ROTARY SEES STARS!

The 29th October meeting saw the Rotary Club of Anstruther on a heavenly!! mission to foreign parts …. in the shape of the Mills Observatory in Dundee. 

The evening visit was one of the club’s regular social events and, in this case, both educational and fascinating. The observatory was gifted to the people of Dundee in 1935 and built with a bequest from John Mills, a linen and twine manufacturer and a keen amateur scientist
Fortunate to find a cold, dark, clear night, we first viewed the artificial night sky of the planetarium, giving us a concise overview of the constellations and planets of our northern hemisphere. This was followed by a short explanatory talk from our enthusiastic and well-informed guide, Stewart.

It was then time for some serious telescopic stargazing. On the viewing balcony, poised between the heavens and the legendary silvery Tay, we observed the planet Jupiter, the Seven Sisters and the moon. Even with an apparently small telescope, the difference between observation with the naked eye and with the visual aid was nothing short of astounding. The moons of Jupiter and the craters of the moon swam clearly into view.

Our visit concluded in the Observatory Dome. The centrepiece here is the Cooke Telescope which still functions as well as it did when it was built in 1871. The papier mâché roof retracted with an effortless turn of a wheel -  and there was the night sky in all its glory.  We all left delighted by this closer look at our universe.

More about the Mills Observatory can be found at (http://www.dundeecity.gov.uk/mills)