00:00The North East Dark Skies Festival is underway, bringing together observatories, national
00:05parks and community groups to showcase the region's night skies.
00:09The festival runs throughout February with events designed for beginners, families and
00:14experienced stargazers alike.
00:16Organisers say it's also about helping people understand why protecting darkness matters.
00:20I'm here at Kielder Observatory, where on my drive up I found just how dark it is.
00:26You really can't see your nose in front of your face here.
00:28We have a collection of meteorites that we talk about.
00:32We talk about the sense of astronomy in general, and we always make sure that people go home
00:36with the tips and the few tools that they need to be able to stargaze from wherever they come
00:40from.
00:41Some of them will have to travel a little bit if you're in the middle of London.
00:45You will see the moon.
00:46You might see Jupiter.
00:47You might not see much more than that, but maybe just traveling 10, 15 minutes out of
00:52your town or city might be enough to experience some darkness.
00:56And with the few tips that we give the guests, hopefully they can start their journey here
01:01with us at Kielder and continue it when they go back home.
01:04So families can come at Kielder.
01:07We run families events.
01:08They are called kids events, but they are for families.
01:10And when people come here, it's all about astronomy, about having fun, doing some science.
01:15And we have some workshops that we do with the kids.
01:18One of them, a very popular one in the summer, is launching rockets.
01:21So the kids are going to design their own rocket, and then we launch it at the end.
01:25It's a very popular one.
01:26In the wintertime, we don't do that because the weather is a little bit less kind on us.
01:32But we have an event that is about aliens.
01:36So kids learn about, is there any aliens anywhere?
01:40So to find out about that, they will have to come in and see us.
01:43Kielder of the Battery is a charity.
01:45So what it means is that, basically, we run this as a non-profit organization.
01:50All the money that we get, we spend it in doing more.
01:53So we go to hospitals.
01:55We have been to prisons.
01:56We have had a partnership with the Western Refugee Service in Newcastle,
02:01with schools all over the Northeast.
02:03And we have been reaching about 10,000 pupils last year.
02:09This year is expanding even slightly further.
02:11Just tomorrow, we have a school coming here for a visit.
02:15So the pupils will have been reached by astronomers in their schools,
02:20by some of my colleagues who go to schools absolutely every day.
02:24And then they come and visit here.
02:26What we hope to do is to inspire them.
02:28Not necessarily for them to become the next astrophysicist,
02:31or the next Nobel Prize in physics and science,
02:35but just to show them that science can be fun,
02:38that science is for everyone, little kids, little girl,
02:41and that you can grow into a career, into the science of astronomy,
02:45if you want, or into science in general.
02:47Organisers hope the festival will inspire more people to experience the night sky
02:51and support efforts to protect it.
02:53Events continue across the Northeast throughout February,
02:57with further activities planned later in the year.
03:00students want to grow stronger.
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