East Sussex Astronomical Society's Space Day at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill, East Sussex

East Sussex Astronomical Society held a day of astronomy before Brian Cox Talk in the theatre.

Transcript

00:00 Today we're promoting ESAS, which is ESAS Succession of Mons Society.

00:04 And 25 years ago I set ESAS up and we are having a big anniversary get-together as it were.

00:13 Especially as Brian Cox is talking tonight, we thought we'd make a day of astronomy here.

00:19 So we've brought telescopes down, we've brought meteorites down,

00:22 and a whole range of other artefacts that people can have a look at.

00:26 We have to go into schools. I'm a STEM ambassador,

00:30 and as a STEM ambassador we go into classes of 30 and so on, year 2, 3, 4,

00:37 and we help the science teachers out with the theories of astronomy.

00:42 So we need to really get to grips with our science education.

00:48 We're sadly lacking with younger people going into the sciences.

00:53 Well my passion, as you say, is a passion.

00:57 I was 7 years old when I first became interested in astronomy.

01:01 I remember a radio broadcast in 1961, so it shows you how old I am,

01:09 when Yuri Gagarin went up into space. He was the first man in space.

01:14 And ever since then my inquisitiveness has sort of grown and grown.

01:19 And in 1972 I saw a comet which was shining in the night sky.

01:24 And ever since then I became friends with Patrick Moore,

01:29 and we helped set up the South Downs Planetarium in Chichester.

01:35 So he was our patron for the East Sussex Astronomical Society since 2000,

01:43 until his death in 2012. So it's been a long old journey,

01:49 and I've been interested in the subject for quite a few years.

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