Liverpool Telescope helps inspire city's children

Children as young as six are being inspired to think about science and innovation with the help of LJMU’s exciting robotic telescope.

The telescope, based in the Canary Islands, features in a new children’s book launched this week by Knowledge Quarter Liverpool.

Developed in partnership with Connected Places Catapult and written by esteemed local author Natalie Reeves Billing, the book aims to introduce the concept of innovation to primary school aged children.

It is hoped the book will be available to every Key Stage 1 classroom in the city region by the end of the year (around 5000 copies).

Titled Animates (about animal mates!) it tells the tale of a team of animal inventors who crash land in the Knowledge Quarter Liverpool innovation district and embark on an adventure to explore the different innovations that will get them back into space.

The Liverpool Telescope, which in the storybook, tracks the arrival to Earth of the ‘Animates’ has operated for 20 years and is uniquely equipped to spot and track ‘instant phenomena’ in the night’s sky.

A £30m successor scope is currently in planning stage – and at twice the size, will offer scientists at the Astrophysics Research Institute in Liverpool the world’s fastest follow-up to investigate transient objects in Space. 

The book was launched at Liverpool Science Park, during LCR Innovation & Investment Week, with contributions from Gill Walsh from the LCR Strategic Careers Hub, Paul Cherpeau from Liverpool Chamber, and Lucy Byrne from dot-art.