The pinpoints of light observable in our clear night sky are only a fragment of the 200 billion or so stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, which in turn is only one of 200 billion galaxies in the observable universe. You wouldn’t believe how big space really is, it really will blow your mind. Not only that, the light from the stars of other galaxies has travelled for billions of years to reach us. You wouldn’t believe how old it is.

To show people just how big and old space is, the star theatre at Wynyard Woodland Park planetarium is hosting a series of public shows. The theatre was a joint partnership between Stockton Borough Council and Cleveland and Darlington Astronomical Society. Since opening in 2002 over 1220 shows have been enjoyed by schools, colleges, community groups and the general public. There is also an observatory housing a 19 inch Newtonian reflecting telescope, the largest of its kind in the North of England. According to Dr Ed Restall it can see anything in the galaxy fairly well on a dark night. Ed who runs the planetarium with the help of a large volunteer force has a Phd in physics from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.

The planetarium is open for school education programs from across the region and has regular ‘star shows’ in which revolving representations of the night sky are projected onto a huge domed screen to give more realistic viewing. Turnouts of forty to fifty people are commonplace.

On the first Friday of every month you can find out what stars, planets and other objects in space are visible in the sky for the coming month, as well as keeping in touch with any special events such as comets, shooting stars and eclipses. The astronomical society meet on the second Friday of the month, but it is also open to the public. On the last Friday of the month kids and adults are given free help setting-up, repairing and using their telescopes. The park is sufficiently far enough away from the urban jungle for light pollution not to be a serious problem.

The ‘specialist shows,’ which in the past have included topics such as the alignment of the pyramids to star constellations occur on the third Friday of the month and are currently about the immense size and age of the universe.

Every Friday night from 9pm there is free public observing outside the planetarium, provided that the sky is clear of cloud!

The planetarium did have the North-East’s first astronaut, Nick Patrick born in Saltburn, coming to give a talk. Unfortunately that had to be cancelled when NASA recalled him for mission training. As for space men, to quote the New Scientist, ‘Over time, 200 million stars have exploded in our galaxy, producing almost all the elements that make up our bodies. The atoms in your left hand may have come from a different star than those in your right: we really all are star children.’