This was a mind-blowing experience. We actually saw a galaxy far far away!
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. read more
