The Astronomer Royal was on the big screen at the front on the classroom. My class sat on the class room chairs and the other year 4 class sat on the carpet. My friends loved every bit of it and they told their parents all about it. I really enjoyed the session and it inspired me a lot to become an astronomer, scientist or engineer when I grow up. A note from William’s Mum (xxx): I would like to thank Professor Catherine Heymans for her kindness in offering such an amazing opportunity to William and his year group at William Ransom School. I would also like to thank Mr M for coordinating the event and fitting this wonderful event into the very busy school calendar. William and the other children were buzzing with excitement coming out of school about the inspirational event and fellow parents (including myself) reported having their ears talked off by their children when they came home with their newfound knowledge of Astronomy and excitement for science.

Apparently (who knew - not me) on Tuesdays we do #TestimonialTuesday? Which gives me an excuse to share this newsletter gem from the Letchworth Astronomical Society.

Parents having their ears talked off by offspring, full of the joys of science? My job is done 🥳 #SYTN 🔭

Space images of a galaxy, a fluffy pink nebula and the moon. The text reads: Stockbridge Primary P7 Looks through a telescope at Lagganlia 2025.

🥳 Some super happy news: we're featured in Edinburgh's ELATE teaching & learning magazine!

A superb write-up by P7 students Lachlan & Rafe about their experience exploring the cosmos with our mini robotic telescopes in the dark skies of Lagganlia😍

@outdoorlearningedi.bsky.social 🔭🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 #scicomm #SYTN

Frogston Primary totally lucked out on their first night away at 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Lagganlia outdoor centre: clear skies and #aurora! Just as well we told them all about sun-spew in last week's planetarium show! Super proud of our P7 trained-astronomers who braved -2℃ to take these fantastic space photos. #SYTN 🤗🥳🔭🧪

Frustrating cloudy Aurora night here in Porty, but at least I saw the amazing pictures from Lagganlia! #astronomy #SYTN @astroroyalscot.bsky.social

🥳 The clouds have cleared! Balgreen Primary expertly using their Dynamic Earth astronomy training to take these awesome images on their residential at Lagganlia outdoor education centre in the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Cairngorms. So proud of these P7's who braved the baltic snowy night for science! 💪 🔭 #SYTN

An almost full silvery moon in awesome detail, pockmarked with craters.

The swirling galaxy that is Andromeda with two little dwarf satellite galaxies, one above and one below it.

The pacman nebula - looks like a pink piranha on a star studded sky

A big shout out to the P7 class of Stockbridge Primary who took these utterly awesome photos last night on their residential visit to the Lagganlia outdoor learning centre in the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Highlands. Lagganlia is part of the Scottish Youth Telescope Network and I'm so proud of these kids! 🥳 🔭 #SYTN

A star-studded image. in the middle is a red puff in the shape of a heart (or Pacman depending on your view). Text reads Seestar S50, NGC 281, 42mins

Wishing all my American chums a very happy thanksgiving with this absolutely awesome image of the ❤️👾 Pacman Nebula! It was captured by the fab Gilmerton Primary School P7s on their recent residential visit to Benmore, which is part of our Scottish Youth Telescope Network. #SYTN 🔭🧪

A golden orb - the sun, spotty with a handful of black sunspots

A little white box on legs (a seestar S30 telescope) and a 100 ellipse glasses. They have 2024/2023 written on the side, but they are still in tip-top condition!

An info sheet that reads: Saturday 29th March 2025: ⏰10:08 - 12:07 Cross your fingers for clear skies for the partial solar eclipse. Watch as the Moon passes in front of the Sun! And remember never look directly at the Sun without wearing this eye protection!

Amazing weather forecast for Edinburgh this week and so it's all go for our planned primary school playground solar observing sessions, teaching the P6's how to observe the upcoming partial solar eclipse safely. #scicomm #SYTN 🔭

Snap - this is exactly what the Scottish Youth Telescope Network is all about! Targets that pop in a super short time to keep pre-teens engaged. Check out my #SYTN hashtag for the targets we've been working with so far.

It's official - I'm an S30 #SeeStar fan. With numb fingers and toes (it's a cold tonight in Edinburgh), here are a couple of images that the S30 pings quickly enough to grab the attention of our intended pre-teen audience (no processing) 🤩
#SYTN #astrophotography 🔭
↙️ Horsehead Nebula
↘️ M81 & M82

Four panels showing Jupiter and it's 4 moons: Europa, Io, Ganymede and Callisto. The upper panels show real observations taken by St John's Primary at Benmore, and Hermitage Park at Lagganlia, on different nights (Monday vs Wednesday). The lower panels label the moons, taken from Stellarium https://stellarium-web.org

The fab P7 classes from St John's Primary and Hermitage Park tag-teamed with the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 cloud cover this week to see how Jupiter's moons moved. They had lots of theories about who/what ate the 4th moon on Wed, but the mystery was solved with Stellarium: Io was simply hiding!
#SYTN 🔭🧪🎢 #scicomm

A bright peachy circle in the middle (Jupiter) has four bright dots to its right (the moons of Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto). This was taken with a Seestar S50.

A half-illuminated moon, showing the dark grey circles (called mare) against the bright white pock-marked surface. This image was taken with a Seestar S50.

🥳 Three cheers to the hardy group of P7s from St John's Primary who braved freezing conditions (-2°C) last night to take these ace photos! They're staying at the Benmore outdoor education centre and snapped Jupiter & its moons + our Moon with our SeeStar before the clouds arrived!
#SYTN 🔭🎢 #scicomm

You know those wonderful moments when you think, yes, yes, it's all worth it!

Teacher feedback: "a P2 (6yo) child told me about an evening in the garden with their P7 (10yo) brother who told them all about the 7 sisters and #Saturn and even downloaded apps to explore the sky with"🥹
🔭 #scicomm #SYTN