Reaching for the stars on St. Martin's

We might now have our own fully-fledged observatory on St. Martin’s, but COSMOS – or as we were, St. Martin's Astronomical Society – started, as with many great ideas, over a few drinks at our island pub. Let me tell you a bit more about how we got from The Seven Stones Inn to stargazing.

It all begins with Val Thomas, our Chair. Like all our current team of volunteers, Val has always had an interest in astronomy. Living here, on a clear night, under a blanket of millions of stars, you are very connected to the night sky, and you can’t help but develop a deep fascination. The birth of an actual island observatory, however, has its roots back in October 2015, when amateur astronomer Mark Holmes stayed with Val for the first time. Mark got talking to Val about his experience of setting up a community observatory in his hometown in Cheshire, which got Val thinking - could we do the same on St. Martin’s? We have the dark skies, and a potential site, but do we have the community enthusiasm?

Image: Daymark on St. Martin's beneath the stars, (c) Bruce Frank

Scilly is a remarkable place for stargazing. Our remote location means we’re free of light pollution and we enjoy some of the darkest night skies in the UK. On top of that, being on an island gives us long, low, unobstructed horizons. This gives us the chance to see sights – especially the planets – that wouldn’t be visible in a built-up area. Add to all that our temperate climate – warmer nights are always welcome! An observatory would be the ideal addition to our small island.

Val mulled it over for a few months, working with Mark to produce a ‘wish list’ of equipment and a basic plan of the would-be site. Then, early in 2016, Val put up a notice in the island shop’s window, inviting anyone interested in astronomy to meet up in the pub. It was so well attended that we called ourselves the St. Martins Astronomical Society (‘Smart Asses’ for short!) and subsequently met again in the island Reading Room to form a committee and discuss next steps. I moved to St. Martin’s in April 2016 and soon after joined the committee as secretary (aka note-taker and general organiser), where possibly my only claim to fame, at my first meeting, I came up with the acronym COSMOS – Community Observatory St Martin’s on Scilly. Smart asses with ambition!

Then followed the relentless task of raising the funds. This took the best part of 3 years to achieve, a combination of grants and community fundraising. Our first real success came in late 2017, when we were awarded our first big donation of £2000 from the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company’s Community Fund. This was a momentous confidence boost: our project was believed in and, if we kept at it, achievable. We were ultimately awarded – after a lengthy and hugely detailed application process – a game-changing grant by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development in May 2018. Finally, it was all systems go.

Image: Community Observatory St Martin’s on Scilly (COSMOS) 

The Observatory was built over the Autumn/Winter of 2018 and finally opened to the public in April 2019. It's located on what was a disused field behind the St. Martin's Island Hall & Reading Room, at the heart of our community.

And what makes an observatory? We have a warm room – a fancy shed that contains our computer equipment and telescope paraphernalia. This has room for us to hold events and is where we all gather for stargazing. Outside, we have two observation domes with fixed telescope mounts. A powerful 14inch Meade in one, is used for deep sky viewing. The second dome houses a smaller but versatile 5-inch Altair – great for viewing the planets – alongside a specialist hydrogen-alpha solar telescope, for use during the day, for safe close-ups of the Sun. As our nearest star, the Sun can sometimes get forgotten about in astronomy. It’s brilliant to observe – through our telescope you can see solar flares and sunspots. We also used this to view the recent transit of Mercury across the Sun.

We are hosting an annual Scilly Dark Skies Week packed with astronomy every October – our inaugural event was very well received. This year’s event will take place between 1 – 8^th October and the theme for this year is Moons.

Image: Circles of light, (c) Bruce Frank

Our ultimate vision is for the Observatory to be a centre of learning and exploration of our dark skies, for all ages, for our resident community and our visitors. Scilly’s unpolluted dark skies offer fantastic opportunities for stargazing and exploring space, and we hope to share this wonder of our natural environment with many more people in years to come.

You can book onto a Twinkly Tuesday session online. Join our friendly group on Facebook to get ideas on how to stargaze from home, or to glimpse what we’re up to, or just to join the conversation!

In the meantime, keep looking up.

www.cosmosscilly.co.uk | cosmosscilly@gmail.com