Dave Buttery has been into astronomy since he watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon at the age of eight.
"I wanted to be a spaceman so I got a telescope and looked at the stars and have been doing work as an amateur ever since," he said.
Then seven years ago Dave, of Pingle Lane, left his job in IT, bought an inflatable planetarium and started the c
ompany Auriga Astronomy.
He now takes the six-metre wide by three and a half-metres high blow up tent to schools.
The planetarium, says Dave, is effectively a cinema. "Half way through the lights are turned off and it goes pitch black, then stars appear and I point out the constellations and the stars move around. The children like it because it's different and dynamic."
The first time Dave saw Saturn's rings through a telescope is a moment he will never forget. "It made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. It's amazing and so many people never see it.
"Star gazing is one of the greatest free shows on earth," he said, "you don't have to have thousands of pounds of kit, you can download a map on the net and go and look at the stars."
Dave, vice-president of the Association for Astronomy Education, a member of the Royal Astronomical Society and the British Association of Planatariums even gets sent DVDs from space agency NASA to show to the children in the inflatable planetarium.
His main aim with Auriga Astronomy is to put the fun back into science as he says it is lacking at the moment: "There is a major problem with science in the UK because it's seen as geeky and all the fun stuff has gone because of health and safety," he said.
"I want to stimulate interest in it because science is the future."
With a vast knowledge on everything astronomy related, he insists horoscopes, based on astrology, are 'a load of rubbish'.
"Apparently the odds of the sun being in front of the constellation of Scorpio, on my birthday and therefore making it my star sign are 99 to one", he said.
"Looking through a telescope would show that it wasn't.
"It's like looking at something and saying it's green, when it's blue."
Though sceptical about astrology, Dave does believe there are other life forms out there in the universe.
He said: "There has got to be life out there, I'm absolutely certain. I don't believe in aliens but there is something so far away we will never know it's there."
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