Profile

I think my favourite food is pizza followed closely by A Really Good Bit of Chocolate Cake.

Before working in astronomy, I was a nurse in A&E so have had a different pathway into the science communication sector than other people.

I enjoy reading, gaming, and painting. I usually paint space objects because they are so beautiful! The novels I read are all sci-fi or fantasy. I’ve just finished reading The Three Body Problem series by Chixin Liu- it is all about what would happen if we tried to communicate with aliens and they answered back!

For work and for pleasure, I also love astrophotography- particularly the way we can use telescopes and cameras together to image deep space object like galaxies or nebulae.

Kielder Observatory is a registered Charity operating the Northumberland International Dark Sky Park- the largest area of protected dark skies in Europe. We run events for people of all ages throughout the year to stargaze with them with our big telescopes. We also do educational work on a number of topics (personally I love talking about aliens and the way the universe works) and visit schools with a planetarium. Recently, we have a new radio telescope to do science with, and lots of fun art projects to get people thinking more about space.

I leave for work an hour or so before I have to start- the drive is long! On the way, I may pick up supplies as there is no running water at the observatory. When I arrive, I help do the cleaning and restocking we need to do. We also make a plan as a team for how our event is going to run, and what we will look at with telescopes. Usually, I will open an event by greeting guests in our main classroom and holding a talk for them. If I am not doing this, I will be in a telescope room showing them stars and galaxies through the telescope- weather permitting! We all stay on site until the last guest goes home, and then we have to close everything down again. Sometimes we will stay to use the telescopes to take a photo of something in space!