In this post I will talk about the work of the International Dark-Sky Association (https://www.darksky.org/)and the visit I made a few years ago to the Kielder Observatory, which is in the Northumberland Dark Sky park in northern England. The International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) was founded in 1988 by David Crawford a professional astronomer, who spent… Continue reading Dark Sky Places
Tag: Astronomy
Astronomy Items
Why Venus Shines Brightly
Updated 22 November 2025 Anyone, even the most casual observer, looking at the evening sky in the last month will have noticed the brilliant white planet Venus shining in the west. Often known as the Evening Star, Venus is the third brightest natural object in the sky after the Sun and the Moon. In this… Continue reading Why Venus Shines Brightly
Measuring and Mapping Light Pollution
Updated 16 December 2025 As discussed in my earlier post on Dark Skies , light pollution is a major nuisance to astronomers both amateur and professional. When astronomers classify how much light pollution there is at a particular location, they often use the Bortle Scale, devised by John Bortle and first published in the popular astronomy… Continue reading Measuring and Mapping Light Pollution
SpaceX Starlink Satellites (2020)
Update 16 March 2022- click on the image below to view a video of much of the information in this post https://youtu.be/smCG4mWKjPA Many of you will have seenthe pictures in 2019 showing long ‘trains’ composed of as many as sixty SpaceX Starlink satellites crossing the sky. A 'train' of SpaceX Starlink satellites just after… Continue reading SpaceX Starlink Satellites (2020)
e-book on Venus and how to Terraform it
Updated 7 December 2025 I have extensively expanded and rewritten all three “A Short Guide to…” e-books. These books available on Kindle for a competitive price I hope you enjoy reading the new versions of these books (if you’ve not done so already). Venus is, the planet closest to the Earth in size and internal… Continue reading e-book on Venus and how to Terraform it
Explaining Science 