OUR HISTORY

1993

Eight people sharing the same interest in astronomy began meeting together at the house of Jim Savage-Lowden before moving the meetings to the Spectrum Centre.

Jim later became the Chairperson of the newly formed Inverness Astronomical Society. Meanwhile, along the coast from Inverness, the Moray Astronomical Society was also holding regular meetings which were also attended by Jim.

1994

The two members of the Moray Astronomical Society, Richard Pearce and Mike Reuss-Newlands, decided, with Jim, to amalgamate the two societies, and the Highlands Astronomical Society was formed. Regular meetings were held in Inverness on a monthly basis.

1996

Meetings were largely informal and generally involved discussion and questions. However, it was decided that a formal Constitution should be drawn up and a Committee was formed from the membership.

Astronomy Week took place later in the year and members of the public were invited up to our observing site in Culloden Battlefield car park to view the night sky through Society members’ telescopes. Moray Firth Radio also spent one evening with us.

1997

James Dick, our Secretary at the time, decided to develop a programme to provide a formal structure to the meetings. Most of the speakers were drawn from the members and talks were given on various topics and projects. Occasionally, a guest speaker was invited to give a talk to the Society.

A 12" telescope was donated to the Society by the Abbey at Fort Augustus. However, it was in need of a great deal of refurbishment and wasn’t yet fit for use.

1999

A permanent location for an observatory was identified in Abriachan by Richard Green, our Secretary at the time. He also authored a document called ‘First Light’, which detailed the possible development of an observatory for the Society at the proposed site.

2000

Our Spacegazer website was designed and set up by Maarten de Vries – the message board proving a very popular feature.

Jim Savage-Lowden retired as Chairperson in order to tour schools with a portable planetarium, and Pauline Macrae took over the reins.

A lunar eclipse took place during one of the meetings, allowing Society members, along with the press, to observe the event in its entirety.

2001

A 10” reflecting telescope, rotating shed, numerous slides, books and a Sky Sensor Computer were purchased from the estate of a Mr. Don Smith. The rotating shed was dismantled in a blizzard by an enthusiastic gang of members and stored at Jim Savage-Lowden’s house until it could be renovated.

Committee members Rob Nuttall and Maarten de Vries conducted an in-depth survey of the Abriachan site in order to provide enough information to decide on further development. However, after a lot of thought and discussion, the Abriachan site was decided against and an astronomical wood-henge was proposed instead.

Culloden battlefield was chosen as the new site for an observatory although this was only temporary.

Talks were given to Scout groups, and the first open day for HAS attracted many members of the public.

The tube of the 12” telescope donated in 1997 was deemed to be beyond repair, so the mirror was used in a Dobsonian telescope, built by members Maarten de Vries, Antony McEwan and Rob Nuttall.

2002

Society membership exceeded 60 members, of whom more than 35 regularly attended meetings.

The good news this year was the National Trust for Scotland suggesting the incorporation of an observatory into their proposed new Culloden Battlefield Visitor Centre. In the meantime, our rotating shed was renovated and transformed into an observatory by a group of our members, led by Arthur Milnes and Bill Jappy, and sited behind the current visitor centre.

We had an open day in April, followed by a public viewing session in the evening which attracted over 100 people, despite intermittently cloudy weather.

August saw the start of a monthly astronomical column, Seeing Stars, published in the Inverness Courier and written by members Maarten de Vries and Andy Ferguson.

Awareness of HAS was growing and some of our members were invited to Skibo Castle and Ackergill Tower to show guests views through their telescopes. A Youth Fellowship group asked if we could show youngsters the night sky through our telescopes.

In September, Dr. Mark Sims, Mission Manager of Beagle 2, came to the Highlands at our request and gave a joint talk to HAS, SIGMA (Elgin Society) and ADAS (Aberdeen Society). It was also open to the general public and well attended.

Sadly, Jim Savage-Lowden, our founder and former Chairperson, died this year.

