Stars out for school science

Students at Derby District High School had a lesson of a different sort last week – stargazing 101.

Broome astronomer Greg Quicke took his Astro Tours to the road, with big telescopes and lasers in tow, for science week at the High School.

Mr Quicke said it was about “getting the community in touch with what’s out there in our beautiful night sky”.

Mars and Saturn were forming a triangle in the sky and in the early morning Jupiter and a bright Venus put on blazing display.

The community turned on the hospitality for Astro Tours with Gordon Marshall of local 6DBY radio streaming the event live from the oval and a free barbecue put on by the school.

Greg Quicke’s astronomy experience is part information and part entertainment, using big telescopes and lasers.

His extensive understanding of the heavens developed from years of watching the movements of the planets, stars, the sun and the moon.

An ex-pearl diver, he first learnt about the moon’s influence on the tides, and has spent many moons since then studying the stars.