Aim for the stars these school holidays

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THOSE wishing to learn more about outer space and the night sky will have the opportunity to do so this school holidays, with a program of events on offer at the Ballarat Municipal Observatory and Museum.

Running from Saturday 30 December until Saturday 3 February, events will be on in the afternoon and evening.

Junior sessions, which are aimed at children under 10, will run in the afternoon and will include learning about planets, launching water rockets, safe solar viewing and a 3D movie showing.

“We will have a close look at Saturn this time because last school holidays we had a close look at Jupiter,” said Judith Bailey, observatory manager.

Then in the evening, there will be sessions for all ages including a tour of the observatory, a movie showing and stellar viewing through telescopes.

“We have both Saturn and Jupiter around in the evening to look at so there will be plenty to see,” said Ms Bailey.

Previous school holiday programs have proved popular with families.

“It’s a hands-on sort of activity and participants get to find out lots of really interesting information about the planets,” said Ms Bailey.

“The children are very interested to learn so we get lots of very good questions.”

Ms Bailey said she hopes the program helps develop a future generation of astronomers.

“We often get enquiries about what you need to do to become an astronomer,” she said.

“What we provide at the observatory is a very unique experience and there is nothing really like it around.”

To book tickets visit the Ballarat Municipal Observatory and Museum website.