Blog by Nick Higgett – Chair of Eden Valley and Penrith Astronomy Group

I have been chair of Eden Valley & Penrith Astronomy Group for about three years when I first started the group. It’s grown from a dozen people meeting in a small village hall in Morland to meetings with 20-25 people and over 300 Facebook group members. We currently meet at Basecamp North Lakes. Our Eclipse event there in August had over 250 people.

There are about 25 signed up members. We meet monthly on the 3rd Thursday of the month at 7pm. We also have monthly online astrophotography workshops. Our members are a mix of retired, working, and one who has just gone to university. We are totally inclusive and have both experts and novices and encourage and support members with additional needs.

Our astro society aims is to get people excited about astronomy. We love doing outreach events such as the eclipse in August of this year. It was great to see so many families there enjoying the solar spectacle. My most enjoyable aspect of being chair of the group is that I have been lucky enough to be on BBC Cumbria, Radio 5 Live and ITV Border recently, and it is a privilege to get the opportunity to talk about astronomy to a wider audience.

I mainly use my back garden in the Eden Valley as my stargazing spot due to it having great dark skies. I use a Smartscope which I can control from inside and keep warm if the weather outside is cold.

You don’t have to be an expert to join our astro society and we have equipment you can borrow. Members typically have either a traditional reactor or reflector, or Smartscope. Some have specialized astrophotography kit.

Events don’t always go to plan but when doing outreach we always have a backup presentation for cloudy skies. The usual disasters are when the data projector doesn’t work properly. At our first meeting the projector bulb blew.

Our biggest success would be the recent Eclipse event last August and fingers crossed, our new exhibition.

If you are interested in joining the astro society please come along and try it out and ask questions. Our group prides itself on being friendly. Providing tea and biscuits is vital. The social side is as important as the actual astronomy, I have made some great friends.

My favourite sites to observe are Seven Sisters, the Orion Nebula and Andromeda as they are easy and spectacular. Also meteor showers and comets. I’m keen to see planets through a big telescope. My favourite place in the North Pennines for stargazing is my back garden.

The Eden Valley and Penrith Astronomy Group has organised an interactive Astrophotography Exhibition, “Cosmic Cumbria”, at Rheged, Cumbria, which will take you on a cosmic journey from Earth through our Solar System to the outer reaches of the Milky Way and beyond to other Galaxies Far Far Away.

The Exhibition includes photography from Penrith & District Camera Club, Cockermouth Astronomical Society, Eddington Astronomical Society (Kendal) and Furness & South Lakeland Astronomical Society. It runs from 23 October 2026 to 8 February 2027.