Improvements are being made at Sidmouth's Norman Lockyer Observatory – and when they're complete, an open day will be held to show them off to local residents.

The observatory received a grant of £2,200 from the town council this year, and one of its directors, Dave Alexander, gave a presentation to councillors on how the money will be spent.

He said the lockdown had given the observatory team a chance to look at its 'tired-looking' facilities and work out how they could be improved, both for visitors and for members of the amateur astronomical society who use it.

What improvements are being made?

The revamp will provide easier wheelchair access to the building and a better reception area with easier access to the main desk and kitchen hatch.

The multi-media display unit will be rebuilt, with a touchscreen TV as its centrepiece, and other TV screens displaying live data from the observatory's instruments including one of its telescopes. The observatory also has radar for detecting meteors, and this information will be available to view live. There are also plans to instal a seismometer. The display will include plenty of educational material about the work of the astronomical society and astronomy in general.

The second display area will be tidied up, and will feature a touchscreen TV giving information on Norman Lockyer himself - a Victorian amateur astronomer, who discovered the element Helium in the Sun's corona in 1868 and was one of the founders of the science journal Nature in 1869.

The old radio room will become a new ticket office with a hatch on the left, and on the right will be a display area for the observatory's vintage orrery - a 19th-century clockwork model of the solar system -- which has been restored to working order by members.

A new display area will be created for the Mond telescope, which was originally set up in the observatory in the 1930s, but transferred to a scientist on the Isle of Man after Exeter University sold the site in the 1980s. Following his death, his family returned the telescope to the observatory.

Dave told Sidmouth town councillors that one of the directors' priorities is to have an open day for local residents after the improvement work is finished, but no date has been set for the event yet. They are also looking forward to using the revamped observatory during this year's Sidmouth Science Festival in October.