Sidmouth's Norman Lockyer Observatory held its annual meteor watch on Wednesday (August 14).

The skies were clear with little wind and 142 visitors came along for the evening. Allan Jones gave two short talks about the origins of this meteor shower and Rebecca Naylor gave three planetariums shows during the course of the evening.

At sunset visitors gathered around the fire-pit to listen to Janet Dowling our resident storyteller embarking upon the timeless myth of Perseus rescuing Andromeda from Cetus the sea monster.

David Strange, chairman of Norman Lockyer Observatory then gave a laser guided tour of the constellations previously mentioned in the storytelling.

As the skies darkened visitors settled down to view the meteors or have a look through telescopes to view the Moon and other celestial objects through the Lockyer and Connaught telescopes.

The observatory had recently been donated a pair of 25 x 105mm observation binoculars that had originally been used by the distinguished comet discoverer George Alcock OBE who had discovered five comets and five novae (exploding stars) using these binoculars.

Visitors also had the chance of using this instrument to look at the Moon, star clusters and the Great Andromeda Galaxy.

The Lockyer Technology Centre was kept busy showing visitors live radar meteor detections as well as four cameras catching meteors on video.

Many thanks to our volunteer members who hosted the evening and to 365 Provisions for providing refreshments.