STANDING by the Abberton Nature Reserve visitor centre my two children, wife, and I gawp in wonder as a craft carrying six very brave people from all over the world travels at 17,000 miles per hour overhead.

Around four miles away from the light pollution of Colchester’s urban sprawl, the reservoir-side setting offers some relative remoteness. The skies are dark enough to see with the naked eye the sun reflecting off the solar panels of the International Space Station, where British astronaut Tim Peake recently spent six months, as it arcs across the sky at speeds that see it orbit the earth every one and a half hours.

It is a trajectory that is more freefall than flight, as Paul Blakesley, the events and publicity committee officer of the North Essex Astronomical Society, which organises these monthly stargazing events at the nature reserve, explains.

“The space station may look like its floating, but it’s closer to skydiving. Rockets propel it at such a speed that when combined with gravity, it travels in a curve that matches the curvature of Earth and so, while it is falling, it never hits our planet.”

As part of the stargazing events, held on the first Saturday of each month from 6.30pm to 9.30pm, Paul presents a talk in the visitors’ centre on the wonders of the solar system and beyond.

This is full of fantastic images and facts and even a video of US astronaut Chris Hadfield murdering David Bowie’s Space Oddity on the International Space Station – in his defence I hear it’s a tough gig up there…no atmosphere.

As a stargazing simpleton who often looks up into the night sky to point out a celestial body such as the pole star to my kids, only to see it drift across the sky in a trajectory that will soon see it land at Stansted there was much to learn from the talk.

I found out the planet Jupiter has an incredibly strong gravitational pull due to its gas giant size. We should be thankful as such is the suction of the “hoover of the solar system” just four years ago it dragged in a massive meteor which was on a crash course with Earth, and in 2009 it pulled in another meteor which left a bruise on it the size of the Pacific Ocean.

Then there is one of the moons of Saturn, Mimas, which bears an uncanny resemblance to the Death Star in Star Wars. And, if you weren’t already sure that the force is strong in the film’s director, George Lucas, bear in mind the film came out in 1977, three years before images of the planet’s distinctive large crater were captured.

There were plenty of children with their parents in attendance the night I was there and they seemed to delight in the grosser details Paul relayed about being an astronaut, especially the stench of the landing pod which has housed an astronaut for hours wearing a giant nappy.

While my own children only asked one question during the talk – it was to me and rather disappointingly went ‘When is this going to end’ – there were plenty of kids there who were obviously fascinated by space and space travel.

Paul says: “There have been some great questions from children at our stargazing events.

My personal favourite is from a little boy who innocently asked is there anyone on the moon?

“The adults smirked and some older children giggled at him, but I replied ‘Yes there is someone on the moon right now.’ There was a deathly silence. I went on ‘A gentleman called Eugene Shoemaker who organised the geological activities for the planned lunar landings has his ashes on the moon.’”

Paul was also hit by the stargazing bug from an early age, inspired by his father.

He says. “My father worked for Fords rally team based at Boreham in Essex. His stories are still things of legend and what was amazing was his stories of Africa when competing in the safari rally.

“He would describe the nights in Africa being so dark with no visible lights on the horizon. But above in the night sky it was ablaze with thousands of stars. The Milky Way (our home galaxy) stretching from horizon to horizon making a river of stars above his head.

“I could only dream of what this looked like. There were no TV programmes on that I could watch (Sky at Night being the only one, but it was on way past my bedtime) that showed me either.

“When we bought my dad a telescope for his 40th (I was 15 at the time) I frequently would get caught peering through it out of the loft window trying to focus on the Moon. I think I ended up using ‘his’ telescope more than he did!”

“In my 30s I bought myself a basic telescope called a Dobsonian With no electronics to guide you around the night sky you had to learn it like a map. Even now I’m still learning as space is huge!”

Peter’s learning took a significant step forward when he was introduced to the North Essex Astronomical Society.

His mother-in-law told him the society was holding an event at Cressing Temple Barns.

Attending with his wife, Paul’s passion for stargazing was relit and he signed up “in a heartbeat” as the society’s 34th member.

Paul says: “The members were very welcoming. Within three years I become events and publicity committee officer.

“We managed to triple our membership in the next few years, becoming more active in the community, attending outreach events for schools and clubs and helping Cubs, Scouts and Brownies achieve their astronomy badges.

“We run two stargazing events each month for the public to attend - Notley Discovery Centre, which is free of charge, and our Abberton reservoir events, for which we ask for donations towards the Wildlife Trust as an entrance fee.

“At Abberton we run a full evening of talks, displays and viewing through telescopes. Weather doesn’t stop us entertaining the public at Abberton, unlike Notley which is just visual viewing through a telescope, and will be cancelled if there is a chance of inclement weather.”

“Working with the Wildlife Trust at Abberton is one of my greatest achievements.

“Living in Tiptree for the past 12 years I hadn’t realised that Abberton was on my doorstep. “I first visited the site for things to do with the family and astronomy was the last thing on my mind.

“While my daughter played on their natural play park I took in the view. My astronomy geek inside said to me, ‘Wow! I bet this is dark here at night’”

I can affirm this. My family and I were plunged into inky blackness when we exited the visitor centre, stumbling towards the astronomical society members – all very approachable and knowledgeable - who had set up their telescopes outside. They were only visible when they shone their laser pens into the night sky like teachers at an infinite blackboard to point out constellations to gathered visitors.

Paul says: “The telescopes that permanently reside at Abberton are two monsters! Housed in its own observatory is a 12inch telescope anchored to the ground on a solid pillar.

“The other telescope is even larger and equally solid and extremely heavy. Measuring 16inch (the size of the optics inside) and almost 8foot tall you need a ladder to view through this behemoth!

“Telescopes like this are referred to as a light bucket. The same as a bucket collecting rain water, the bigger it is the more rain it’ll collect. The bigger the optics, in this case mirrors, the more light you collect, and the fainter the object you can see. Galaxies many many millions of light years away are so faint you need big telescopes to view them with the naked eye.”

Paul is very excited about the potential sightings for next month’s event, clear skies pending.

He says: “We should be able to view planets Venus, Mars and Uranus. The Moon and hopefully a comet!

“There’s also what’s called an Iridium flare happening on the evening too. They are often mistaken for UFOs or weird planes flashing their lights! They are actually satellites with reflective antennas pointing towards earth. We can calculate precisely when and where these satellites will pass overhead and when they ‘flash’ their reflective panels down to earth. “Throughout the year there’s plenty of meteor showers, passes of the international space station and other satellites passing overhead which we can point out.”

It certainly was wonderful to see my two sons, usually with their necks craned over a tablet or phone, staring up in amazement as the International Space Station arced gracefully overhead.

Paul has kept that wonder going into adulthood, with his years of study barely scratching the surface of the infinite mysteries of space. He loves to share what he has learnt at the Abberton stargazing events as he has been inspired by his stargazing seniors such as television presenter Sir Patrick Moore.

The Sky of Night may have been on past his bedtime in childhood, but Paul’s lifelong interest in astronomy has led to him having several meetings with the show’s studio star.

Perhaps a visit to the next Abberton stargazing event will get you and family reaching for the stars. I know my family and I will be back.

The next stargazing event as Abberton Nature Reserve is on Saturday, March 11 from 6.30pm to 9.30pm

BY MARK EDWARDS