Lunar scientists and experts from around the world are gathering in Dumfries & Galloway in June for Europe’s biggest ‘Moon-focused meeting’.
The European Lunar Symposium, being held at the Crichton Campus in Dumfries from June 16 to 21, will attract more than 150 delegates from the international lunar community.
Exchanging ideas and discussing their latest lunar exploration research findings, they will include representatives from NASA and the European and UK space agencies.
For its first time in Scotland since it began in 2012, the Symposium is centring on Dumfries & Galloway partly because of the region’s strong association with the first man to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong.
The Open University in Scotland has been supported in planning and delivering the event by a local organising committee including representatives from South of Scotland Enterprise, The Crichton Trust, The Crichton Foundation, The Crawick Multiverse Trust and South of Scotland Destination Alliance.
Alongside the conference itself, activities for schools, a delegate day-out, social gatherings and public events have been organised.
Professor Mahesh Anand, Professor of Planetary Science and Exploration at The Open University, who co-chairs the Symposium, said: “It is a real privilege to be hosting ELS 2024 in the South of Scotland and to acknowledge Dumfries & Galloway’s connection with the Moon and lunar exploration. Everyone here is so proud of Neil Armstrong and the fact that he referred to the ‘Muckle Toon’ – Langholm- as home.
“As well as bringing colleagues from across the world to this beautiful part of the country, I am keen to influence younger generations and encourage them to believe that they too can make a big difference in lunar exploration.”
A Moon Museum displaying lunar artefacts from Dumfries Museum and Camera Obscura, an ancient art exhibition from the Open University’s Centre for Open Learning, and a display of the Lunar Tartan designed and produced in Langholm, will be open on the Crichton Campus.
The week will include a delegates’ dinner and ceilidh and a day’s tour to Langholm and nearby Gilnockie Tower and to Crawick Multiverse near Sanquhar.
Meanwhile school children will visit the ELS conference site to take part in lunar science sessions with NASA and OU academics, and get an insight into careers in space.
On the Thursday, delegates will have the chance to experience sunrise at Crawick Multiverse and members of the public are invited to mark the Summer Solstice by visiting the Moon Museum and attending a Solstice Seminar.
www.open.ac.uk/scotland/events
Muckle Toon Moon Man
The first man on the Moon, Armstrong visited Langholm in March 1972, and was made the first freeman of the town.
It was a day never forgotten in the town, with huge crowds gathering to catch a glimpse of one of the most famous men in the world walking down the High Street.
An invitation had been sent from the town not long after the famous moon landing in 1969, and local officials were shocked – and delighted – when he later accepted.
Contemporary reports record that thousands of people lined the streets to greet the Rolls Royce that brought Neil , by then a professor at the University of Cincinnati, and his wife Janet, down from Edinburgh. When the car arrived at the town hall, Langholm Town Band played The Stars and Stripes, followed by Scotland the Brave.
In a special ceremony in the local parish church, Armstrong said: “The most difficult place to be recognised is in one’s home town. And I consider this now my home town.”
The space pioneer died in 2012, and two years ago Langholm welcomed his sons, Mark and Rick, and their families for festivities to mark the anniversary of their father’s historic visit.
