Stargazing night
£38 adult
£22 child (8 to 15) · £104 family of four
- Two and a half hours, dusk start, up to 24 guests
- Eight telescopes, a red-torch sky tour and hot chocolate
- Led by two of our astronomers
01 Dusk on Harelaw Moor
The dark is worth the drive.
A dark-sky observatory in the Northumberland hills. Stargazing nights, telescopes to take home and cabins with a view of the Milky Way. Come at dusk. Leave knowing Saturn by name.
Scroll to open the dome
02 The dome opens
Out slides the shutter.
At dusk our astronomer unlatches the slit and the whole dome grumbles round on its iron ring. From here on it is red light only: it keeps your eyes dark-adapted, so the sky keeps getting deeper for twenty minutes.
03 Slewing to Jupiter
Jupiter, in the eyepiece.
The 150 mm refractor swings across the sky in under a minute and settles on Jupiter. Two dark belts, a pale zone between them and four tiny moons strung out in a line. Guests usually go quiet at this point.
04 Saturn’s rings
Saturn, rings and all.
People tell us they did not believe it until they saw it. A small, perfect, tilted ring with a gap in it, hanging in the black. Not a photograph. Light that left Saturn eighty minutes ago and has just arrived at your eye.
05 The Milky Way
Then the lights go out.
With the telescope parked, we ask everyone to look up. A band of cloud and shadow arches right over the dome. Our skies are Bortle class 2: on a moonless night the Milky Way is bright enough to find your way by.
06 Your turn
Choose a target. The telescope slews.
The refractor swings round, the dome follows it and the round window shows what you would see at the eyepiece. Drag the scene to look around.
Target
- Distance
- 1.43 bn km
- Kind
- Ringed planet
- Best seen
- Aug to Dec
The rings are tilted towards us, and the Cassini division shows as a thin dark line.
Drag the scene to look round
07 Nights, kit and stays
Three ways to spend a dark night.
Telescope hire
£45 a night
£120 a weekend · £260 a week
- 8-inch Dobsonian or 80 mm refractor, collimated
- Red torch, star chart and this week’s “what’s up” guide
- £100 deposit, refunded on return
Dark-sky stay
£165 a night
Cabin for two · extra guest £30
- Timber cabin, wood burner, a bed under a roof hatch
- Hot tub with red lighting, so it stays dark
- A private hour with the big telescope
08 The small print
Dark skies, measured.
- Sky quality
- 0mag / arcsec²
- Bortle class 2, read with a sky meter on the lawn
- Telescopes on the field
- 0
- from 80 mm refractors to a 16-inch Dobsonian
- Open since
- 0
- built by two physics teachers and a borrowed lathe
- Guests so far
- 0
- about a third of them came back
09 Visit
Book a night under the stars.
Tell us when and what you fancy. If the forecast is cloudy we message you by 4 pm and move your night for free.
Thank you. We will check the sky and the diary and write back within a day. Bring a warm coat: it is colder than you think.