International Dark Sky Reserve
An off-grid field with nothing switched on above it
We invite you to join us in the heart of an International Dark Sky Reserve.
Tonight at the field
Waxing crescent
8% lit · new moon in 27 days
Stargazing
43
Fair
- Dark from
- 20:22
- Light again
- 05:52
- Cloud now
- 96%
2016
Designated
The South Downs National Park became an International Dark Sky Reserve in May 2016, the world's thirteenth.
10 acres
No hook-ups
An off-grid field with no electric hook-ups means no pitch-side glare, which is most of what ruins a dark site.
Both sides
Pod roofs open
Every Landpod roof opens on both sides, so you can sleep under the stars without leaving the bed.
The next ten nights
Pick a dark one
Scored on cloud cover and moonlight together, because those are the two things that actually decide whether you see anything. Cloud counts for more: a full moon on a clear night still gives you constellations, while total overcast gives you nothing.
Best in the window: Mon 24 Aug, scoring 64
| Night | Moon | Cloud | Dark from | Stargazing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun 16 Aug | Waxing crescent · 14% | 80% | 20:22 | |
| Mon 17 Aug | Waxing crescent · 22% | 66% | 20:20 | |
| Tue 18 Aug | First quarter · 31% | 94% | 20:18 | |
| Wed 19 Aug | First quarter · 41% | 73% | 20:16 | |
| Thu 20 Aug | First quarter · 52% | 33% | 20:14 | |
| Fri 21 Aug | First quarter · 62% | 37% | 20:12 | |
| Sat 22 Aug | Waxing gibbous · 72% | 28% | 20:10 | |
| Sun 23 Aug | Waxing gibbous · 81% | 19% | 20:08 | |
| Mon 24 Aug | Waxing gibbous · 89% | 7% | 20:06 | |
| Tue 25 Aug | Waxing gibbous · 95% | 33% | 20:04 | |
Proposed, not on your site today
This planner is our proposal, not something on your site today. The forecast is real, from the Open-Meteo service, and the moon is calculated rather than fetched. What is worth noticing is the shape of the demand it creates: the darkest nights are almost always midweek, which is exactly when a field of 76 pitches has room.
Dark sky manners
Most of these are the quiet hours rule wearing different clothes. One white torch resets the whole field's night vision, the same way one speaker resets the quiet.
- Red light only after dark. Your eyes take twenty minutes to adapt and one white torch resets everyone on the field.
- Point head torches at the ground, not at the horizon.
- Quiet time is 10pm to 7am, which happens to be the best of the night sky.
- Let the fire burn down before you look up. Flame in your peripheral vision costs you a magnitude.
Through the season
The field is open from the first Saturday before Easter to the end of September, which covers the worst and the best of the observing year.
- April and May
- Leo and Virgo overhead, with the Lyrid meteors around the 22nd of April.
- June and July
- Short nights and long twilight, but the core of the Milky Way sits low in the south.
- August
- The Perseids peak around the 12th, and the nights are finally properly dark again.
- September
- The best of the season: dark by nine, Andromeda visible to the naked eye on a clear night.
Sleep under it without leaving the bed
Both sides of every Landpod roof open. On a clear night that is the whole point of the pod, and it is why the darkest weeks of the season are worth booking rather than avoiding.
Book a dark one
The best nights for stars are almost always the quietest nights on the field.