
We have created a facility which is for use by patrons of the Poltimore Inn to come and see the benefits of the exmoor dark sky national park. I felt that we needed to spark curiosity into our dark skies, for not only the older generation, but the younger generation. There is such a vast gulf between the age groups of the traditional observer of the dark sky, I felt a fresh approach was needed. I was brought up in an era where my uncle interested me with a brass telescope on top of a coal bunker looking at the moon, the landing on the moon and the Apollo missions to todays space station, the Hubble telescope and the James Webb telescope that has just been launched
For me to have the same sort of impact as my uncle had, I felt a new approach was required
The younger generation are on their tablets, telephones and exercising their thumbs and require more immediate results than waiting long periods of time for images to become clear.
During one of my previous experiences in scuba diving, I made the mistake of going in the water with a traditional 35mm camera 30 years ago. Within the space of 2 years, digital cameras were launched with waterproof housings and rather than waiting days for the results of the images and finding that you had rubbish pictures, our daughter was editing her shots underwater whilst taking pictures of seals off of Lundy.