Battlesteads Dark Sky Observatory — Attraction in Great Britain

This place is incredible. We payed £45 for two of us to join a moonwatch session, from the off this was amazing value as our guide Harry was so knowledgeable.

We started off with a chat introducing us to telescopes and the various facts about them, then we were taken to the front of the building to see the roof being removed, we had a fantastically clear night and we saw all kinds of things through the telescope, andromeda galaxy, Pleiades, the moon among others.

We were able to capture some photos through the lens but also Harry had a gizmo which you can put your phone into to steady it, he was so patient with us all and gave us all the time we needed to grab the best pictures.

There was a cache of binoculars to have a good look about with too.

We are so lucky to have been in Harry’s group, he was enthusiastic and entertaining and even if you felt you were asking a stupid question he would validate it with an honest answer.

There is a hot beverage machine to use, and the main building has heating incase you’re out on a nippy autum/winter evening.

5+ stars for this, we would love to come back again -...

Awesome. The difference between light polluted skies and a dark skies site is unbelievable until you've experienced it. You can see so many stars with the naked eye but so many more even with 7x40 binoculars. We saw Andromeda, the milky way and the Pleiades (which are stunning through binoculars). The two astronomers, Martin and Jacob were very knowledgeable but equally not intrusive with that knowledge. Questions were answered quickly but equally if you just wanted to enjoy the stars, galaxies, planets etc you were free to do that. They also used their telescope to pick out various objects in the sky for you to see more clearly. The use of laser pointers was also very helpful in picking out various objects. We didn't even have particularly clear skies just holes in cloud cover. Completely clear skies would be incredible. Highly...

A super evening learning about the solar system, galaxy, constellations, and equipment used to see these. Chris, who lead us through the session was very knowledgeable and passionate about the subject. He had some meteorites and handed them to the group to touch them! During the session, he retracted the roof, so that we can see the stars. It was a cloudy night, but we managed to see a glimpse of them with the naked eye. The telescope was used to see some of the constellations. It was a very enjoyable evening and plenty of curious questions were asked! It is a fantastic area to see the constellations and it has now sparked my interest in exploring this further! I didn’t take much photos as we needed to avoid white lights, so our eyes could see the stars...