Dark Skies Orkney – midwinter astronomy festival

The package of events has received core financial support from the Science and Technology Facilities Council and Orkney Islands Council. A funding contribution for venue costs has also been made by the British Science Association.

Programme of events

Admission free to all talks except where an admission price is specified Events will be followed by stargazing where circumstances permit. For the most up to date information see http://www.oisf.org/

Saturday 10 December

7.30 – 8.30 pm
Town Hall, Kirkwall
‘The Night Sky in December’
Astronomer Steve Owens leads you through the night sky in December, showing some highlights to see this month, including Jupiter and its moons, Orion the Hunter, and the Geminid meteor shower.

Sunday 11 December

3.30 – 5.30 pm
‘Survival Under the Stars’
Join Orkney survival expert Malcolm Handoll and astronomer Steve Owens outdoors to explore the twilight and night-time skies of Orkney and how they may provide aids for survival, including night-time navigation.

Meet at the top of the Scorradale Road, Orphir, to start. Warm clothing and good footwear essential, as there will be a half-hour walk in each direction. Bring a torch as well. £10 per person. Numbers are limited to 12 maximum, so booking is essential: contact Malcolm Handoll on (01856) 861 249. Further information will be provided on his website www.allfivesenses.com.

Monday 12 December

Daytime: Kirkwall Grammar School

Tuesday 13 December

Daytime: Stromness Academy

7.30 pm
Stronsay Community Hall
‘The Night Sky in December’
Astronomer Steve Owens leads you through the night sky in December, showing some highlights to see this month, including Jupiter and its moons, Orion the Hunter, and the Geminid meteor shower.

Wednesday 14 December

Daytime: Stronsay Junior High School

8.15 – 9.00 pm
Deerness Community Hall
‘Night Skies Over Deerness’
Steve Owens introduces the night sky and some of the sights to look for in December, including Jupiter and its moons, Orion the Hunter, and the Geminid meteor shower. In association with the Friends of St Ninian’s Church

Thursday 15 December

Daytime: Sanday Junior High School

7.30 pm
Sanday Community Centre
‘The Night Sky in December’
Astronomer Steve Owens leads you through the night sky in December, showing some highlights to see this month, including Jupiter and its moons, Orion the Hunter, and the Geminid meteor shower.

Friday 16 December

7 pm till late
The Albert Hotel, Kirkwall
‘Dinner with the Stars’
A three-course meal of Orkney fare at The Albert Hotel, with a talk on the night sky by astronomer Steve Owens – and an opportunity afterwards to ask him anything you’ve ever wanted to know about astronomy.

Steve’s talk, titled ‘The Wonders of the Universe’, will be a whistlestop tour of some of the more spectacular sites in the cosmos, presenting the cutting-edge science that leads us to an understanding of these wonders. From our own cosmic backyard – the solar system – to the very edges of the known universe, this talk will cover moons, planets, stars, nebulae and galaxies, illustrated with the latest amazing images.

Price £20 per head. To book please call: 01856 887209.
Organised by The Albert Hotel in association with Orkney Tourism Group

Saturday 17 December

10.30 – 11.15 am
Pier Arts Centre, Stromness
‘The Beauties of the Night Sky’
The night sky is full of amazing – and very beautiful – things. Astronomer Steve Owens takes you on a tour of the cosmos, visiting some of these astronomical wonders, including clouds where stars are born (such as the Eagle Nebula and the Orion Nebula), the debris from dead stars (such as the Crab Nebula), and colliding galaxies.

11.45 am – 12.30 pm
Pier Arts Centre, Stromness
‘The Bear and the Ship’
Howie Firth links legend and astronomy, on a journey from a mound in Westray and a croft in Fetlar, to the story of a 2000-year-old Greek voyage and the star Canopus – and an ancient Egyptian ship in the sky.

5.30 – 9.30 pm
‘The Stars, the Stones – and a Hearty Orkney Supper!’
Set off from The Albert Hotel, Kirkwall into the dark of an Orkney night. Enjoy a host of spooky tales during your journey before stepping out into the night. On return to the Hotel, there will be a supper to warm your bones!

The tour will be supported by storyteller and tour guide Fran Flett Hollinrake and astronomer host Steve Owens.

Price £19.50 per head (includes coach, tour and supper). To book please call: 01856 887209. Please Note: In the event of cloudy skies, or in the event of insufficient numbers to make the outing viable, the format will change to an astronomy talk with questions and supper in the Hotel.

Organised by The Albert Hotel in association with Orkney Tourism Group

Sunday 18 December

3.30 – 5.30 pm
St Magnus Centre, Kirkwall, in the Friends Room
‘Astronomy for tourist guiding’
Workshop for Orkney tourist guides
With Orkney’s dark skies increasingly being recognised as an outstanding island asset, Steve Owens outlines key aspects of astronomy that can help to inform visitors, plus the basics of developing winter night sky tours.

Monday 19 December

Daytime: North Ronaldsay School

7.30 – 9.30 pm
North Ronaldsay Community Centre
‘Using a telescope’
Workshop given by Steve Owens for community volunteers interested in finding out how to set up and maintain a telescope for schools and community use.

7.30 – 8.30 pm
St Magnus Centre, Kirkwall
‘60 Light-Years Later’
Lighting engineer Jim Paterson, whose interest in electricity and light began 60 years ago, gives a non-technical introduction to the challenge of managing light so that it shines where it’s most wanted. He describes the work of adapting lighting systems that lead to Galloway Forest Park, two years ago, becoming the first part of the UK to be awarded international dark sky status.

Tuesday 20 December

Daytime: Papdale Primary School, Kirkwall

7.00 – 8.00 pm
St Magnus Church, Birsay
‘The Stars and their Stories’
Steve Owens introduces some of the most prominent features of the night sky and how to find them, and tells the stories that underlie these sights. The winter sky is full of wonderful constellations, and using these we can tell of the most remarkable stories known to science, the accounts of the birth and death of stars, and how these processes led ultimately to life on earth.

Admission by donation – proceeds to St Magnus Church Birsay Trust

Wednesday 21 December

7.30 – 8.30 pm
King Street Halls, Kirkwall
'Faster than the Speed of Light?'
Neutrinos are ghost-like, almost massless particles produced in vast quantities by certain nuclear reactions.  About 65 billion neutrinos, created in the Sun, pass through each square centimetre of our bodies every second.

In September 2011 scientists at CERN, home of the Large Hadron Collider, reported the results of an experiment known as OPERA, designed to study neutrinos produced at CERN and detected at the Gran Sasso laboratory in Italy.  Remarkably, the results of their experiment appeared to show that the neutrinos travelled the 732 kilometres between the two labs faster than the speed of light.  If these results are true, it would shake modern physics to its foundations – providing a direct and unprecedented challenge to Einstein's theory of relativity.

Prof. Martin Hendry of Glasgow University tells the story of the OPERA neutrino experiment: how it was carried out and what explanations there might be for its remarkable results.

Admission at door: £4 adults, £2 concessions

The opening image of the aurora borealis was taken by John Vetterlein at the Auroral & Magnetic Observatory in Rousay, and appears by kind permission of the photographer