2003

In April, after a lot of hard work, the Jim Savage-Lowden Observatory was officially opened by his widow and children. Regular observing sessions began, and an up to date Sky Sensor Computer was purchased. As a Society, the regular observers among us were managing to get together to view astronomical events – weather permitting – and show interested members of the public these events on a regular basis.

We observed the Mercury transit from Nairn, but only a few managed to see the annular eclipse later in the year as, unfortunately, the specially arranged trip was clouded out.

Light pollution is of major concern to us and we decided to lobby Parliament about this growing problem. On behalf of the Society, Andy Ferguson formulated and submitted written evidence to the Parliamentary Science and Technology Committee about light pollution in our area. We also asked our members to write to their MSPs, MPs and local Councillors to voice their concerns.

National Astronomy Week in August was extremely successful, attracting nearly 200 members of the general public to our observing facilities. Many were eager to see Mars as it made its closest approach to Earth for over 60,000 years. A Primary school and Scout group were given talks.

2004

HAS reached its 10th birthday this year and we celebrated with a group trip to the Glasgow Science Centre and Planetarium where we were given a short presentation by John Brown, Astronomer Royal for Scotland.

A newsletter is now written every month by Antony McEwan to inform members, unable to attend meetings, of what they have missed.

Society members observed the Venus transit – a once in a lifetime event for the Highlands – and we also invited the general public and tourists to watch the transit safely with us, through our telescopes. All schools in the region were informed and we suggested that they view the Venus transit live on our website. A few schools contacted us for further information and one class managed to come along to our observing site on the day.

In September, an open day for HAS was held in the Eastgate Centre, the main shopping mall in Inverness. A large number of the public stopped to look at the telescopes, equipment and posters we had on display, and the children enjoyed the competitions. This was followed by an open evening at our observing site.

A number of talks were given this year to schools, a Brownies group and a couple of other clubs, including neighbouring astronomical clubs.

Dr. Mark Sims made a return visit to the Highlands to report on the possible reasons for the sad loss of the Beagle 2 mission to Mars and what the future plans for further exploration were.

We were disappointed to learn that it was not going to be possible for our observatory to be incorporated as part of the new Culloden Battlefield Visitor Centre but we have been offered a site on their land for a permanent observatory. A formal agreement is now being drawn up between HAS and the National Trust for Scotland, which will allow us to proceed with funding applications. Rob Nuttall, one of the Society’s members, is in the process of designing the new observatory.

A childrens talk given by Ray Owens was enjoyed by 40 youngsters.

A new website was designed for us by Plexus Media and populated with information by Maarten de Vries and Andy Ferguson.

2005

The new Spacegazer.com website went live on 19th January and exceeded 1000 hits in its first two weeks on-line.

Colin Donaldson, one of our junior members, attended Space School in Houston, Texas, in January. Last summer, he completed six modules on space science to become one of only 50 students across Scotland to achieve the high marks required to be accepted. During the week long course at the Johnson Space Centre, he met various Astronauts, toured mock-ups of the Shuttle and International Space Station, listened to a number of lectures, took part in building rovers to navigate martian-like terrain, and assembled and launched rockets.

The first Science Festival for children was held on the 14th June at Ross County indoor football stadium. As part of the Earth and Space zone, HAS was asked to give a number of 45 minute presentations to the primary school children involved. Andy Ferguson and I volunteered, and spent the day trying to help the children understand the vastness of space, while also talking about some of the objects in space. Our supernova explosion, using a party popper, ensured the children, and presenters, remained alert.

In the Space Flight section Colin Donaldson, in his orange NASA jumpsuit, was one of the Scottish Space Foundation pupils demonstrating meteor impacts. Mike Baker, an experienced Space Shuttle pilot, was also part of the festival.

We hosted the Scottish Astronomers Group Weekend from the 23rd to 25th September at the Thistle Hotel. 34 people from all over Scotland attended this event to listen to a number of varied and interesting talks, three of which were given by HAS members. Solar viewing had been arranged up at the observatory but unfortunately it was cloudy. Pat Williams did a tremendous job organising the event and has been praised by the SAG Committee.

