A SCIENTIST made an 'exciting' discovery while visiting a Headington school's stargazing event.

The Rumble Museum at Cheney School held its first stargazing evening last week, welcoming about 70 visitors for expert talks and a telescope session.

During the event a member of Oxford University's physics department looked through the museum's collection of Victorian and Edwardian lantern slides.

The expert found a slide depicting a historic solar eclipse in 1919, during which Sir Arthur Eddington performed the first experimental test of Einstein's general theory of relativity.

Lorna Robinson, director of the museum, described the image as an 'exciting find'.

She added that the school was grateful to those who helped to make the stargazing 'a special evening'. She said: "The sky became clearer as the evening went on and visitors were able to get a stunning view of the moon and Mars."

The event saw professor Allan Chapman, a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, deliver a talk about planets before attendees went outside to peer through telescopes.