School planetarium director outlines telescope’s stellar achievement

Abu Dhabi Astronomy Club marked the Hubble space telescope’s 25th anniversary with an event on Saturday evening.

Stargazers celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope at the Gems American Academy Planetarium. Vidhyaa Chandramohan for The National.

ABU DHABI // Stargazers gathered at a planetarium to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the world’s most famous telescope, the Hubble, and to catch a glimpse of the International Space Station as it passed overhead.

For a quarter of a century, the orbiting telescope has been mapping the galaxy, sending back incredible images of constellations such as the Cat’s Eye Nebula, The Ring and the Running Chicken Nebula which are out of reach of even the most powerful terrestrial scopes.

During the event at the Gems American Academy Planetarium, space and astronomy enthusiasts were shown a presentation by its director James Walker, detailing the Hubble’s many stellar achievements.

“The images that it’s brought back are just amazing, they really hit home for people to see how big the universe is. The revelations it’s given us just keep coming, so we’ve just kind of gotten used to it,” said Mr Walker.

“The sky is there for you to look at and you might not realise it, but all the images that Hubble has given us are in the sky above you right now.”

The reason why the Hubble Space Telescope is able to get such clear photos of faraway galaxies is due to its positioning. Above the atmosphere, which blocks much of the light travelling millions and, at times, billions of light years to reach Earth, the view is much better.

The big problem is, however, if anything goes wrong, a manned space mission needs to be sent to the telescope in orbit. Four repair missions have been sent since Hubble’s launch in April 1990.

Mr Walker, an American in charge of the planetarium, has been interested in astronomy since a family holiday to the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

He was 6 when the Hubble telescope was launched and he remembers the first images it sent back.

However, Mr Walker was keen to point out that although the Hubble is vastly superior to anything on Earth, even a cheap telescope is enough to allow an enthusiast to see many of the wonders of the night sky.

Events like this aim to raise awareness of astronomy among the public, he said.

“The planetarium here is mostly used as a resource for the school, but when something big happens, I get an itch to do some sort of outreach,” he said.

Members of the astronomy club gathered on the school’s roof after the presentation to catch a glimpse of the Hubble as it passed overhead.

The space station was visible at 8.15pm from Abu Dhabi. It will be flying directly overhead tomorrow evening at 7.20pm.

Matjaz Dovzam, from Slovenia, went to the planetarium with his family to celebrate the telescope’s anniversary.

“We are very much into looking at the stars in Slovenia, but here this presentation was perfect. We’ve never seen such detail,” he said.

He added that the Hubble’s anniversary was a good opportunity for people to learn to appreciate astronomy.

Stephano Beni, a 13-year-old attending Gems Cambridge Academy, said stargazing was part of his future.

“I have a telescope at home but I can only see the Moon. I hope to be in science in the future and I’m excited for it,” said the Italian.