Victoria Benn, the events officer of The Friends of the Dales with Mr Paul Neaves and society secretary Dominic Curran
Wednesday 12th February 2025. As part of the annual Yorkshire Dales Dark Skies Festival, Paul Neaves with Keighley Astronomical Society, held an astronomy evening at Gargrave village hall, introducing the wonders of the night sky. The event was part theoretical, part practical and the idea was to enable participants to learn astronomy and understand the workings of the night sky with a view to identifying the key stars and constellations. The two and half hour session included displaying to those present what a magnificent location the Yorkshire dales is to look at the winter night sky. This was Astronomy with the human eyes only. An explanation of how the night sky above us works and what you can see and understand with just a little knowledge. The evening included instruction on how to use star charts, judging angular distances and creating ‘planispheres’ which the participants could take home with them. The two presentations delivered by Paul were backed up with DVD presentations.
