Summer 2023 – making an ambush
The most satisfying part of re-opening the old Twin Dome observatory is in getting visitors along to see the new space, as many as possible. This is not just during the now well established observatory open nights in winter, but also for new events at other times of the year when we can create work to appeal to a whole other level of curiosity.
Once the nights start to get a bit longer, anywhere between November and March, the Observatory Open Nights have always brought in a very reliable two to three hundred visitors. It’s a chance for visitors to meet and question lots of astronomers from the School of Physics and Astronomy as well as getting up-close with all the telescopes on site, including (and especially) the jaw-droppingly large James Gregory telescope in the main observatory building.
During Open Nights of more recent years the Twin Dome has become the slightly strange other observatory where we like to ambush our stargazer visitors with a subtle shift in perspective and into a world of art/science. It’s an experience that seems to go down really well but that ambushing (an expression first described to me by Anne-Marie) can work both ways. In the Spring, Summer and Autumn months we can just as effectively ambush our art audience with a world (universe) of astronomy. We can do this with an interweaving of disciplines inside the Twin Dome but also in the knowledge that the Twin Dome lives in the wider history of the university’s observatory and remains at the centre of the observatory buildings and grounds and all the research and teaching that continues to this day.
