of billions of stars which form our galaxy.  Our nearest neighbour galaxy is Andromeda which is about 2.4 billion light years away.

Stedson explained how distances in space are measured in light years, giving a minute understanding of how vast the Universe really is, for light, which travels at a speed of  186000 miles per second, to be seen throughout space.

It takes the sun’s rays 8 minutes to reach us here on earth.  It will eventually die, like every star, and as it ages it will erratically disrupt life on this planet. Stedson, being Stedson tended to dramatise this point and some of the children in attendance had nightmares!

Just as stars die, so new stars are being born all the time, in what is called pillars of creation, although it is not certain what triggers star birth.

“Stars are like people” said Stedson “no two stars are alike.  They are born, they enter an adolescent stage, they reach middle age, grow old and die.”

“Big stars die rather spectacularly” he added.  They simply implode, then explode, a process called supernova..
Other night sky topics explored were black holes in space and space in relation to what is visible to the naked eye.  Some of the questions raised from the floor brought to life the subject of shooting stars and comets also.

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