Apparently, I'm awesome!

Well, we already knew that but now it's official.

A month or 2 back I persuaded my HoD to nominate me for the Salter's National Awards for Science Technicians and I found out just recently that I have been shortlisted in the final 8.

Sometime in june they are going to come to the school for a chat with the Head, HoD and me, and then we have to wait and see.
It'd be brilliant if I won. Not just for me, but also for the department. We're always trying to raise the profile of physics in the school and every bit of extra positive publicity helps.

Fingers crossed!

Health and Safety gone mad!

Over the Easter holidays, our H&S manager decided to take a look at our little observatory.

We don't have a fancy automatic roof (although we're trying to get the funding for one), so when we want to use the telescope one of the teachers ahs to climb up an external ladder onto the roof and open the dome.
H&S decided that this was too dangerous and had a safety rail fitted.

So what's the problem? In theory, nothing. I'm all in favour of safety and would never want to see any of my colleagues get hurt if it can be prevented. The problem with this particular safety rail, however, is that no one thought to ask anyone involved in Astronomy before it was installed. We got back after the Easter break and found a rail which blocks the view through the telescope! I suppose it does fulfill its purpose - no one will fall because the observatory was rendered utterly useless.

Thankfully after a number of testy e-mails a compromise has been reached and we will be getting a much smaller rail. If only they'd just consulted us in the first place!