Shine Bright! Stargazing in North Yorkshire…

Milky way

Look directly overhead during Autumn and you will see this shimmering band of light arching spanning much of the sky overhead. The soft glow is actually caused by the light of millions of dim stars and it’s one of the spiral arms of our own galaxy, which we also call the Milky Way. Ask at reception for some binoculars to see these tiny stars too. Stargazing in North Yorkshire is the perfect evening entertainment for the whole family!

Northern Lights

The northern lights are certainly visible from the North York Moors with the darker your sky, the more chance you have of seeing the magic of Aurora. These displays are caused by energetic particles from the sun interacting with the earth’s magnetic field. During a storm, you can see impresive streams of light soaring overhead and the sky tinted red and green above the northern horizon.

Meteor showers

At certain times of the year, we can observe frequent meteors. Look out for ‘shooting stars’ which move rapidly across the sky before burning up like a firework. Each is caused by a tiny bit of debris left behind by comets and asteroids, which hit the earth’s atmosphere at high speeds causing them to vaporise. At their peak, you will be able to see hundreds of meteors an hour.

Andromeda Galaxy

This is the furthest object you can see with your naked eye from the North York Moors – an incredible 2.5 million light-years away. To the naked eye it looks like a small faint streak of light but if you use binoculars you will see it’s shaped like a rugby ball and fills the field of view. This is another spiral galaxy, similar to our own Milky Way, comprising 300 billion suns and countless planets.

Constellations

There are 88 recognised constellations but most of us recognise a dozen or so – mainly due to the association with the zodiac – the band of the sky where the planets can be found. The alignment is merely a line of sight effect, as the stars are at hugely varying distances but this makes a great game for star-spotting with the family.

Satellites

We now have hundreds of man-made satellites orbiting us which we can see in the night sky. Some satellites are sufficiently large and have reflective solar panels and can appear to be very bright, the brightness varying as the panels catch the sunlight.

The largest of these satellites, the International Space Station (ISS) is also a frequent visitor, orbiting the Earth in about 90 minutes, 250 miles above the surface. As it passes over us, it appears to be one of the brightest objects in the night sky, taking a few minutes to drift out of view.