Scottish weather is hardly ideal for stargazing. Therefore it is a little surprising that Edinburgh is one of the global powerhouses of astronomy with a long history of discovery and innovation stretching into the present.
In recent years, Edinburgh’s Royal Observatory has become an international point of pride. The site has played an important role in the development of the James Webb Space Telescope, and new scientific discoveries are made on site daily.
“Our team of scientists and machinists are second to none,” said Dr Ciaran Fairhurst, a Webb communication scientist.
“Edinburgh has massively contributed to this huge James Webb project, and it flies under the radar a little bit so it's nice to be able to tell people all about what we do here. Most people don't realise we're actually building and constructing these state of the art instruments right here in Edinburgh.”
The Royal Observatory has sat proudly atop Blackford Hill since the late 1880s, and it overlooks the city of Edinburgh as well as the rolling country hills. The campus has been closed to the general public since the 1990s, and it truly feels like a working science centre as the private tour wanders through the amalgamation of buildings on site.
The science facilities are home to the UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC) a national centre of excellence for the development of astronomy and telescope instrumentation - including work on the James Webb Space Telescope.
Dr Fairhurst explains astronomical phenomena and touts a dizzying wealth of information, but the first impression of the Observatory is within the large telescope domes which dominate the Victorian building’s facade.
Although the domes and their telescopes have not been used for stargazing since the 1970s, they are now important educational and nostalgic exhibits to illustrate the history of astronomy in Edinburgh
Education is an important part of Dr Fairhurst’s job, and although the Observatory has been closed to the general public for decades, the facility encourages STEM education and interest through primary school partnerships.
“We want to show kids something they’ve never seen before and inspire them to be interested in STEM,” he said.
The tour winds through endless halls and doorways before arriving at another point of pride: the onsite astronomic library.
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“It is one of the most extensive astronomy libraries in the world,” said Dr Fairhurst.
“We've been very lucky in Scotland that over the last 200 years and over the lifetime of the observatory the collection has remained completely intact. There’s a big astronomy library in Paris, but because of unrest and previous wars, lots of things have been destroyed. Here in Edinburgh, we have first editions of books by Isaac Newton and Galileo. We also have one from the 12th century that’s in Arabic.”
The library is lined floor to ceiling with books, and a balcony runs around the upper perimeter. Old volumes of astronomical knowledge bound in leather and cloth invite students to open their pages.
After the library, the tour crosses the campus into more modern buildings and workshops where experts create custom equipment for space exploration.
A massive warehouse contains the biggest project on campus. The onsite team is developing an imaging and star mapping apparatus as big as a large van. The equipment is destined for the Very Large Telescope in Chile when it’s completed.
“Our team here in Edinburgh is second to none in instrument production,” said Dr Olivia Jones, a Webb fellow with STFC.
Passion is palpable all across the observatory campus. However, Dr Jones said she is on another level. She took the time to explain the images from the James Webb telescope, and she beamed over her laptop as she witnessed the birth and death of stars in real time on her screen.
“Everything I've seen is press release image worthy,” she said.
“I am having the time of my life right now. Everything I'm seeing is just blowing me away, and every single thing I'm downloading is a new discovery. Absolutely everything. I don't want to even put my laptop down. It's just so exciting.”
According to Dr Jones and Dr Cieran Fairhurst, international cooperation is a beautiful theme for the Webb project, and others like it. However, it’s a point of local pride for Scotland and the UK as a whole that Edinburgh and the UK ATC is at the forefront of astronomy.
“Edinburgh is the heart centre of the Webb telescope, and I wanted to be here at the centre for excellence in the UK where the engineers who designed all the instruments are,” said Dr Jones.
“It was fantastic watching the first images from Webb alongside the people who actually made the machinery and designed the optics that got Webb to work. It’s a testament to my colleagues and all the people I work with that Webb has a 20-year lifespan when it was only designed to have five. And it’s because the engineers did such a fantastic job.”
As Dr Fairhurst leads the way through the Royal Observatory campus, it’s easy to see that everyone on site from the scientists to the admin staff are enthusiastic about astronomy and the things it can bring to people on earth.
“It's that moment of discovery, and it’s the moment of wonder you get learning something new about where we come from,” said Jones.
“We are all made of star stuff. It’s a very famous quote, but it’s completely true. Everything that we’re made out of - the carbon, the oxygen - everything our world runs off of comes from the birth and death of stars. That’s why I love astronomy.”
Dr Fairhurst values the field for the story of inspiration and awe it brings to humanity.
“I like to think of astronomy as something hopeful. I feel like things are tough for a lot of people at the moment, and it’s nice to be able to offer people something that's wonderful, and inspiring. Maybe it won't have a direct impact on their life, but I think of it as a hopeful story - and it's a story that's actually happening,” he said.
In the modern age, astronomy is also highlighting the urgent need to protect earth. As scientists look afield at other planets like earth, Dr Fairhurst said even the best options look hostile to life.
“It's becoming more and more apparent, as people make discoveries in astronomy that the Earth is quite special,” he said.
“We just started to discover planets around other stars not that long ago. In 30 years, we've seen thousands and thousands of planets around other stars. And to be honest, they all look like pretty horrible places to live. Even the promising ones are not somewhere you'd want to go. I think astronomy has had a big impact in terms of how we think about the wider universe. It's actually quite hostile, and maybe we should be doing more to protect the earth.”
Astronomy and climate science also have a lot of overlap, and going forward, Fairhurst said astronomers have a bigger role to play.
“Climate science is involved in a lot of observations like astronomy, but instead of pointing the telescope away from earth, climate science points it the other way. Both fields involve looking at an image and interpreting what you see. There’s a lot of free flowing skills and information, and it would be fair to say astronomy has a bigger role to play against climate change going forward,” he said.
The Royal Observatory plans to host open door days on 24 and 25 September. The events will be free and open to the public, but guests should book a time slot closer to September to guarantee entry.
The Observatory will also hold stargazing events and astronomy talks throughout the autumn. More information is on the Royal Observatory website.
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