The move to Lowestoft led in due course to the creation of a new publication, the LYRA Circular. It wasn't a regular publication, but appears to have been a sporadic circular printed when the society had news to publish. Following that circular, a more regular LYRA newsletter was published in the year 2000. It's still in circulation to this very day due to the dedicated service of its editor and LYRA Secretary, Richard Chilvers.
However, with regards to their venues, the 1990's saw LYRA on the move. The society moved from Lowestoft College to Kirkley High School where it stayed for many years, and where the observatory was located. But after a long and healthy relationship with Kirkley High School, difficulties began to set in that had severed their relationship and a new venue was sort after. The society transferred their meetings to the Viking Hotel, now called the 'Sunrise', in Corton Road, where they had 'astro-talk and drink' meetings and regular meetings. With a new venue for meetings, its position with the Viking Hotel were a little shaky in the beginning, but soon stabilised to become their regular meeting place once every month on the first Thursday of the month.
LYRA's Observatory:
As far as records show, the Yarmouth Society never
managed to obtain a site for an observatory, despite Michael Poxon donating his 10" Newtonian to them on leaving for UEA, and when the group moved to Lowestoft and became LYRA, plans for an observatory were not on their agenda until later that year. At that time, fate fell their way in the shape of a brick and mortar building and a 12" reflector that was used at Kirkley High School, formerly known as the Alderman Woodrow Secondary Modern School. The telescope was built by an astronomer in Norwich, but during a hurricane in the 1970s it incurred storm damage. Being damaged, it was no longer wanted and was eventually passed on to Kirkley High School. However, the school didn't obtain the telescope until after the observatory was in the process of being built as a project during the time when astronomy O level became part of the school curriculum. The scope was kept in storage for quite some time until it was finally released to the school who took it on as a restoration project.Lowestoft College were invited to help build the observatory, which they accepted. Students of the college used the invitation as an opportunity to take on a building project to hone their skills. Not being the conventional square building had placed them in a situation where they had to learn how to construct a circular building with bricks, which no doubt tested their abilities. The project commenced in the summer of 1980. The ground was dug, foundations put into place, and the building began to progress. With the observatory completed, Kirkley High School, after restoring the scope and having it placed into the upper section of the observatory, was now ready to implement their GCSE Astronomy for any student wishing to pursue it as part of their curriculum. The scope was well used by the school, but due to a change in the school curriculum, astronomy was no longer part of the programme. The scope then fell into disuse, which became rusty and corroded through damp. Even the locks on the observatory door became rusted, which gives an indication of how long the scope was out of use.
As fate would have it, LYRA's move from Lowestoft College to Kirkley High school as their meeting place around 1998/99 led to the acquisition of the scope and observatory. The head teacher, Rick Turrell, felt that the disused scope would be better placed in the hands of LYRA, but there was a condition - it had to be made available to all schools and the community at large, to which LYRA agreed. With the scope being in a poor state, members of LYRA grouped to make plans for its restoration to get the scope back to its former glory. About that time, when the scope was being restored the observatory was in an ideal position for observation. It was situated on high ground isolated from buildings, plus there was very little light pollution. Then along came the big bad wolf to upset the apple-cart. The school decided to expand its sports centre and club house and place floodlights around the sports field!
This was a big blow for LYRA, and the committee was totally disappointed with the school's new proposals, especially now the society had possession of the scope and was spending good money for its restoration. All the added facilities, especially the floodlights, would make observations of the night sky much more difficult. But there was nothing LYRA could do to persuade the school to reconsider, so the society decided that the only way to solve the problem was to move the telescope to a new site.
Possible sites were indentified, including the disused MOD site in Hopton. LYRA wrote letters to the appropriate departments expressing their interest to purchase the land at Hopton through its member, John Nicholls, who announced that he would put up the money for the site. If successful in buying the land, Mr Nicholls planned to live on the site, allowing LYRA to build an observatory and use the site for meetings and observation nights. He placed a substantial bid of £20,000, but to his and LYRA's disappointment, it was won by the bidder, Frank Brown, who made a tempting bid of £90,000 and won the purchase. But all was not lost! Mr Brown, through befriending LYRA members, offered part of the site for storage space for equipment and for observation nights. Although LYRA didn't take up the offer to use the land for storage, members did however take up the offer to use his site for observation nights, and still do to this today.