Libraries all over the place are encouraging children to take part in this summer's reading challenge, Space Hop!

The Summer Reading Challenge encourages children to read six or more books of their choice during the holidays with collectable incentives and rewards, plus a certificate or medal for every child who completes the Challenge.  All children who complete the challenge will be entered into a fantastic prize draw – first prize is a new bike!...This summer's books follow a space theme! How exciting!!!

Ashington Library invited Nastro members to go along to their 'launch' (hehe) on Saturday 3rd of July 2010-so along went Adrian Jannetta, Emma Maddison, Paul lewis and Malcolm Robinson.

We took globes and gadgets, prisms and planispheres ...and our favourite Astronomy books. Paul Lewis took his solar telescope so everybody got the chance to see just how fantastic the sun is! We were lucky enough to see a couple of sun spots and filaments on the surface.

We had a slide show of 3d space images including a picture of Buzz Aldrin on the moon, planets and moons, far away galaxies and our very own lovely planet as seen from space!

Emma ran Astronomy Origami activities and had fun making paper planispheres and constellation paper games.

There was a great turn out, about 40 people -19 children signed up to the reading challenge on the day! Good luck kids!

We have been invited back to Ashington library again to do a session with telescopes in the autumn when the dark nights cut in. They have also kindly invited us to use the library for any future astronomy events we'd like to run. Thank you for the generous donation  to our society Jenny!

Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s Hauxley Visitor Centre has been destroyed by fire!

Members of Nastro were devastated to hear the news of the fire at Hauxley Nature Reserve, our regular meeting place. Some of us had to go down to see it to believe it. 

The Fire Brigade was called to the site between 1am and 1.30am on Monday 28 June. It took the crew an hour to put out the blaze.

The fire is believed to have started in the office area of the timber built centre and spread rapidly throughout the rest of Centre. The building has been totally gutted and will need to be demolished.

Mike Pratt, Northumberland Wildlife Trust Chief Executive said: “This is horrendous blow for the Trust, its supporters and the wildlife on the site which will undoubtedly have been traumatised by the blaze and increased human activity.”

He continued: “Our immediate focus is in make the site safe but we will then look to the future and the re-construction of this important site that so many people enjoy; we will be launching a public appeal to help us achieve this.”

Donations to the New Hauxley Visitor Centre Appeal can be made by calling the Trust on 0191 284 6884 or by post, sending a cheque made payable to Northumberland Wildlife Trust Ltd to Garden House, St Nicholas Park, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne NE3 3XT marked New Hauxley Visitor Centre Appeal, or by clicking on the Virgin logo below

Please mention the New Hauxley Visitor Centre Appeal in the message box.

 

On Thusday 24th of June 2010 Oliver, our youngest NASTRO member, gave us a fantastic talk on Terraforming Mars. He talked us through what we'd need for to alter Mars so it would be habitable for us to live there in the future when earth is no more. He told us exactly what we'd need to do and when we should start the work to ensure it's ready on time. All of Oliver's ideas for a self-sufficient ecological system were explained with fantastic drawings which he had clearly spent a great deal of time planning and creating. He also brought up some excellent discussion points including the morality of such a project.

By Joshua

By Ethan

(click on the images to see full versions

On the 10th of March 2010 we were visited by the Alnwick Cubs who were  working towards their Astronomy Badge.
 

The Cubs spent a few hours with us and participated in our organised activities.

Move your mouse pointer over the image to see the constellation outline, star names and the location of asteroid Vesta. Click on the image to see the full sized version and to see more of Malcolm's work.