Stars, nebulae, galaxies, clusters, and even a few planets will be at your fingertips when the National Park Visitor Centre is briefly transformed into a mini-observatory on Saturday 20th March. The event will offer keen star gazers a wonderful opportunity to view the night sky, see demonstration models, actual telescopes plus learn about star gazing equipment and astronomy from the Cardiff Astronomical Society. The event runs from 7.00pm until 9.30pm – and due to overwhelming demand booking is essential.
Richard Levy, National Park Visitor Centre Manager said: “We have some of the darkest skies in the UK right here in the Bannau Brycheiniog, so the clear dark skies we are experiencing at the moment makes this the perfect time for people to learn more about the mysteries of our night skies and astronomy. Experts from Cardiff Astronomical Society will be on hand to explain what astronomy is all about, highlight what to look out for at this time of year, identify when the best time to view is, and answer any questions about outer space visitors pose.
“The National Park Visitor Centre is fast becoming the perfect location to host star gazing events, with the ideal combination of being easy to get to, but still secluded away from light pollution. At previous events we’ve seen Mars, Jupiter, the International Space Station whizzing overhead at the beginning and even Saturn and its rings – complete magic! We are also planning to hold further star gazing events later during the year because of overwhelming demand to discover more about our dark skies.”
Tickets cost £5.00 per adult and £3.00 for under 16s (ticket price includes parking and soup and a roll), and the event will go ahead whatever the weather. For further information on star gazing in the National Park please contact the National Park Visitor Centre on 01874 623 366 or email visitor.centre@breconbeacons.org
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Pictures: Copyright of Allan Trow, University of Glamorgan
Pictures taken in the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park.