NEWPORT WETLANDS
JUNE 28TH 2009

The Newport Wetlands Centre has become a regular gig on the CAS calendar. It is a good site with superb facilities and open skies to the West, South and East.

We have enjoyed some excellent viewing and a memorable fly-past by the ISS.

But the weather always determines our activities and poor skies are common. Solar observing offers its own challenges – particularly when the guest of honour simply refused to show itself and remains coyly behind the clouds. This was the situation that greeted us in late June and the CAS team spent many hours of ‘will it? / won’t it? ‘Ultimately it was a double shame as the moon should also have been visible had the clouds parted or simply pushed off.

So when solar observing has no visible sun, what is our Plan B? Well the bird sanctuary and wildlife centre offer lots of alternatives. After all, binoculars can be equally useful in matters ornithological and astronomical. And we still get to meet the general public who are so often intrigued and misinformed about astronomy and perhaps this is the opportunity for them to ask that nagging question.

And so it was - a mixture of hope over experience, bird watching and chatting to the public as they filed into the centre.

It is perhaps not surprising that the general public is so ignorant and confused about astronomy. Our lives are so largely detached from the seasons, nature and events in the universe. And the education received in such matters is usually via a journalist who has misunderstood what the scientist was saying. So time spent in conversation was well spent and it is always good to see the gradual realisation of understanding. Who knows where that might lead?

Setup and ready for action.

A was still alive – specialist telescopes and telescopes with mandatory filters were at the ready for the moment might reveal its secrets.

A posse of members left for the nearby Cwm Carn Forest to se if it might be a likely dark sky location. They returned with positive feedback and the possibility of using that visitors’ education centre in future.

I was becoming more concerned about Dave Powell. He had arrived in the morning all exciting and eager to track down painted ladies. I pointed out that Newport had always been noted for its painted ladies but that they didn’t normally frequent this part of town. Perhaps he should try somewhere a bit more ‘inner city’. But no, he insisted that thousands upon thousands of painted ladies had been spotted flying North from Africa towards the UK. Surely some of them would have found their way to Newport – the Wetlands would be an ideal environment for them. So I took him off to find them.

We saw lots of wildlife – mainly birds but many brilliant dragonflies as well. But definitely no painted ladies (of any description)!

Both being keen bird watchers – but definitely not twitchers! – We headed off towards the coast line and the mudflats. There we were greeted by the sight of more curlews than I have ever seen before. And lots of white egrets, rare visitors to our shores, coming from Africa (and probably feasting on painted ladies on the way). But still he was not satisfied – it was painted ladies or nothing. *

Time to head back to the others before we had been missed. We weren’t!

All in all this was another successful outreach exercise: we had had some interesting conversations with the public, saw lots of birds doing birdy things, had a useful reccy of a new venue, and it is always good to chat amongst ourselves about astronomy and other things too.

The staff of the centre are always very welcoming and appreciative of our efforts. So I am sure we’ll met again – some sunny day.

(* Ironically when he did eventually and much later find a painted lady it was by the CAS container at Castle Heights. Obviously word had got around and they had come to find him!)