Dundee Astronomical Society and the Mills

The Dundee Astronomical Society was founded in 1956 and has enjoyed a close relationship with the Mills Observatory since that time.  The society has held its meetings there, has regularly carried out public viewing nights, and previous Mills Observatory Astronomers remain society members to this day.  The Society attracts current research scientists to come to the Mills to present their work to us. Unfortunately, we have had to reduce the number of the public we can admit to our meetings since the meeting room capacity was sharply reduced some years ago, when Leisure and Culture were anticipating accommodating an artist there, which meant the room had to be divided with a partition wall, losing about a third of its capacity.  This also meant that advertising these popular talks to the public, on the Mills website, had to stop.

Several of our honorary members have credited their early involvement with astronomy at the Dundee Society in helping develop their passion for astronomy, leading them onto exciting careers in the subject.  People such as, Prof Colin Steele, currently Professor of Mathematics at Manchester University, Robert McNaught of Siding Springs Observatory in Australia who became internationally renowned as the discoverer of many comets and minor planets, Dr Harry Ford, our current Honorary President, who became lecturer at the famous planetarium at the Observatory in Greenwich, and Neil Bone who was Director of the BAA Meteor Section and a prolific amateur astronomer.  For many young people, personal experience of astronomy can fire imagination and open doors for them.  It is always a wonderful thing to see this enthusiasm in the young.

Public viewing

Helping the public to see and learn about the night sky has always been something which has been part and parcel of our agenda.  Several of our members regularly carry out community outreach.  Unfortunately, I can see no way to maintain the volunteer work we do at the Mills without the facilities which exist there.  

We use the telescopes there and the public love to use the old Cooke telescope which is a memorable experience for them.  Every year, we hear that parents have brought their children, as they still remember coming there as a child themselves and seeing the rings of Saturn through the Cooke. We also use the 12-inch Meade tracking scope and the more recently donated 10-inch Meade, which also tracks the night sky.  These are fully computerised telescopes.  They are large, heavy and expensive telescopes of excellent quality.  These are only just portable for a few meters, and one is taken out the door onto the balcony and the other used in the dome.  Even if we find premises to meet as a society, we cannot purchase or host such expensive equipment, or anything like them.  Even if cost was not the issue, we would need somewhere to store them securely, and be near enough to outside space which is suitable for the public.  Try as I might, I simply cannot see how this community work can be continued and so would also need to stop. 

One of the reasons we enjoy these public viewing nights is because when you meet members of the public who came along on the off chance and leave with a real desire to go and learn more, or children who follow you around to ask more questions, it is truly rewarding.

Hopefully, if the Mills Observatory does close, some provision would be made for the maintenance of the many thousands of pounds of equipment which would be left there, including the historic Cooke telescope housed in the dome.

Prior to this current situation, some of our members were assisting Leisure and Culture in putting together a means to allow disabled people, who cannot access the dome, to see live views of the sky via a Wi Fi camera attached to a tracking telescope in the dome and relaying to a screen on the ground floor.  This would mean no trailing cables, a hazard in a dark observatory.  There is nothing like seeing the live night sky, Saturn’s rings, deep sky nebulae, rather than photographs, to leave lasting memories and can go on to inspire.  The costs for this project would have been quite small and it would have allowed groups of disabled school children to attend just like their more able-bodied friends.

We do feel that as an attraction the Mills has much to recommend it. Its stunning historical story, the country’s first public observatory, and its unique construction for a large dome made of papier mâché, the floating floor in the dome and a structural telescope support which goes all the way from the dome through the building into the bedrock to support the Cooke telescope.