Out on Acre Road in Maryhill (close to the Garscube estate) the University of Glasgow has its very…read moreown observatory*. It was refubished this summer (2015), a pretty big job that involved turning a corridor of offices into a teaching and seminar space. Now the refubishment is finished, it's looking pretty great. As well as the teaching and research labs, the observatory has a workshop, the main dome (housing a 16 inch Meade telescope), the solar dome (which has a 12 inch Meade), a transit house with the transit telescope, a 3 meter HI radio telescope, a 408 MHz pulsar telescope and a solar CALLISTO spectrometer. There's a few other smaller telescopes knocking around as well, plus photography equipment, and there's a small planetarium beneath the solar dome. If all of that's Greek to you, don't worry! If you're an astronomy student at the university you'll hear all about it eventually anyway. If you're not you probably don't really need to know. However, if you're curious, observatory visits and tours can sometimes be booked through the main observatory website. Since the refurbishment, the observatory director is particularly keen to get more use out of the site, so I'd expect to see more of these on offer soon The only problem, of course, is it can sometimes be very hard to see very much through the Scottish weather. *There are actually two observatories associated with the unviersity. The second, known as "Concho" houses a 20 inch Grubb Parsons telescope and is located even further away from the city, in the Kilpatrick Hills, where more light polution can be avoided.

One of my favourite places on Earth (ooh-ho!)…read more It reminds me so much of being young and getting chosen to sit in the seat that lifts you up to the roof so you can look through the telescope to Jupiter. I always drive past it when I'm coming back from somewhere boring like Ikea and wish that I was there instead. Friendly, knowledgeable staff is a must and they haven't over looked this small point whilst the building itself is so monumental. A little bit out the way, and obviously on the top of a big hill so I don't recommend cycling there but if you're wanting a day out a bit out of the ordinary then I'd recommend it highly.

There is already a good review on the actual Observatory, which is lucky because if I'm honest with…read moreyou although I came here to see the Observatory I ended up walking straight past it. I'll just go to the top of the hill and check out the view and then I'll go see the Observatory, I told myself. Once I reached the top of this hill, however, I couldn't care less about some telescope - I'd found the best view in Edinburgh. I've seen many good views in my time here and many great views around the whole of Britain, but in all my time I've never seen one as good as this. You can see why they put a telescope up here - I almost fancy you can see the starts unaided from here at night. You sit on top of the hill almost deserted and you're first challenge will be to pick a side to sit on. It's a full 360 degree view tainted only by a mast and a blinking great telescope that someon decided to build up here. That said, the view remains outstanding. At first I fancy you'll have a rest - its quite a climb to the top here. Then you'll wander round the perimeter and take it all in. When you're done I'm sure you'll agree that this probably tops Arthur's Seat as a view point. I do apologise for not reviewing the actual Observatory, its just that I think I've found something better here - sorry.

This was a mind-blowing experience. We actually saw a galaxy far far away!…read more We'd booked for an evening tour, having never heard of the place and not knowing quite what to expect. I think it's fair to say that our expectations were far surpassed. The Scottish Dark Sky Observatory was the first Dark Sky Park in Europe, and has been awarded a gold tier status by the International Dark Sky Association, meaning that it has some of the darkest skies in Europe. Before Saturday night I had never even heard of any of these things, and I now know that Dark Sky Parks are very very cool. The observatory is pretty special. It's near Dalmellington, and is on the edge of the Galloway Forest Park. Getting there was a bit of an adventure in itself. As the nature of the name might suggest, it's in a remote location, and it's accessed through some fairly rough forest tracks, and of course you are driving in the pitch black. It is possible in a normal car, slowly, so leave plenty of time to get there. We were glad we hadn't stopped at the pub for one on the way... When we arrived, we were greeted by Dave the Astronomer who gave us an introduction talk, which he swiftly rounded off, as the skies were clear but clouding over, so we quickly bolted outside to look through the telescopes. We were so lucky with the weather in that although it was cloudy, there were clear patches, and Dave was kept on the go all night re-setting the two telescopes to different locations as the clouds moved over. We saw planets, a ring nebula, the Adromeda Galaxy (!!!) and of course hundreds of stars. Millions probably. It was amazing. Dave was great as he was really versatile, working around the ever changing sky conditions. He gave us running commentary throughout the night, explaining what we were seeing through the scopes, and pointing out features in the night sky that we could see without telescopes, such as constellations. He also had some good snippets of history to inform us with. We moved inside and outside through the evening, depending on the cloud cover, and when we were inside, Dave talked us through a very informative session about dark skies, light pollution, the impact on wildlife and the environment, and astronomy. I was amazed to learn that the Scottish Government, in association with the Dark Skies people, intend to make the whole of Scotland a dark sky area! So gradually over time, our standard sodium lamp street lighting will be phased out, to be replaced by downward pointing LED lamps, to minimise the light pollution seeping out into the sky above. That orange glow you see as you approach Glasgow will some day be a thing of the past. I found the information that Dave was giving us just as interesting as the star-gazing outside. One of the best things about the SDSO is that it is accessible to the public, rather than just being a research observatory, and part of its purpose is to try to educate and encourage people's interest in astronomy. As well as the evening events such as the one we attended, there are special events around particular astronomical events, or talks by a guest speaker, as well as work with schools and other community groups. They also have updates on their social media pages in relation to astronomical events such as meteor showers etc, so I will definitely be watching with interest. I would highly recommend this as a night out. The whole experience was fascinating from start to finish.

