Dark Sky Park

Add some sparkle to your winter nights!

Wrap up warm, go outside and look up at the night sky. Leave the binoculars and telescopes behind initially, just use your eyes and become a little more familiar with the stars and planets. Look up until you find your curiosity is awakened by a star, a planet, a shooting star or a galaxy. At this stage, get out your optical instruments!

Scottish Dark Sky Observatory Dalmellington

This was the advice given to our U3A group by the astronomer in residence at the Scottish Dark Sky Observatory, near Dalmellington.

We should stargaze, we were informed, because it is good for our well-being: throughout the history of humankind, our ancestors have looked to the night skies for inspiration, for guidance, for navigation and for perspective.

The Galloway Forest Park has the accolade of being the first Dark Sky Park in Europe: a status granted to regions on account of low levels of light pollution. In Galloway we are privileged to have access to some of the darkest and therefore paradoxically, the brightest skies in the UK.  However the Galloway skies also have plenty of cloud, so we queried in the minibus on our way to the Observatory, what the 34 percentage cloud cover prediction given for our evening actually meant and whether we would see anything of the night sky at all?

Our queries were answered an hour later as we stood on the observatory platform, shivering with cold and gazing a bank of cloud above the horizon to which the green laser beam of our astronomer pointed. For the cloud suddenly  dissipated and there in its place, was the Red Planet, Earths nearest neighbour and probably the most studied object in the Universe,  Mars.

A quick finger on a computer screen and the giant reflecting telescope obediently moved and set  sight on our neighbouring planet. We queued to take a peep down the eyepiece and gaze in awe at the image of Mars, tinged with reddish orange colour.

Our astronomer’s green laser then pointed out Vega, the second brightest star in the Northern Celestial hemisphere. The star, twice the mass of the Sun and much studied by astrophysicists and astronomers, glinted diamond-like when viewed through the eyepiece.

“If Vega is much bigger than our sun, why does it not look much bigger when we view it through the telescope?” was one the question posed by members of our group.

“Vega is 25 light years away from our nearest star, the sun” replied our astronomer.  “That is the distance a beam of light could travel in 25 years and light can cover a distance of 300,000,000 metres in just one second.” I will leave you to do the calculation.

The green laser of the astronomer swept across the Milky way galaxy. Most of the stars here, we were told, unlike our sun are in pairs or binaries.

With the naked eye, these star systems looked like single points of light but when viewed through the telescope or a good pair of binoculars, the image often resolves and two points of light can be seen.

The green laser pointed back towards Vega and on to the Double Double, a star system named Epsilon Lyra in the constellation of Lyra, 162 light years distant).

Then came the highlight of the trip for me:  the Double Double with my naked eye looked like a point of light or just possibly two points very close to each other. When viewed through the telescope, the image resolved beautifully into four points of light. Wow!

This felt like real astronomy!

I intend to add more sparkle to my winter nights and star gaze even more. How about you?

Many thanks to the organisers of this trip to the stars and especially to Stephen Bullock our driver.

Christine Mayson

September 2016: Why have a Dark Sky Park

At the first of the Stewartry U3A 2016 – 2017 programme of meetings on 27 September, Keith Muir, Head of Tourism, Galloway Forest Park, Forest Enterprise Scotland, gave a talk on Why Have a Dark Sky Park in Galloway?

The Dark Sky Park was set up in 2009 as the first in the UK. It is within the area of the Galloway and South Ayrshire Biosphere, which was designated as a Biosphere by UNESCO in view of the importance of the natural heritage of the area. The staff of the Dark Sky Park work with those involved in the Biosphere to try to reduce energy consumption, support conservation and attract tourists to the area in both summer and winter.

Keith said that with more and more people living in or close to an urban environment over 80% of people in the UK never see true darkness and less than 2% of the population will ever see the Milky Way. Both can be experienced in the Dark Sky Park.

Within the area of the Park, sodium street lights are being replaced with LED lights which direct the light downwards and this will make a considerable difference to the amount of light pollution. Everyone can reduce the amount of light pollution and save energy by switching off unnecessary lights – some people leave outside lights on all night – and by making sure lights are directed downwards.

Keith concluded by giving some mind- boggling statistics about the distances between the earth and other planets, the number of galaxies and other planets and put in perspective the relative diminutive size of the Earth.

The next meeting of the Stewartry U3A will be held on Tuesday 25 October at 2.00pm when Peter Banks will give a talk entitled “What Hitler did for me – the impact of the 30s refugees from Germany”.

Scottish Dark Skies Observatory Visits

On two evenings in late March intrepid volunteer drivers took a full minibus north into the Galloway Park hills to the UK’s only ‘gold tier’ dark sky observatory near Loch Doon. This is a rare facility where members of the public can star gaze using research quality telescopes and, with the resident astronomer, learn more about the universe and how to discover it.

Built in 2012, this impressive observatory has a 5m electronically controlled dome over a research quality 20″ telescope which is linked to software that can home in on and track stars and planets. A second, 14″ telescope is used to focus in on the moon and planets in greater detail.

Monday’s group were able to use the telescopes in periods when the clouds parted and were able to see a great view of Jupiter’s stripes and some of its moons.. The Wednesday group briefly spied an obscured moon, but had a fine appreciation from the viewing platform of the impact of light pollution, the sky to the north tinged with a pink-orange glow from the central belt. Both groups learned more about what can be seen on a clear night at the moment and how to make the most of our dark skies location. The next astronomical event to watch out for is the Lyrid meteor shower. The Lyrids offers 10 to 20 meteors per hour at its peak on a moonless night, which is the morning of April 22 or 23 in the western sky.

Despite the disappointing cloud conditions the groups enjoyed the evening and many will return when the weather looks
more promising, as booking at short notice is usually possible. Top tips: wrap up well and take a flask and a pair of binoculars to use while waiting your turn on the telescopes. Oh, and mind the track! Thanks to Helen our event organiser, our wonderful drivers Colin and John, and David and Fi at the observatory.

Eileen Johnson

23 and 25 March – Scottish Dark Sky Observatory

Helen Henderson, Events Organiser, arranged two visits to the Scottish Dark Sky Observatory on 23 and 25 March.

The Scottish Dark Sky Observatory occupies a fantastic hilltop site on the edge of the Galloway Forest Park.  It is within the magical surroundings of Craigengillan, rated by Historic Scotland as one of the top four Designed Landscapes in the country, on a par with Culzean and Drumlanrig and ahead of even Balmoral.

This new public observatory lies within the Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park near Dalmellington, under some of the darkest skies in the UK.  Galloway Forest Dark Park is the only Dark Sky Park in the UK and the only IDA (International Dark-Sky Association) gold tier park to have a public use observatory.

The visit will include an introductory presentation about the Observatory by our Resident Astronomer, David Warrington, followed by a tour of the facility and telescopes, then (weather permitting) some naked-eye viewing and viewing through the telescopes.   If the weather is inclement, our Astronomer has a range of presentations to keep your group entertained for the duration of the visit.

The visit fee is £8.00 and the travel will be an additional £5.00. There will be a pick-up at Kirkcudbright Harbour at 5.45 pm and Castle Douglas Market Place at 6.00 pm. Return (depending on traffic) will be about 10.00 to 10.30 pm.  Please note the closing date for bookings for this trip is 13th March.

If you are interested in this trip, please  use our web ‘Contact Us‘ and supply the following details:

Name(s)

Email address

Mobile phone (if available)

Pick up: Kirkcudbright or Castle Douglas

Preferred date: 23rd or 25th March