Abriachan

Stargazing Event Date Changes

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Due to heavy snow this winter my Tales of the Moon event (with Steve Owens) has moved to February 17th and our scheduled event with Professor Martin Hendry is now March 9th. The former event has sold out but the Eventbrite links for March have just gone live. Please see details below if you wish to book:

Join us up at Abriachan Forest (a Dark Sky Discovery site) for an evening of stargazing with guest astronomer Martin Hendry, professor of Gravitational Astrophysics and Cosmology at the University of Glasgow.

Event format is weather proofed so please book with confidence. As well as our indoor guest speaker talk from Martin on the Age of the Universe (and Lord Kelvin) we’ll have outdoor (or indoor) night sky guiding with astronomer Stephen Mackintosh, possible telescopic views of Juipter and more family focused activities with the Abriachan team.

Refreshments and home bakes available. 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.

Ticket links HERE

Abriachan Star Stories Guest Speaker Events

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I’m delighted to announce the return of three excellent astronomers and guest speakers to Abriachan Forest this season.

On December 9th – Maarten De Vries (talking about Meteor Showers)

On January 20th – Steve Owens (joins me to Explore the Moon)

On February 10th – Martin Hendry (discusses Lord Kelvin and the Age of the Universe)

All guest speaker talks will be followed (or proceeded) by naked eye and binocular stargazing led by myself, or a backup indoor sky tour on planetarium software if clouds roll in. Plus storytelling and other activities led by the Abriachan team. Refreshments and home bakes provided.

Ticket links will go live roughly four weeks prior to each event so please stay tuned to my Facebook page for details as they do sell out very quickly.

February Star Stories at Abriachan

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Big thanks to astronomer Steve Owens and Celtic storyteller Alis Ballance for hosting our astronomy and storytelling streams this evening up at Abriachan Forest.

Cosmosis was realised by a combination of Alis’s captivating Gaelic creation myths and Steve’s tour de scientific of the Solar System.

Although skies started off cloudy we were blessed with decent patches of open sky at the end for a deftly guided laser pointer finale, taking in Orion and other bright constellations. Plus binocular and telescopic views of the crescent Moon

Thanks to everyone who came along.

Dark Sky December at Abriachan

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Join me on December 17th up at Abriachan Forest (a Dark Sky Discovery site) for an evening of stargazing and storytelling under Moonless dark skies.

If conditions are clear I’ll guide you under Abriachan’s Milky Way class dark skies (with a backup indoor astronomy presentation if clouds roll in).

Meanwhile we welcome our first guest storyteller of the season. Local gael Fiona Macdonald will lead the campfire storytelling section of the evening with tales steeped in Highland folklore.

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 driections to the forest classroom please follow directions to Abriachan Forest Classroom here: https://www.abriachan.org.uk/environment/

Tickets are available on Eventbrite here.

Moon, Fox and Fire at Abriachan Forest!

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Thanks to everyone who came up to Abriachan Forest on Saturday evening for our Moon, Fox & Fire event.

We had lovely clear skies for close up telescopic views of the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn through our big 200m reflector. Plus naked naked eye views of Mars and many bright stars. The clear conditions also allowed me to setup my video telescope for ultra close up views of the lunar surface projected onto an outdoor screen.

Abriachan headed up the campfire storytelling section afterwards, with some stealthy stealing games with the young fire guardians! As every my wife Judith prepared the home bakes with some very popular sticky toffee pudding cakes.

Our next event is ‘Dark Sky December’ on Dec 17th. Eventbrite links will go up soon.

November Star Stories at Abriachan Forest

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Waxing crescent Moon at Abriachan Forest

Join us up at Abriachan Forest on November 4th for our first event of the 2022 Stargazing season – ‘Moon, Planets and Fox & Fire!’

To kick off the winter series our first event will be a Moon and Planet special with the waxing gibbous Moon, Jupiter and Saturn on display for live binoculor and telescope observing guided by astronomer Stephen Mackintosh. If skies are poor Stephen will instead present an indoor talk in the forest classroom on the history of lunar and planetary observing, going back to the earliest ideas our ancestors had about the Moon and Wandering Stars.

In addition the Abriachan team will present ‘Fox and Fire’ storytelling around the campfire with refreshments provided.

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.

Tickets can be purchased on Eventbrite HERE.

Donated 200mm Telescope for Abriachan

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Fully restored Sky-Watcher 200mm telescope for Abriachan Forest

I recently restored a lovely 200mm reflector, kindly donated to our astronomy programme at Abriachan Forest. This one came from @BigSkyLodges over in the Black Isle. Many thanks to Martin Hind for the heads up.

Just needed a clean and some TLC and now back in good working order. This adds to our 150mm reflector and will compliment our binocular stargazing events when we kick off next season.  

A 200mm like this is ideal for observing fainter deep sky objects like galaxies, planetary nebulae and globular clusters.