Culture Fund: North Ronaldsay Community Association

We organised 10 Dark Skies Talks which included walks when the weather was suitable:

Henry Memmott: The Moon and its effects on the earth and nature 21.5.23

Henry Memmott: Simmer Dim Walk 24.6.23

Gordon Mackie: How to assemble the telescopes 7.9.23

Gordon Mackie: A planet walk along the beach 7.9.23

Gordon Mackie: The skies above North Scotland 7.9.23

Wolf Fruh: A talk on Jupiter – the planet and the god 25.10.23

David K Scott: a talk at NR Science Festival postponed

Alex Wright: a talk and walk about the Plough 24.11.23

Antonia Thomas: a walk to find the Moonlight Dyke 16.3.24

Antonia Thomas: a talk about the effects of light and darkness on archaeological remains 16.3.24

The events attracted both islanders and visitors – which was especially beneficial to local food and accommodation providers during the ‘off-season’.  The postponed talk is being rescheduled. The talks were a great way to promote our winter tourism and they have now become part of our winter offer.  A couple of islanders did some of the talks as well, so this provided great personal development and also provided a good model for the structure of talks and walks in the future.

We also bought two Celestron Telescopes.  These are really wizzy. We did not make best use of them this winter though as the weather has not been suitable. Having the telescopes is a great asset to our community and will enable us to learn more about the night skies.