Stargazing Spectacular

VisitScotland, our national tourism agency, has just released this splendid radio advert to entice people to visit the beautiful Dumfries and Galloway this spring, home to Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park.

Dark Sky Park, credit James Hilder

It’s a perfect time of year for stargazing, if you’re happy to stay up a bit later into the night.

If you’re planning a stargazing visit you’ll need to time your visit well. At night you have to wait until the Sun is far below the horizon (the end of astronomical twilight) and also wait until the Moon has set. The perfect nights for dark sky stargazing in D&G in April 2012 are between 9 and 23 April. On 9 April the skies will be pitch dark between 10:30pm and midnight, when the Moon rises. The hours of darkness grow each night as the Moon rises later and later, until 15 April when darkness lasts from 11pm until 4am. As we’re approaching midsummer the nights are shortening, and so by 23 April it will be properly dark between 11:15pm and 3:15am.

You can see the full range of dark sky stargazing activities on offer in and around D&G on the VisitScotland Stargazing Spectacular website