The Victoria Tower Astronomical Society

From "The Victorian", 1974

THE VICTORIA TOWER ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY (Vic T.A.S.)

The Pioneer group has for the last four or five years been converting the Victoria Tower at Gorey (an early Martello tower) into an astronomical observatory. At the end of last year the project was nearing completion, and it seemed time for a society to be formed for people interested in astronomy. This would instruct them in the use of the observatory, with its ten-inch Newtonian reflector telescope (donated by Old Victorian Mr. Robert Le Rossignol), and give them the opportunity. of hearing lectures and seeing films on the Apollo programme, and talks on telescopes, comets, satellites, the sun and the planets.

The society is open to all secondary schools in the island, most of them having representatives who, together with the President, the Secretary and the Treasurer, form the committee which organises the Society.

The committee is as follows:—

President: Mr. E. Le Quesne.
Secretary: Marion Le Cornu.
Treasurer: Christopher Parlett.
Representative for Victoria College: Gary Misson.
Representative for Jersey College for Girls; Kim Turner.
Representative for Hautlieu: Angela Long.
Representative for De La Salle: Keiron Casey.

The Society has so far 32 members. The committee has, decided that there should be an annual subscription of 25p to cover the cost of films and observatory expenses. In the near future the Society will be showing more N.A.S.A. films and giving talks on radio astronomy, cosmology, and a summary of the Apollo mission. The Society usually meets every alternate week, either on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Up till now the meetings have been in the lecture theatre at Victoria College, but next term each meeting will be at a different school.

Since Christmas, on nearly every clear, calm weekend evening, there has been a group of people up at the observatory looking at various celestial objects, notably the nebula, in Orion, Saturn and the moon.

Electricity is now being installed at the observatory so that by- Easter there will be an efficient lighting and heating system; there will also be power to turn the telescope to that it can track any star it is pointed at. This enables time-exposures to be taken, and an accurate photographic chart of the night sky can be compiled.

Once the electricity is installed a weekly observing session will be held on Fridays or Saturdays, weather permitting.

Plans are at the moment being drawn up for a radio telescope to be built on the Science block roof, which will receive pictures from weather satellites orbiting the earth.

C.B.P.