Museum celebrates first moon landing
AMUSEUM in Widnes has marked the 50th anniversary of the moon landings.
The Catalyst Science Discovery Centre on Mersey Road in West Bank marked the Apollo 11 space mission which landed the first humans on the moon in July 1969 ,with several hands-on and free activities.
These included planetarium shows, real moon rocks and meteorites from STFC Daresbury Laboratory, a code-a-drone activity, and a green screen so visitors could have their photo taken with a variety of backgrounds from Mako Create.
Halton’s libraries provided Lego making, the Institute Of Physics held storytelling sessions, artist Emma Curd ran craft activities, WSO Brass Quintet performed the Planets Suite and The Studio gave a dance performance in the Observatory.
Halton Borough Council supported the event and even arranged a fun fair outside too.
The star of the show was trainee astronaut Dr Jackie Bell, star of the BBC
● Cllr Eddie Jones, Martin Pearson CEO Catalyst, Dr Jackie Bell and Dr Diana Leitch MBE chair of Catalyst Trustees. Top right, Catalyst staff have their photograph taken at the green screen programme Astronauts: Do You Have What It Takes? and visitors had an opportunity to meet her to hear all about her training.
Following the event, she said: “I wanted to say a massive thank you to all at Catalyst for being so welcoming and accommodating over the weekend.
“The event was fantastic and you should be very proud. A large majority of the people I spoke with had not previously visited Catalyst and I believe this is a huge achievement in terms of reaching new audiences and diversifying our future STEM workforce.”
As part of the event, Catalyst created an exhibition of newspaper articles, photographs signed by the astronauts and associated artefacts as well as a specially commissioned film of local people’s memories and experiences of the 1969 moon landings.
Catalyst chief executive Martin Pearson said: “What a wonderful event, it was great to see the local community so engaged with all the different activities and exhibits we had on offer to celebrate the moon landing.”
The exhibition will run at Catalyst until the end of August so there is still time to catch a glimpse of moon memories from people in the area.
Jade French, community engagement co-ordinator and exhibition curator, added: “We wanted to capture what this epic journey to the moon meant for local people in Halton and how it was celebrated at the time.
“Our exhibition includes many items that local people collected as well as some amazing stories from local people of that historic day.” ●