As the North York Moors Dark Skies festival gets underway, Yorkshire has topped the list of UK counties to head to for the best guarantee of a good night’s stargazing.
The new study, conducted by Cotswold Outdoor, analyses contributing geographical factors including northern light sightings, cloud cover, observatories, dark sky locations, camping grounds and space phenomena-watching events, all of which influence optimum conditions for asteroid spotting, star gazing and watching other night sky ‘shows’
Topping the list as the UK’s best county to head to for the best guarantee of getting a good night’s show, is Yorkshire. The county not only registers the highest number of unique locations from which the Northern Lights have been sighted (4) but it also boasts the best choice of observatories and most dark-sky locations in the UK.
Placing top three for it’s wealth of night sky watching events too, Yorkshire is set to host 78 in total by the end of this year and ranks third for choice of camping grounds and lowest average precipitation.
The survey comes as the North York Moors hosts it's latest Dark Skies Festival over the half term break and with no full moon muscling in on the starry skies, there’s a greater chance of seeing shooting stars as the start of this year’s Fringe Festival coincides with the peak of the Orionids meteor shower on 21 October.
Over the next week festival-goers can enjoy a star safari in the company of astronomy experts like Astro Dog at Dalby Forest; the Whitby & District Astronomical Society at the Fox and Hounds in Ainthorpe; or Large Outdoors at Danby in the North York Moors to increase their chances of watching this night time wonder.
At the North Yorkshire Moors Railway visitors can hop on-board a steam train adorned with thousands of lights for an energetic, music-filled trip between Pickering and Levisham. Whitby will have a distinctly Halloween theme with the gothic Abbey ruins dramatically illuminated and Dracula’s 125-year history brought to life.
The Halloween theme continues with fearsome thrills along the spooky trail at Dalby Forest.
Nocturnal wildlife plays a starring role during the Festival with Tees Valley Wildlife Trust, as well as rangers at Keldy and Cropton Forest showing nature lovers why dark skies are so important to the likes of hedgehogs, bats and deer.
This will be the third year that the Dark Skies Festival has been a biannual event, reflecting the continued popularity among visitors. Despite some adverse wintry conditions during this February’s main Festival, more than 5,000 people still attended the 100-plus events, many of which were sold out. The National Parks estimated that the Festival had generated more than £200,000 of valuable income to the businesses and organisations involved.
More information about the Dark Skies Festival is available at darkskiesnationalparks.org.uk
There is more information about the Cotswold Outdoor’s ‘Best Night Shows’ survey and an interactive tool at https://www.cotswoldoutdoor.com/the-knowledge/travel/best-night-sky-shows.html
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