South Downs Planetarium Trust - Skywatching - The largest, most unusual telescopes

The Gemini North telescope in its dome. (Image courtesy Gemini Observatory, AURA and NSF.)

S k y w a t c h i n g - T h e L a r g e s t , M o s t U n u s u a l T e l e s c o p e s

Some remarkable instruments now being built to solve the mysteries of the Universe

Important Notice:
At the start of a Planetarium show, your eyes will take a few minutes to adapt to the dark. For this reason, latecomers cannot be admitted. To avoid this, please ensure that you arrive at least 15 minutes before the start time.
The dates and times are:
Friday, 9th May 7.30 pm
Admission Prices: £6.00 for adults, or £4.00 for children under 16.
PLEASE NOTE that we are unable to accept credit or debit cards at present.
This show is suitable for children age 6 and upwards.
ALL SHOWS LAST ABOUT AN HOUR.
As space in our star theatre is limited, visitors for the public presentations are strongly advised to book tickets in advance to avoid disappointment.
Tickets may be reserved by telephoning the Planetarium on 01243 774400, or the ticketline on 07818 297292.
If we are unable to deal with your telephone request for information immediately, please leave your name and telephone number and the nature of your enquiry and we shall call you back as soon as we can.
Tickets for the public presentations are also available, to personal callers only, from the Tourist Information Office in South Street, Chichester.

An artist's concept of the Giant Magellan Telescope. (Image courtesy Giant Magellan Telescope - Carnegie Observatories.)

As astronomers work to unravel the mysteries of the Universe in which we live, they are enlisting the help of engineers to design and build ever larger, more remarkable instruments to help them in their quest.

The very latest ideas involve telescopes with enormous mirrors to collect the very faint light from the most distant objects. Driven by complex, computerised drive systems, these new telescopes are sophisticated enough to flex the main mirror so its curvature is always perfect, wherever the telescope points in the sky. Other systems are now able to compensate for the blurring effects of Earth's continually moving air, enabling telescopes on the ground to compete with the capabilities of telescopes in space.

There are also some quite remarkable observatories being developed to study mysterious gravitational waves that are predicted to be produced when black holes collide and merge, and the colossal particle accelerators being used to recreate conditions in the very early universe, just fractions of a second after the BIg Bang.

Come to the Planetarium to find out more about these remarkable instruments.