Stargazing

December Stargazing at Abriachan – Featuring Professor Martin Hendry

/ Stephen Mackintosh / Leave a comment

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.

Ticket Links can be found here.

New Astronomy Season at Abriachan begins November 22nd

/ Stephen Mackintosh / Leave a comment

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.

As ever, tickets go live on Eventbrite and are promoted on my Facebook page.

Finding the Andromeda Galaxy Naked Eye

/ Stephen Mackintosh / Leave a comment

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!

Stargazing at Abriachan – Scotland’s Night Sky Special

/ Stephen Mackintosh / Leave a comment

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.

Eventbrite ticket links are here.

Ticket Links for Sounds of the Cosmos Abriachan Special

/ Stephen Mackintosh / Leave a comment
Thin waxing crescent Moon above Abriachan Forest

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.

Stargazing Season Launch with Sounds of the Cosmos at Abriachan Forest

/ Stephen Mackintosh / Leave a comment

The new stargazing season at Abriachan Forest gets underway on November 2nd with a special musical 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.

Further details and ticket links for this launch event (and others) will be posted here on my blog or Facebook page in the next few weeks.

You can sample some of QRM’s live performances here. We anticipate the Abriachan performance to be about 30 minutes long with some Q&A with the band afterwards.