Kielder Observatory

What a place Kielder Observatory is. Open for 3 years, it houses 2 telescopes in which to watch the night skies — a manual open truss telescope to train observers and to pick up distant entities, and a fancy-​dancy computerised telescope that can find shadows of meterorites on the moon.
The observatory runs public events throughout the year, giving pretty unique access to professional grade technology that other places keep to the those who know how to use them. After navigating 2 miles of dirt track up to the observatory, we were treated to 3 hours of lectures but sadly no demos due to the cloudy nature of the sky that prevented us from stargazin that night. However, the lecture on how to find habitable planets outside of our solar system was fascinating, as was the debates we had around the Drake equation at the end of the night.
It’s a fabulous building, run by some pretty smart people. Go there and learn something, and if you can’t learn, just appreciate the magnificent views and the wonder of standing under a dark sky, one of the few opportunities you will have in this country.