Recent News
Dark Skies film shown at International Culture Summit - 30th August 2012
A new short film exploring the stargazing and astronomy community in Scotland was shown recently to culture Ministers from around the world at the International Culture Summit held in the Scottish Parliament.
Get further details and watch the trailer.
News Update - 29th June 2012
The website has been quite quiet lately, but plenty is happening behind the scenes and accross the rest of the UK through the UK Dark Sky Discovery project, including more and more Dark Sky Discovery Sites.
Read the full update.
Less of Our Light for More Star Light - 22nd February 2011
Join the 6th worldwide GLOBE at Night 2011 campaign: Feb. 21 - March 6
With half of the world’s population now living in cities, many urban dwellers
have never experienced the wonderment of pristinely dark skies and maybe
never will. This loss, caused by light pollution, is a concern on many fronts:
safety, energy conservation, cost, health and effects on wildlife, as well
as our ability to view the stars. Even though light pollution is a serious
and growing global concern, it is one of the easiest environmental problems
you can address on local levels.
Read the full story.
Sark becomes world's first Dark Sky Island - 31st Jan 2011
The Channel Island of Sark has been recognised for the quality of its night sky by the International Dark-sky Association (IDA), who have designated it the world’s first dark sky island, the latest in a select group of dark sky places around the world.
Read the full press release.
STFC welcomes new forest of stars - 18th Nov 2009
The new Dark Sky Park in Galloway Forest marks a new high in the growing interest in the UK’s dark skies. It follows three years of STFC-led UK Dark Sky events which have been have been rekindling curiosity in the night sky and switching people on to the wonders of the universe. The Dark Sky Park status, awarded by the International Dark-Sky Association over the weekend, means that Galloway Forest Park is the first place in the UK landscape where dark skies are now safeguarded for people to experience for themselves.
Read the full press release.
Perseids meteor shower peaks this Wednesday - 10th Aug 2009
This week sees the arrival of the Perseids meteor shower, which result from the Earth passing through debris left behind by the comet Swift Tuttle, last time it passed near the sun. The Perseids occur at the same time each year, and this year will reach a maximum at around 1600BST on Wednesday 12 August. Although this is in the daytime for UK observers, it will still be worthwhile having a look up on the nights of 11 and 12 August. You can expect to see up to 100 shooting stars per hour from a very dark site in ideal conditions. This year conditions aren't ideal (the Moon is up, and will drown out the fainter meteors), and if you're observing from a town or city the light pollution will reduce what you can see, but you can still expect to see many more meteors than normal on these nights. The best thing is you don't need telescopes of binoculars to see the Perseid shower, your eyes will do just fine.
To celebrate this event Newbury Astronomical Society, with help from IYA2009
UK, is hosting a Twitter Meteorwatch, the first of its kind ever! Thousands
of people around the world will be tweeting their images of the night sky,
as well as asking and answering questions. In order to take part, you need
to have a Twitter account; you can get one easily at http://twitter.com/ and it's free. Once you have one, follow @NewburyAS and @astronomy2009uk
to keep
up to date with what's happening. You can also search for #meteorwatch to
see what everyone else is saying.
To find out more visit: http://newburyas.wordpress.com/2009/08/03/twitter-meteorwatch/
World's first Dark Sky Discovery Sites Launched – 25th March 2009
The 25th of March saw the launch of the world's first two Dark Sky Discovery Sites, in Dalkeith and Glen Nevis. The Dalkeith site, at Newbattle Abbey College, has hosted Dark Sky events and workshops previously, and is a good example of an urban area where stargazing can take place. The Glen Nevis site will help to encourage people in areas of Scotland with darker night skies to discover and enjoy the view of the heavens.
It is hoped that these Dark Sky Discovery Sites will be the first of many across Scotland and the rest of the UK, the aim being to have a network of such sites in place during International Year of Astronomy 2009, so that wherever you are, there will be somewhere you can go locally to enjoy the best available view of the stars.
Read the full press release.
New Monkland Event Draws International Coverage – 27th Feb 2009
This weeks Dark Sky event in Glenmavis, at New Monkland Primary, is helping to spread the word about what we do, not just across Scotland but elsewhere in Europe as well! As well as the staff from the school, without whose hard work the event would never have happened, and the team from Dark Sky Scotland, the event was attended by journalists and a photographer who will be writing articles in Norwegian and German.
Croy Event Makes It A North-Lanarkshire Double – 26th Feb 2009
Following a successful visit to Twechar, Dark Sky Scotland visited Croy this week to spread the Starlab experience further across North Lanarkshire. Familiar Dark Sky favourites, Comet making and meteorite handling made another appearance, although unfortunately the stars refused to come out from behind all the cloud! This didn’t dampen spirits however, with the audience staying lively and engaged throughout, along with several people reporting having seen UFOs in the area previously!
Starlab Brings Modern Science To Ancient Surroundings – 23rd Feb 2009
It’s not often you get cutting edge science, 15th Century buildings and multi-billion year old space-rocks in the same place, but that’s exactly what happened in Easterhouse last week when Dark Sky Scotland visited the Provan Hall. As one of the oldest buildings in Glasgow, the Hall already has a claim to fame, but now it has also witnessed a giant inflatable dome in the courtyard, comets, meteorites and countless rocket launches, to go along with hundreds of years of Glaswegian history! The event was attended by several youth clubs, families and individuals, and was topped off with some fantastic soup and hot chocolate, which went down well after being out in the cold launching rockets!
Drumchapel Expands Horizons To The Stars - 16th Feb 2009
Last week saw the Dark Sky team visiting the Phoenix Hall in Drumchapel
to lift the lid on the Universe – galaxies, comets and meteorites included!
The event expanded the audiences minds, leaving them with questions about
life on other planets, the sheer scale of the Universe, and just why comets
go great with tomato soup! We are now well past the half-way point for the
January/February events, with a further four events in the next few weeks.
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