As Sherwood Observatory celebrates the first anniversary of our state of our award winning Planetarium & Science Centre’s opening this month, the members thought it would be of interest to share how our first year has developed.
Here is a more detailed timeline of our standout events, visits and celebrations so far:
Preparation for Opening the Planetarium & Science Centre
We were all apprehensive, maybe a little scared, of the colossal increase in visitor numbers that we were used to, but we carried on relentlessly until we were ready!!
Our main contractor G.F. Tomlinson had completed the building and were ready to hand over the keys. This event was undertaken on 15th November 2024. There were many speeches and a planetarium show and everything went according to plan. ( The project received wide reaching press coverage, which you can revisit here).
On 23rd November 2024 there was a special event for our members which incorporated another planetarium show, again all went smoothly.
25th November 2024… our staff were employed, licences were secured, a packed schedule of films planned and food and drinks ready to be served. PD (Planetarium Day) arrived and our first paying customers arrived at the centre. We were up and running.
The official opening was held on 23rd January 2025 where special dignitaries were invited including His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire Veronica Pickering MBS HAC and Professor Chris Lintott from The Sky at Night TV programme. A fabulous cake was made by ATTFE college, speeches were made and the event also included the opportunity to experience a show in our state of the art planetarium.
Special Events
On 17th December 2024 there was a seat sponsorship draw (FA Cup style) to allocate seats for people who had purchased sponsorship. Which was followed by a seat sponsorship planetarium show on 16th January 2025.
During the spring/summer of 2025 a locally renowned composer and pianist, Chris Miggells undertook a series of shows in the old reservoir complex. After carefully transporting his piano into the reservoir he was ready to perform. These shows were enormously popular.
The Pink Floyd planetarium show ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ was also a top seller, and remains in high demand. And we offer a programme of 20+ planetarium shows which run between Tues and Saturday each week and are uploaded to our website monthly and carefully selected to suit everyone from novice to expert astronomers and space enthusiasts of all ages.
On 14th July a time capsule was buried in the reservoir and will be opened in October 2086. Hopefully some of our younger members will be witness to the recovery of the time capsule.
In October a Halloween event was also held in the reservoir… very spooky, with skeletons, cobwebs and ghosts everywhere.
We have also hosted some fascinating seminars and talks from notable voices in the astronomy community, including Ross Hockham and Wil Chung.
Our Open Days (Spring/Summer) and Open Evenings (Autumn/Winter) have exceeded our expectations ( always in high demand), and are one of our visitor favourites. Solely run by our volunteers we continue to schedule these as much as we can, and it exciting to see these evolve.
Sherwood Observatory Awards and Accolades
We are honoured to have received such recognition for our efforts at Sherwood Observatory, below are just a few of the notable awards achieved by our society so far this year:
o January – AV news of the year award (education category)
o January – Food hygiene level 5 award
o June – Dr Steve Wallace (our Chair) awarded an MBE
o July – TripAdvisor traveller’s choice award
o October – Best retrofit and use award
o November – The King’s award for voluntary services
o 2026 – Shortlisted for ‘Micro Business of the Year’ by East Midlands Chamber
o 2026 – Shortlisted for the ‘Accessible & Inclusive Tourism award’ by the Nottinghamshire Tourism Awards
Our recognition has stretched across the build, accessibility, our team, partnerships, our amazing volunteers and more. So much so, that we are now in the process of creating an online webpage to celebrate all of these achievements ( and more).
Our Visitor Numbers
The business plan submitted to the local council indicated a total number of visitors to be approximately 20,000 per year. At the time this was thought to be optimistic, how wrong we were. The 20,000 figure was reached after only 8 months of trading and the yearly figure to date is approximately 37,000 visitors!! A fantastic achievement for our society.
Our Future Plans
The society is in the process of selecting and purchasing new packages of planetarium shows which will be planned accordingly in the new year. Special events are STEM related and may include more of the Arts.
Thank You to our Supporters.
There are so many organisations and people to thank for our success, but special thanks must go to our main contractors G.F. Tomlinson and RSA Cosmos. The planetarium staff that make all this possible and the volunteers for assisting whenever required. But the biggest thanks goes to the public for visiting us in their thousands to make our dream a reality.
“It’s hard to believe that we’ve been open for a year already. It’s been a steep learning curve, but also a fantastic success, with over 37,000 visitors. The great reviews that we are getting is testament to the hard work and dedication of our volunteers and staff – thank you!” Dr Steve Wallace MBE, Chairperson of Mansfield and Sutton Astronomical Society.
THANKS TO YOU ALL
Contributed Stephen Binns, Member of Sherwood Observatory.
Published by Susanna Holt.