Astroblast 2008 comes to Bedford - Sunday 2nd November 2008

Welcome to Astroblast 2008

What is Astroblast?

Astroblast is a one-day fun event featuring Space and Astronomy. Now in its third year it is coming to Bedford with an even bigger and better line-up that will delight children of all ages from 5 to 95.

Learn how rockets work, meet storm troopers and other aliens, find out how to choose and use a telescope, meet Mr Meteorite and his incredible collection of space rocks, enjoy a planetarium show that will whisk you round the Universe, learn how your school can use telescopes in the Canary Islands, on Hawaii and in Australia.

There is something for everyone at Astroblast; it's aimed at children, parents, teachers and anyone whose horizon stretches beyond our planet.

Some Background

Astroblast is an idea that originated with staff at Green Witch, one of the country's leading astronomy retailers. We wanted to run an event that would encourage children, parents and teachers to take a more active interest in space and astronomy. Both are excellent ways of promoting science and engineering and we wanted to show how much fun they could be and how accessible they are. Wendy suggested the name and we took it from there.

The first Astroblast was held in 2006 in Cambridge and proved to be a great success. We repeated it in 2007 and it was even more successful. The venue we used was the Institute of Astronomy who were superb hosts, but they have the builders in carrying out a major extension so we're coming to Bedford this year where we plan to make Astroblast even bigger and better than before.

Bedford School and Bedford Astronomical Society (BAS) organised a very successful astronomy event in 2007 to mark BAS' 10th birthday. We are confident that with their help Astroblast 2008 will also be a huge success. Do come along and join us - you'll have a great day out.

Green Witch's 10th Birthday

Green Witch was born at midnight on Halloween 1998 so we will celebrate our 10th birthday at Astroblast 2008. We hope you can celebrate it with us.

| ©2008 Greenwich Observatory Limited