So this was the final part of my Birthday celebrations and to be honest I had some reservations!…read more When booking, the T&C's said that sessions are 'never cancelled due to inclement weather' and hey this is Scotland so I thought the chances of seeing anything in Autumn would be close to zero...actually probably closer to Absolute Zero and snow or ice might feature instead! But luckily we have been blessed with some OK weather of late and as we made our way to the observatory the clouds started to clear and the excitement began to build. Once you leave the main road out of Dalmellington, however, you need to switch on full beam and acquire the skills of a Pro Rally Driver as the tarmac gives way to a stone track - occasionally steep and with some sharp bends. A good navigator is also handy as without good instructions (luckily provided by SDSO) you could easily get lost in the pitch black wilderness! Luckily I had all the relevant skills and assistant so we found it OK! The evening started with a short intro from Astronomer Dave (AD) and we soon headed outside to view the night sky as there was a gap in the clouds. They have 2 large telescopes and Dave alternated between the two, setting them up to view various objects in the night sky. AD did a really good job - despite an annoying bunch of rude females who seemed intent on giggling all night and basically talking whenever he was explaining something to the rest of us. During the night we looked at (amongst other things) the star Vega (which is just 2000 Light Years away so we were seeing it as it was 2000 years ago....cool), the Pleiades star cluster and a twin star within the constellation of The Plough. We saw the Ring Nebula (Google that..it's awesome) and also another Galaxy - The Andromeda Galaxy which is a whopping 2 million Light Years Away...mind boggling to be looking at something as it was 2 million years ago! I also saw Uranus! If you can get to the SDSO, I heartily recommend it and you will learn loads. You can book sessions online via their website www.scottishdarkskyobservatory.co.uk and they are super-welcoming. Beam me up 'Scotty'...

The Royal Observatory is part of Edinburgh University and operates as a research facility,…read moresometimes offering lectures and exhibitions to the public. There's a visitor centre and shop, but this isn't the reason to go. In fact, make the trip and forget about the Observatory - unless you really are interested. Instead, take in the views you get of the entire city at the top of Blackford Hill: north, east, south and west. See across the cityscape, past the castle to the Kingdom of Fife on the other side of the Forth, see the stick people who are looking in similar directions from the top of Arthur's Seat, look east across to Musselburgh and west towards Queensferry. Then look south to the Pentland Hills and resolve to go there next time. Blackford Hill is home to lots of white-tailed rabbits, and I recommend a visit at dawn or dusk when they're out and about being playful.

We came to Edinburgh for the Taylor swift concert and wanted to do some exploring. My 13 year old…read moredaughter and her friend made it clear they didn't want to do any sightseeing so we looked for fun activities that appealed to teens...and came across this. We found this to be a fun way to kill 90 minutes in this cool city. There's all sorts of rooms with optical illusions, but you also get to enjoy amazing views of Edinburgh on the rooftops. The girls seemed to enjoy, although the favorite part was probably the last room which included some a mirror maze and something that made me super dizzy. Recommended for kid/teen fun!

Pretty cool with or without kids, stunning views from atop. Multilevel, nice gift shop and opens up…read morenext to the Edinburgh Castle. Book ahead, we had to purchase tickets and wait another two hours to get in.

This may at first glance only be a shed on the shoreline, but the number of passing migrating birds…read moreis quite amazing. This would be a must for any twitcher!