Day 1 – Getting to the Scilly Islands
This week marks the inaugural Scilly Dark Skies Week on the island of St Martins, one of the Scilly Islands located in the middle of the English Channel, 28 miles from Land’s End in Cornwall.
With less than 150 people living on the island, and many miles away from the nearest major source of light pollution I have very much been looking forward to making my way down to the island, and catching a glimpse of the night sky from one of the darkest places in the UK.
However, getting to the Scilly Islands turned out to be more complicated than initially anticipated.
I was meant to fly into the main island of St Mary’s that morning, but my flight was pushed back by bad weather meaning I missed the last ferry to St Martin’s, where I would be staying!
Thankfully, such things are fairly common on the island, and a quick call to the landlady at the St Martin’s Vineyard, where I would be staying, was all I needed to sort out another boat to come pick me up, leaving me enough time to enjoy the view across the quay and keep a wary eye on the intermittent clouds that were rolling across the sky.
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Safely arrived on St Martin’s, it was soon time to head down to COSMOS – Community Observatory St Martin’s On Scilly – for a few drinks with my fellow attendees of the Dark Skies Week and, if the clouds could hold back for long enough, a spot of stargazing.
The observatory was first incepted back in 2015, when a group of local stargazers decided the dark skies of St Martin’s were too incredible to not be shared.
After several years of fundraising, including a £60,000 grant from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, the observatory opened in 2019.
“It’s for the whole islands. For all the islands. For everyone,” said Val Thomas, one of COSMOS’s founders.
Alas, though the night was indeed one of the darkest I have ever experienced, this was in part due to the clouds blocking the stars, but I still took the time to look at COSMOS’s twin observatory domes, one of which is equipped with a 5-inch equatorially mounted refractor and a solar scope, while the other has a 14-inch refractor.
As emerged from the dome, I emerged expecting darkness only to see one of the starriest skies I have ever seen from the UK.
Hundreds of stars jumped out immediately, with Cassiopeia shining brightly above.
One of the local astronomers immediately began to use the bright constellation to lead my group through the biggest and brightest stars that were on show that night.
Then after little more than a minute of dark adaptation a hazy band began to become visible, arcing its way across the sky as the Milky Way shimmered into view.
It wasn’t to last though, and the clouds rolled back in again to blot out the stars, though several astronomical objects did put up a good fight.
The skies were so dark, I could still see the bright light of Jupiter filtered through the clouds – a sight I’ve often seen with the bright Moon, but never with a planet.
It may have been only a brief glimpse of a clear night, but it was enough to let me appreciate just how truly dark these skies are.