Join us for some stargazing under beautiful dark skies
When light pollution is brightening the night at an increasing rate, it’s heartening to see some regions taking steps to protect their dark skies. Jamie Carter travelled to Yorkshire to experience the UK’s newest International Dark Skies Reserves, the North York Moors and the Yorkshire Dales. Turn to his article to bask in the starry skies, hear what locals did to achieve dark-sky accreditation and find out how to make a visit there a truly stellar experience.
Stellar experiences don’t get much bigger than hypergiants. These are the behemoths of the Universe – if there was one at the centre of the Solar System, everything out to the orbit of Saturn would be within it! And because of their size, hypergiants display some truly mysterious behaviour, regularly shedding staggering amounts of mass, often more than Jupiter at one time. But as Colin Stuart reveals in his feature, new research is offering a convincing explanation for these outbursts. Discover more, including where to find a hypergiant star for yourself in the night sky.
Such mammoth objects are few and far between – astronomers know of just 10 among our Galaxy’s 100 billion stars. With those numbers of stars, it’s no wonder our Galaxy is a glittering band stretching across the dark sky. It’s a beautiful sight to photograph in summer, and in this issue you can read Will Gater’s beginners’ guide on exactly how to do it.
Enjoy the issue!
PS Our next issue goes on sale on Thursday 18 May.