Heritage Open Day: Take a look inside Moor Park's historic observatory, and - weather permitting - gaze at the skies with the help of Preston and District Astronomical Society members. The observatory was built in Moor Park in 1927 to escape the chimney smoke that clouded the view of the skies from one at Deepdale. It houses a historic Cooke 8-inch refractor telescope, as well as displays of meteorites and astronomical history. James Gibbs who designed and built the observatory was a local engineer and inventor. Jeremiah Horrocks was a Lancashire astronomer who correctly predicted the transit of Venus in 1639.