On Saturday 8th Jan 2011 Ashlawn School and Rugby and District Astronomical Society hosted a free 'stargazing LIVE' event in conjunction with BBC2.

The success of the three part programmes on BBC2 starring Professor Brian Cox, Dara O'Brien and Jonathon Ross, had lead to a fantastic turnout at the event, one of many held across the country to inspire the public to 'look up'.

Over 300 visitors of all ages came to learn more about our solar system, neighbouring galaxies and the formative links the midlands has to the origins of astronomy.

Rugby Astronomical Society members, with over 20 fantastic telescopes, braved to cold to show the visitors incredibly details views of Jupiter's moons, Orion's nebula, the international space station, Pleiades and much more on one of the clearest nights of the year so far. Some guests brought their own telescopes along and benefited from the guidance of the Society members. Professor Tom Marsh of Warwick University's Astrophysics Dept, Dr Johanna Jarvis - astrophysicist and Mike Frost from the British Astronomical Society gave three fascinating talks about what we would see in the sky, how small we are in space and how far astronomy has come through the years. We like to thanks everyone who attended the event and everyone who made it possible and look forward to hosting another event later in the year.

BBC Coventry & Warwickshire Radio Show starring Mr Parker and Liselle Dixon

For more information contact Liselle Dixon on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it