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Landmark Dark Skies Planning Policy

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The Herald Scotland has highlighted Highland Council’s consideration of a landmark Dark Skies planning policy. To support the accreditation efforts, I led the data collection and night sky field work. Partnering with Dr Andy MacGregor last winter, sky-brightness measurements were tracked across the region, identifying extensive Bortle 3 zones.

Crucially, this policy demonstrates that protecting our natural heritage doesn’t require compromising on important regional modernisation. By integrating sensible, practical lighting standards into the planning phase, the policy ensures that essential new developments in the Highlands can move forward responsibly, safeguarding our exceptional night skies for future generations without creating barriers to economic growth. Full details in the article here.

Wester Ross Dark Skies Festival

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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

Stargazing and Astrophotography at Abriachan Forest

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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.

Small Group Evening Stargazing Tours in Inverness

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I’ve simplified my local astronomy and stargazing tours based out of Inverness. The offering is now open to small groups of between 1 and 4 people. All tours now go ahead irrespective of sky conditions with vehicle based planetarium tours offered as a backup if conditions are poor.

Previous offerings were too complex to manage based on conflicting schedules and weather cancelations.

Please read details of the full offering here.

Orion Nebula Telescopic Livestream

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I hope you enjoy my short livestream of the Orion nebula – the closest region of massive star formation to our Sun. Roughly 1,300 light years away in the sword of the constellation Orion, the nebula is visible naked eye or in binoculars or telescope.

This live stream was originally streamed from my Facebook page and later archived on my YouTube channel. The stream was filmed using a 200mm telescope and 32mm eyepiece.

Strong Northern Lights

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Here’s a slightly shaky camera image I took from my home in the west of Inverness late on Saturday night. This is the strongest I’ve seen the Aurora from suburban Inverness. The glow was clearly visible naked eye with a bright arc and scintillating movement over the Black Isle.

There’s some speculation this display was connected to a large CME that erupted from the Sun on Thursday. While this is possible events like this are notoriously hard to predict with huge uncertainty in the transit time and direction of these high energy particle ejections from our home star.

Northern lights are not as rare as people think, especially in northern Scotland. The main impediment to seeing them is the simple fact that many people spend the winter evenings indoors. If you go for regular extended walks away from city lights and can find a good vantage facing north your chances of seeing aurora will increase significantly.