On a cloudless night on the top of a hill near Knighton, Powys, in mid Wales, the skies are as clear as crystal. You can’t quite see forever, but with the help of a good refractor telescope you can certainly get more familiar with the stars and planets than pollution allows almost anywhere else in the country.

The Spaceguard Centre, formerly the Powys County Observatory, opened last September by Sky at Night presenter Sir Patrick Moore, promotes scientific research and education. It also organises a countrywide network of observers of comets, asteroids and meteorites, and is the headquarters of Spaceguard UK, which publicises the dangers of asteroids hitting Earth.

As well as two apochromatic (glass relatively free of flaws) refractor telescopes and sophisticated camera equipment, it also boasts the largest camera obscura in Europe, a planetarium with seating for 25 and an orrery (a model of the Solar System). In addition, a live satellite link provides pictures of the weather as it happens.

It was Comet Shoemaker Levy 9‘s collision with Jupiter in July 1994 that convinced Jay Tate that we ought to be paying more attention to near-Earth objects.

He was stationed in Canada during his 26-year army career when he saw the collision. “Even with a small telescope I saw the scars on the planet. It didn’t take much to imagine what could have happened if something similar hit Earth.”

To Jay’s surprise, he discovered there were no UK government plans to track comets, asteroids and meteorites. He contacted the international Spaceguard Foundation and started Spaceguard UK in 1997.

Scientists from around the world including Arthur C Clarke and Dr Edward Teller joined his campaign. Jay started lobbying the government and the Department of Trade and Industry set up a task force to investigate near-Earth objects.

Dozens of schools have visited Spaceguard since it opened, including Hafren County Primary School, in Newtown, Powys. Science co-ordinator Linda Saul says the Year 6 group of pupils she took to the centre had been studying the Earth’s rotation, orbits and sunlight as part of the space, Earth and atmosphere section of the science curriculum.

“We didn’t do a huge amount of preparatory work because we were already in the middle of a topic, but we did look at the leaflets the Spaceguard Centre sent which were mainly pictures of planets and constellations,” she says. “The idea of monitoring meteorites provided a good jumping off point and we did some language work by talking about leaflet writing, too.”

The group were taken around by Jay and his wife Anne, a former primary teacher who helps run the centre. But it was the practical demonstrations that brought their classroom topics alive, says Linda Saul. Night and day were demonstrated by shining a light on a globe, and dropping balls into talc helped the pupils understand how craters are formed. “They could see how the height and angle of the drop affects the depth of the crater,” she says.

The pupils also went into the planetarium and were able to identify some of the constellations.

With the aid of a special filter, the outside telescope allowed them to view sunspots.

“They were very excited about that because I had told them that you can’t look at the Sun,” Linda says. Anne explains that they emphasise during the tour that the children should only ever look at the Sun using the special thick filter. “We keep a lens cap with a hole burned through it to bring home to them the damage the Sun can do,” she says.

* The Spaceguard Centre, Llanshay Lane, Knighton, Powys LD7 ILWDaily tours at 10.30am, 2 and 4pm. Group or school tours can be booked for any time.

Day or evening tours last about 90 minutes.Telfax: 01547 520247Email: spaceguard@spaceguarduk.comwww.spaceguarduk.com