A TRIO of pioneering Herefordshire astronomers, who brought the stars closer to the public, will be celebrated thanks to a Lottery grant.

Most people cite Galileo as the father of modern astronomy, but Thomas William Webb, George Henry-With and Henry Cooper Key all played a vital part in bringing the pastime to the public.

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) is spending nearly £50,000 in the county to promote the trio's contribution and to revive interest in astronomy.

Some of the money will go on recreating starparties, a Victorian social tradition where families and friends gazed through a telescope with a local amateur astronomer.

Replica telescopes from the period will also be produced while a replica reflecting telescope, based on one owned and used by Webb, will also be constructed.

And new advances will even get the visually-impaired involved, as sound and touch equipment will link the scheme with the Royal National College for the Blind.

The Webb-SHARE project will run over the next three years and will coincide with the International Year of Astronomy in 2009. Paul Haley, company director of the SHARE initiative which is running the project, enthused about the project last week.

"In 1859 scientists across the world were seeking new ways to observe the Universe," he explains, "and the contribution of three Herefordians boosted amateur astronomy across the UK and beyond."

Amateur astronomers have a debt to the Rev Thomas William Webb, a former vicar from near Hay-on-Wye who published the Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes guide in the 1850s.

Another vicar, the Rev Henry Cooper Key, of Stretton Sugwas, produced the first silvered-glass reflecting telescope around the same time, while former Bishop of Hereford Bluecoat School headteacher George Henry-With produced some 200 mirrors for amateur astronomers.

A touring exhibition will aim to celebrate the achievements of this trio while a Heritage Learning workshop will take place at Clifford Community Centre, close to Hardwick Church and the vicarage where Thomas and Henrietta Webb lived.

A DVD depicting key moments in Webb's life and research investigating the relatively unknown life of Henry Cooper Key will also be produced.