Stargazer & Meteor Watch Breaks
Designated Dark Sky Park in 2009, Galloway Forest Park is the first in the UK and one of only five in the world.
This means the park enjoys very dark skies and on a clear night you can see thousands of stars, whereas in a city you might see only a few dozen of the brightest cars.
Things you can see from Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park that you will never see from a city sky include – detail within the grey band of the Milky Way, other galaxies and nebulae visible with the naked eye, dozens of shooting stars, the northern lights and true darkness.
Astronomers measure the darkness of the sky on the Bortle Scale, a nine point scale that describes the level of light pollution overhead. Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park has a Bortle class of 2, defined as a “truly dark site”. The only class of sky darker than this is class 1 “utterly unpolluted sky”.
Nowhere in the UK or mainland Europe has a sky of this class. Making Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park certainly one of the darkest skies in the world, and probably the darkest skies you will ever see. Cally Palace is perfectly placed to enjoy this experience:
To make the most of your Dark Sky experience even more interesting we can arrange:
- Dark Sky classes – a 2 hour session for individuals or as a group, giving you a good grounding in astronomy.
- Rental of observatory – for 2 hours and is restricted to 15 people per session
- The Wigtownshire Astronomical Society can organise observing sessions with expert tuition
