Why Not Renew The Lease?......Co-incidence?.....
by Bernie Bell - 08:03 on 29 July 2024
Why Not Renew The Lease?......
This was on a friend’s FB page…..
https://www.facebook.com/ian.whiteley.3
"Very grim news this week. The observatory in Herstmonceux, run by The Observatory Science Centre, may close within the next two years. The Canadian landlords Queen's University who own the Castle, are not renewing their lease.
Those of you who still read my posts will know that astronomy outreach volunteering there has been my passion for many years, but this is about so much more than me and my other, highly committed friends among the staff and volunteers.
This site contains most of the remaining instruments and buildings of the Royal Greenwich Observatory, a 400+-year old British science institution. The historic museum of the RGO, in Greenwich, is its other remnant. Greenwich has one remaining former RGO telescope for public viewing. We have three.
Herstmonceux is where the first stellar mass black hole was visually identified. Patrick Moore, Stephen Hawking, the astrophysicist Donald-Lynden Bell are all closely associated with the site. It was the home of the largest telescope in Western Europe.
There is no telling what will happen once the current operators, Science Projects Ltd., move out. When the working observatory closed in 1990, there were plans to turn the site into a golf course. The instruments in the domes were left to slowly decay. Only the campaigning work of Patrick Moore and others saved the site.
Since then, the telescopes and buildings have been refurbished and three of the historical instruments returned to working telescopes. Hundreds of visitors over the past 29 years since the OSC opened have viewed the stars and planets through them. And every year, our Astronomy Festival attracts some of the UK's foremost astronomy communicators as speakers, as well as astronomy enthusiasts from all over the country.
It is a very special place.
We don't know why the lease has been refused. Maybe the owners plan to sell up. Maybe a golf course, maybe a hotel will be more commercial options than a historic astronomical site. But somehow, those who care about this unique place must shout about it, must make it clear that it must be preserved, and used, as part of Britain's and Astronomy's heritage.
Two years is not very long. If you care, please share this post."
I’ve emailed….Brian Cox, Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Dara O’Briain, Robert MacFarlane, Howie Firth, The Royal Society, Duncan Lunan, Queen’s University Canada, Paul Martin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNTsVXYUGP4 ) and various astronomically inclined chums who might be of less eminence in astronomical circles, but have equal enthusiasm. Brian May's website politely asks folk not to contact him at weekends - so I'll do so today.
If I think of any more - I’ll email them too.
Please – if you feel so inclined – join your voice to those asking…. ‘Why not renew the lease?’ I believe in People Power.
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Co-incidence?.....
Long ago, I came to the conclusion that there is no such thing.
I’d read Chapter One of ‘Island’ by Aldous Huxley – another book that has sat on the shelf for decades, which I’d never got round to reading.
I wasn’t sure what I made of it – it appeared to be about an un-pleasant person – the last thing I need to encounter at this point in time.
Then the sun shone and I was out-doors – then I was tired, from being outdoors.
Then I saw this on Anita’s FB page…
I’ve learnt much and come through much thanks to discussing with Anita – talking of states of mind I’d never talked of.
Never looked at – and never talked of.
I posted the link on my FB page and advised folk - when they’re ready - to discuss.
Then, I sat down and read Chapter Two of ‘Island’.
All I can say is to advise you to read that Chapter, even if you read nothing else of the book. In a nutshell….. ‘Better out than in’.
Island is shaping up to be a wise book about a wise way of being which an un-wise man finds himself being part of.
A good read is hard to find – as is wisdom.
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