Dark Skies

Overview

Our dark skies project aims to add an extra dimension to Callander’s visitor offer. With good quality darkness within easy reach of the town centre and clear night skies during the winter months; our project will designate a Dark Sky Discovery Site that will connect people with the wonders of the universe.

Aims & Objectives

This project will:

• Provide volunteer opportunities to help survey the night sky at key locations in and around Callander
• Identify the best places for viewing the night sky, using the Dark Skies Discovery Site criteria
• Encourage people to embrace the cold and dark of the winter months in order to explore the night sky
• Host a number of events and activities for residents and visitors to learn more about the night sky

Project updates

• The project kicked off with an evening of stargazing at McLaren Leisure Centre in November 2018 which was attended by over 240 people.
• In 2019 two training evenings were held for volunteers to learn how to measure the quality of the Callander night sky. Over the last three winters, a small team of volunteers have surveyed 30 different locations to identify the best places for stargazing. We are currently looking at the results and hope to designate our Dark Sky Discovery sites in this year in 2021.
• A weekend of astronomy was planned for March 2020, The Sky Above Us; unfortunately this had to be postponed due to Covid-19. We were able to run an adapted programme of online events through the winter and then a weekend programme in March 2021. We had a number of guest talks, astrophotography workshop, self led activities including a space trail and cosmic experiments, and outreach activities with young people. Thanks to the Institute of Physics Scotland for funding our events programme.