Explore the stars over winter break

DO the kids need something to do over the winter school break?

The Ballaarat Astronomical Society will aim to have you covered with an exploration into the stars.The school holiday program at the Ballarat Municipal Observatory and Museum begins tomorrow with evening and afternoon sessions to run until Saturday 13 July.

Education officer Kirralee McLoughlin said the program is about having people use their holiday time to get interested in space, stars and the solar system.

“We believe science is not just for scientists in a lab,” she said.

“It’s out there, it’s understandable and knowable and we want to share our love of astronomy and knowledge with Ballarat and everyone visiting on their holidays.

“We’ve been holding our program probably every school holidays, except COVID, for between five to 10 years.

“The evening programs are usually extremely popular where we might get 20 to 30 people if it’s clear weather.”

Sessions will be held on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays with afternoon activities running from 3.30pm and evening initiatives at 6pm.

Afternoon sessions will entail an information session on the solar system, ending with a water rocket launching activity.

During the evenings, participants will get a tour of the observatory as well as a peek through the site’s telescopic equipment.

Funds raised through the holiday program will go towards maintaining the museum and observatory.

“We’ve got a lot of older buildings and telescopes so keeping them maintained and keeping our modern telescopes in check, we always need funds for, so that’s where that goes,” Ms McLoughlin said.

“We’ve got a number of Dobsonian telescopes which are reflector mirror telescopes.

“We’ve also got a Cassegrain spring filled telescope which was the first disability-access telescope in Australia which we’ll hopefully be using for the sessions.”

Tickets are $35 adult and $15 student for evenings, and $12 adult and $5 student for afternoons. To book, visit bit.ly/45uaga9.