Join me in Lochbroom on November 21st for an evening of Stargazing and Astronomy in support of the Wester Ross Dark Skies Festival.
We’ll be beneath some of the darkest skies in Scotland, exploring constellations, planets, and deep-sky objects. Even if the clouds roll in, I’ll present an illustrated talk indoors with Planetarium software.
Friday 21st Nov, 8pm at Clachan Church, Lochbroom. Tickets £6 on the door (under 16s free). Wrap up warm!
For advance booking please email Louise at louise@wrb.scot
Join me on December 13th up at Abriachan Forest (a Dark Sky Discovery site) for an evening of stargazing and astronomy with Professor Martin Hendry. (ticket links in comments)
If skies are clear Martin and I will host an outdoor stargazing session and discussion under the stars (with potential telescopic views of Jupiter and Saturn). Following this Martin will present his indoor guest talk titled “Empire of the Sun”: the past, present and future of Solar System Exploration.
The Abriachan team will also be on hand to keep younger (and older) audience members entertained with some suitably themed STEM activities.
Martin Hendry is Vice Principal at the University of Glasgow and Vice President of the Royal Society Edinburgh. As former Head of the School of Astronomy and Physics he continues to be a passionate advocate for STEM education and science engagement with schools and public audiences. He is the author of more than 200 scientific articles and is a senior member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, the global team of more than 1400 scientists which made the first-ever detection of gravitational waves – a discovery awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize for Physics.
Due to site and classroom capacity, booking via Eventbrite is essential. Admission is free for under 16s with accompanying adults but please inform Abriachan of any large booking requests.For directions to the forest classroom please follow directions to Abriachan Forest Classroom.
I’m delighted to announce the first date of our 2025/2026 Astronomy and Stargazing programme at Abriachan Forest, which kicks off on Saturday, November 22nd, with an evening of outdoor stargazing and indoor planetarium guiding.
We also have guest talks planned later in the season covering deep space, the solar system and the Moon, with Professor Martin Hendry first in line on December 13th to discuss the “Empire of the Sun”: the past, present, and future of Solar System exploration. Astronomer Steve Owens will be visiting after Christmas for more tales of dark skies, with further announcements to follow in the new year.
This October I’ve been carrying out night sky survey work as part of a community project to certify Strathnairn as an International Dark Sky Park. This has involved lots of travelling about late at night taking sky quality meter (SQM) readings when conditions are just right – clear skies and the Moon and Sun well below the horizon. You can read about this dark sky conservation work here.
While I’ve been out under the stars I’ve filmed a few stargazing video for my community pages. Here’s a popular one on finding the Andromeda Galaxy – our biggest close galactic neighbour. It always amazes me that you can observe this object with the naked eye, and see the accumulated light from over 100 billion stars at a distance greater than 2 million light years!
It’s been a while since I updated my Youtube channel with a review. Bringing you my impressions of the Seestar S50 after a whole winter using it both personally and for public outreach. I hope you enjoy and find it useful.
We had a fantastic starry night up at Abriachan Forest with our guest speaker Andrew Allan from Scotland’s Night Sky .
After some naked eye stargazing we headed inside for Andrew’s excellent talk on photographing and filming the night sky. Andrew’s night sky content is truly unique and mesmerising and testament to his technical skills, patience and enthusiasm for the night sky.
After the talk we were blessed with more clear skies and headed out for another tour of the planets and constellations (expertly captured by Allan’s Sony camera).
Look out for our March Moon event going up shortly (see check my Facebook Page Highland Astronomy for details).
Here’s a small snippet of our naked eye stargazing session from Abriachan Forest on Saturday evening, with Andrew and I pointing out some bright planets and constellations.
Props to Andrew for managing to capture this low light footage with his camera setup.
Feb 22nd – Stargazing at Abriachan – Scotland’s Night Sky Special
Join us up at Abriachan Forest (a Dark Sky Discovery site) for a stargazing and night sky photography special as we welcome guest astrophotographer Andrew Allan from Perthshire.
Andrew runs the widely followed community page Scotland’s Night Sky and is a prolific aurora chaser and Milky Way photographer. Andrew’s talk will include tips and tricks on how to photograph a wide range of celestial events, how to forecast the Northern Lights plus images and stories from Andrew’s adventures abroad to Iceland, Norway and Tenerife.
If conditions are clear astronomer Stephen Mackintosh will also be guiding you under the Milky Way class dark skies of Abriachan Forest (with a backup astronomy presentation if clouds roll in).
Due to site and classroom capacity, booking via Eventbrite is essential. Admission is free for under 16s with accompanying adults but please inform Abriachan of any large booking requests.
| Modulo | Universe 