Go stargazing in the half term holidays!
Join the Forest of Bowland AONB Partnership during half-term and raise your gaze skywards to celebrate the beauty of Bowland after dark
This year’s Bowland Dark Skies Festival not only offers a helping hand to navigate the stars, it’s also the perfect chance to indulge your creativity, delve into the history book of local astronomy and find out about some of the fascinating wildlife which populates Bowland once the sun has set.
Organisers will be hoping for clear skies when scientist and amateur astronomer Robert Ince heads outside for a traditional stargazing evening in Downham on Saturday, February 11, then swiftly sets up his camera the following night for a virtual tour of the late winter planets.
Graham McLoughlin, of Preston and District Astronomical Society, will be looking back online at the history of what could be the oldest public observatory in the UK – originally named the Deepdale Observatory.
For family-friendly fun, the festival will be linking with the library service and local storyteller Sue Allonby for dark skies tales on a moon theme, and heading off with Outdoors 4 All on a lantern-lit campfire adventure in Dunsop Bridge.
Artist, Anne Somers, will run a fused glass workshop in Clapham, using colours which reflect the beautiful night-time world, and there’ll be a chance to enjoy skies and pies with astrophotographer Lee Hunt in Barley.
Forest of Bowland AONB Project Officer Sandra Silk said: “We’re so lucky in Bowland to have relatively little light pollution obscuring the stars. This means that, on clear nights, a blanket of constellations, nebulae and galaxies are revealed overhead. It’s a beautiful sight.”
“We want to encourage more people to have this wonderful experience for themselves,” continued Sandra, “whether that’s stepping outside their own back door on a dark night, visiting one of our Dark Sky Discovery Sites, or staying with one of Bowland’s Dark Sky Friendly-accredited businesses.”
Online events are free to attend, but there will be a charge for face to face sessions. All events need to be booked in advance, as some have limited space.
Details and booking information for all the Dark Skies Festival events are available at www.forestofbowland.com/Festival-Bowland-Events
Posted
9th January 2023
in News