in the Celestial Sphere

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Richard Hilton

Hey my name is Richard. I am studying Maths, Biology, Electronics and Geography at Dereham 6th Form College. Outside of college I row for Norwich, which is my local city. I have also played the drums for three years and am part of a band. I plan to go to university after college (or to become a successful rock god!)

I am one of the lucky people who got the chance to go to South Africa as an international science ambassador. One of the things that shocked me first was when we had just left the airport and we were greeted with the view of one of the townships. The conditions some people live in are appalling compared to your and my standards, and it made me feel how lucky I am for what I have. Teaching in the township schools was very rewarding for me as all the learners wanted to learn so much. Tt is almost the opposite over here. All the learners were very excited that we were there, and I was too. Aside to what we had to teach them, they were also very interested in what it was like living in England and asked a lot of questions, which I happily answered. Each school gave me an even stronger view and positive feeling towards the South African culture and how everyone is trying to make a better world for themselves and for the people around them. I hope the learners got just half the amount that I received from them, thank you all!

One of the days we stopped off in Worcester and visited a township, which was quite worrying I must admit. We all got out of the minibus nervously and headed into one of the neighbourhoods. To our surprise we were all greeted with big smiles and open arms. It wasn’t long until I was offered to try some of the home made beer, which tasted like pepper and a mixture of other things. I had a long conversation with this man, where he was telling me that he felt free that we were there visiting him, which touched me and made me see how much it ment to him that we had taking the time to come talk to them.

SALT was one of the main things I was looking forward to in South Africa as I have been interested in Astronomy since I was very young, and always wanted to go to a large telescope such as SALT to see the astronomers work and to actually see what the telescopes were like close up. I learnt a lot during my visits there as we were very lucky to get long, in depth talks from a lot of the leading astronomers, scientists and engineers working on the project.

One of my most favourite times is when we drove out from Sutherland into the dessert, to the clearest sky I have ever seen. Some of the objects I wanted to see in the sky were the large and small magellanic clouds. They took almost no time to spot and it wowed me that I was looking at two satellite galaxies thousands of light years away.

I would like to thank all the sponsors for making this wonderful experience possible for me and for the learners, and also a big thanks to Mr Cripps as this would never would have happened without him.