We were partially successful in observing a partial eclipse of the Sun on the 3rd October inviting passing members of the public to view the event with us.

A Science Festival was held from the 10th to the 12th November at which both HAS and SIGMA (Moray's Astronomical Society) played a large part on the Friday (12 schools attended) and Saturday (public day). Maarten de Vries was part of the newly formed company who organised the event. Numerous activities had been arranged as well as a number of sessions with the Faulkes Telescope - a remote telescope in Hawaii, which we controlled via a computer in Horizon Scotland, Forres. Bill Leslie from SIGMA led a team consisting of Alan Tough, also from SIGMA, Rob Nuttall, Eric Walker and myself from HAS, and Matt Hollister from the Royal Observatory of Edinburgh. The images taken by the Faulkes Telescope can now been seen on our Gallery or on Bill's website. Specialist speakers had been arranged for Thursday and Friday evenings, and talks by Matt Hollister, as well as members from both Societies, took place on the Saturday. All members who helped at the event did a superb job and contributed to its success.

Various organisations, including schools, have once again asked us to give talks.

Numerous setbacks along with a great deal of time and effort has been put into designing the new observatory this year. Progress is slow but is moving forward.

2006

A number of members managed to view Mercury on a clear evening on the 24th February at Culloden Battlefield car park. For some, this was their first sighting of this elusive planet.

An adult Education Learning Centre asked Maarten de Vries to provide an astronomy course in February and March of this year.

Maarten also spent a day at Eilean Donan Castle with the Dobsonian telescope to take part in the making of a DVD to showcase Scottish scientific and cultural groups as part of promoting Highland 2007 culture. He was able to promote our Society and since the DVD goes world wide, who knows...

In March, HAS and SIGMA took part in Science Week at Horizon Scotland. I showed some of the recent photographs taken by HAS members and Bill Leslie showed images taken through his Personal Solar Telescope.

We received charitable status in April. This will help in our quest for finding funding for our new observatory; a tremendous boost for which came in June with the award of £24,966 from H2007.

The design for the new observatory became settled. A nine foot dome will house a 14" Richey Chretien telescope and there will be a heated observing station with computers, the screens of which will show the images that are being viewed through the telescope, thus allowing the disabled to take part.

Our social event - a barbecue at Simon Urry's house - took place in June with perfect weather and was attended by quite a few members.

By August, our website was receiving 1000 visitors a day and in September it was made website of the month by the East Antrim Astronomical Society.

Mark Sims, who was Mission Manager for Beagle 2, still keeps in touch, telling us about his present work with the ESA Mars Rover.

We had two open days in September. There was the 'yourInverness' Event which attracted a large number of Clubs and Societies, although not so many visitors. Maarten de Vries gave a talk attended by eight people and over 40 programmes were given away.

Our open day in the Eastgate Centre was a great success. A few of us brought telescopes and manned the table giving out star charts, programmes (80) and paper space shuttle models to make. A large TV and DVD player showed astronomical images and Arthur Fraser's laptop displayed various astronomy programmes. This was followed by a public viewing event in the evening attended by several visitors to the Eastgate. The night sky was crystal clear so not only were we able to see many deep sky objects and the Milky Way, but we were lucky enough to be treated to an aurora as well!

Click here to read a full report of the Open Day.

John Brown, the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, gave a us a talk in October using magic tricks to demonstrate some of the more difficult principles of astronomy and cosmology. He has very kindly offered to help in any way he can with the new observatory and he has sent his Coat of Arms to display.

We are progressing with funding for the new observatory, receiving £9893 from the Lottery and £3000 from the Highland Council's Common Good Fund in December but we still need to raise the last few thousand required. Therefore brochures, which were kindly paid for by Maarten de Vries' Company, will be distributed to businesses around and within Inverness in the hope they will contribute.

Pauline Macrae, Chairwoman