A GROUP of talented young students had stars in their eyes at Tavistock College recently.

The group of Year 7 students spent a day with astronomer Clive Purchase of Astronomics 2000, learning about the stars, comets, meteor showers, celestial positions, spectroscopy, eclipsing binary stars and much more.

They heard about and made 'planispheres' — accurate sun dials — and put up a telescope to observe the sky.

Mr Purchase was delighted with the enthusiasm of the group and said they were like 'sponges who covered nearly a month's worth of GCSE Astronomy in one day'.

The students decided to call themselves the 'Intergalactic Explorers' and are now looking forward to developing their astronomical skills through project work.