Regular CADSAS news, events and astronomy information

Piers Sellers In Orbit



Piers Sellers Walking In Space

DATE: Monday 28th March 2011

TIME: 7.00-9.00pm

TICKETS: Free, but MUST be booked IN ADVANCE
Sorry, ALL TICKETS RESERVED

VENUE: Queen's Hall Theatre, Cranbrook School (and later at the Observatory, for a tour and observing, if clear)

Some background on Piers Sellers:

• Born in Crowborough, Sussex
• Educated at Cranbrook School (Rammell House), leaving in 1973
• Gained a BSc from Edinburgh in Ecological Science and a PhD from Leeds University in biometeorology
• Moved to the USA in 1986, to work for NASA as a research meteorologist at the Goddard Space Flight Center
• Selected as an astronaut candidate in 1996
• Has flown three Space Shuttle missions (in 2002, 2006 and 2010), totalling 35 days in space. The pictures on the right are from his mission on Shuttle Atlantis
• Completed six spacewalks (or EVAs - Extra Vehicular Activities), totalling 41 hours "outside".
• Officially opened the Cranbrook School Observatory in 2005

After Meeting Piers Sellers In The Queen's Hall, You Can Tour Our Observatory And Do Some Observing (if clear)

We have eight telescopes at the Observatory. Below, you will see two pictures of our BIG ONE... the Alan Young telescope.

It's a 22.5inch Newtonian reflector. Built originally in the early 1970's (by Alan Young, of course), it did important work detecting supernovae, but then fell into disuse and disrepair.

Over the last 5 years, we have installed the great telescope here at Cranbrook School and restored it to good use.

Improvement works are continuing, in particular to upgrade the declination axis drive and introduce a modern control system.