Dale Farm is very dark at night. Because of this and its rural location it is a great place for star gazing, especially on clear, cold nights. There is no local light pollution and the sky is big. The Milky Way is often visible to the naked eye and we have also seen the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights). Stargazing is easy – wait until the sky is properly dark on a clear night, preferably when the moon is not in the sky, then just go outside and look up; there will be something to see. As well as the stars there’s a great chance you will see many other spectacles of the night sky – planets, space satellites and shooting stars (meteors) and the moon in all its phases.
www.darkskydiscovery.org.uk has a selection of star charts and videos to help you get to grips with the main seasonal constellations and there is a brilliant app you can download – just point your phone at the sky and it identifies the constellations for you!
