Regular visitors to this site will be aware that an exciting event is nearly upon us. Every year the earth passes through a debris stream laid down by a comet, this year is no different, when this happens we see a "meteor shower". These meteor showers are commonly reffered to as "shooting stars". Well of course they are not stars at all, in fact they are micro sized! the mere fact of the velocity of the earths rotation and the speed of the particles combined allows for a flash as these tiny fragments of an ancient comet collide with the denser atmosphere, this causes a shock wave to gather in front of the particle and it heats up and emits a small flash of light.

Enough of the science...this year sees the Perseid meteor shower in the skies above the Kielder Observatory. With no moon in the sky to brighten things up all we need is a clear sky, and wait under englands darkest sky observing site and let the show commence. early indications are that we could see as many as 80-120 meteors per hour,or even more than that, we will have to wait and see.

We are holding an event over 3 nights to see this natural event, sit in comfort on the observing deck and learn all about the shower, as well as the science behind it. we will also be using all the observatories telescopes to observe the night sky and peek at some very distantt objects.

Go to the calendar section and check it out, all booking instructions are to be found there.

Hope to see you there .

Gary