12 January 2012
The National Park reaches for the stars at Cawfields
Northumberland National Park has one of the best “natural” observatories with which to view the stars of the Northern hemisphere, and dark skies unpolluted by artificial light.
The location is Cawfields Quarry, a rocky amphitheatre carved out of the Whin Sill underlying Hadrian’s Wall and located opposite the Milecastle Inn on the Military Road just north of Haltwhistle
This is a spot highly favoured by astronomers and on Wednesday, 18th January 2012 from 7-9pm, members of the Newcastle and Borders Astronomical Societies are inviting the public to share their amazing telescopes to get close up to the stars. This is part of the BBC’s Stargazing Live series two which starts on Sunday, 16th January – BBC2, 8.30pm.
The Cawfields event is free of charge and the Milecastle Inn is offering a warming take-away soup and roll for £2 to participants.
In the event of bad weather, the event will be cancelled at 4pm on the day – call 07795834951 or visit www.newcastleastronomicalsociety.org.uk for confirmation.
The National Park is working with various partners to designate Cawfields as one of the UK’s Dark Sky Discovery Parks being promoted by UK Physics, Science and Astronomy organisations to encourage young people to enjoy the possibilities of current science.
Duncan Wise, Visitor Development Officer for Northumberland National Park said: “We have some of the darkest skies anywhere in the country in the National Park, and Cawfields is one of the most accessible sites to view them. There is a growing and deepening interest in star gazing and astronomy amongst the public – especially young people - and we are grateful to both astronomical societies for their strong enthusiasm to support such activities”.