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!
Tickets are now up for the launch event of 2024 Astronomy season at Abriachan Forest. A special live synthesiser set from QRM will accompany the usual stargazing and astronomy.
“The new stargazing season at Abriachan Forest (a Dark Sky Discovery site) gets underway on November 2nd with a special musical themed event featuring local analogue synthesiser group QRM. In addition to the usual stargazing and astronomy, QRM will play a fully live synthesiser set against a backdrop of space and astronomy themed cosmic visuals.
Event format is weather proofed so please book with confidence. As well as our indoor synthesiser set from QRM we’ll have outdoor (or indoor) night sky guiding with astronomer Stephen Mackintosh plus possible telescopic views of visible planets.
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.“
You can final all details and book your tickets here.
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.
I’ll be working with the Kingsmills Hotel starting this observing season, delivering bespoke stargazing experiences based out of Inverness for small and medium sized groups.
Here’s some facts and figures highlighting the impact of the Star Stories astronomy programme, running up at Abriachan forest since 2018 (after a pilot in 2017). As principle researcher for the Spark Award grant I’ve been sharing impact data with STFC, who’ll use it to better target future funding for science and astronomy outreach.
Local schools, scouting and astronomy organisations engaged with
High quality home baking by @Judith Mackintosh
Examples of astronomy topics and themes explored during the events:
Meteors, Venus, Life of Stars, Saturn, Aurora, Variable Stars, Night sky photography, Buying a Telescope, Orion, Island Universes, Scale of the Universe, Mesolithic Stargazing, Renaissance Astronomy, Globular Clusters,Summer and Winter Solstice, Moon, Gravitational Waves, Multiverses, Lord Kelvin, Age of Universe, Planetary Nubulae, Black Holes, Space Telescopes
Astronomy speakers:
Martin Hendry
Steve Owens
Graham Bradshaw
Maarten De Vries
Claire Rayne
Anthony Luke
Eric Walker
Catherine Haymans
Stephen Mackintosh
Glasgow Science Centre team
Storytellers:
Barbara Henderson
John Burns
Suzann Barr
Trish Matthews
Daniel Allison
Allis Balance
Chris Holland
Fiona Macdonald
Clelland McCallum
Gordon MacLellan
Key Findings
To engage wide audiences try to blend science and culture.
Binoculars are an empowering and inexpensive tool to access the night sky with large groups
Well managed social media pages are a great way to build communities and drive engagement
Audiences, particularly young people, are highly engaged by very challenging and abstract cosmology (don’t dumb down)
The ‘wonder’ of the night sky is a highly motivating vehicle to increase engagement in science and mathematics
The Future
Star Stories is now a well established astronomy outreach programme within the Highlands, close to the city of Inverness. Its events continue to sell out each season . Our new programme of events will kick off at the start of the 2024 winter season in October. We look forward to expanding the scope of the work, reaching new audiences and developing new and exciting content that will forge a bridge into science, mathematics and astronomy.
I’ll be sky and star guiding from remote and beautiful Lewis this March, for the 2023 Hebridean Dark Skies Festival, with dates spanning 18-21st March. Tickets and event info below and in the accompanying link. On Thursday 16th March I’ll also be joining the HDS panel for a special facebook live session “Ask the Astronomers”.
Event details:
Join astronomer Stephen Mackintosh (aka Highland Astronomy) for an evening of fascinating insights into the cosmos and – weather permitting – a walk under the stars at some of our best stargazing spots.
Tickets can booked in advance via An Lanntair’s box office. A limited number may be available on the door on the night if the event is not sold out.
The Hebridean Dark Skies Festival runs from 9-21 March 2023 with arts and astronomy events for all the family at An Lanntair and across Lewis and Harris. Browse the full festival programme here.
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