It’s all change in our temporary exhibitions gallery as we take down our summer exhibition Halley’s Holiday and install a new one showcasing the winners of the 2010 Astronomy Photographer of the Year Competition.
Halley’s Holiday was a special exhibition for children to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science. The Royal Society is fifteen years older than the Royal Observatory and the two institutions have been closely associated for much of their history.
In the exhibition Halley the Space Shuttle took visitors on a tour of the Solar System, showing them beautiful views and highlighting some amazing facts about each of the planets. At the end visitors had the chance to vote for the planet they’d most like to take a holiday on. The votes are now in and the results are as follows:
Mercury: 287,582
Venus: 244,820
Earth: 449,643
Mars: 288,851
Jupiter: 239,953
Saturn: 261,202
Uranus: 278,791
Neptune: 368,119
I was very pleased to see that the Earth topped the poll as it’s (for now at least) my own favorite planet in the Universe. Like me, maybe our visitors were swayed by the fact that it’s the only place in the Solar System where you could enjoy your holiday without a space suit. I’m not sure why Jupiter got the least number of votes but perhaps it had something to do with its unpredictable clouds, its tendency to attract asteroids and a hurricane-force storm the size of the Earth which has been raging for several centuries. Who knows? Thanks anyway to everyone who voted.
The Astronomy Photographer of the Year exhibition begins at the ROG tomorrow, September 10th, and is completely free. We’ll be posting live updates from our brand new Twitter account for the Astronomy team – @ROGAstronomers; find out who the winners are before the exhibition opens by following this account or the hashtag #astrophoto10.
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