Dark skies boost for West Berkshire stargazers

District in top third in England for black sky at night

WEST Berkshire’s skies are becoming better for stargazing and are in the top third of darkest skies in England.

The district was ranked as the 100th darkest out of the 326 districts in England, based on information from the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England’s (CPRE) Dark Skies campaign.

The campaign urges the public and councils to protect views of the night sky in rural areas and discover the impact of light pollution.

The data measures the level of radiance (night light) shining up into the night sky and is calculated from the mean value of night lights.

West Berkshire Council has embarked on a £7m scheme to replace street lights with LED lighting, a move welcomed by Newbury Astronomical Society member Steve Harris.

He said: “We don’t get that orange glow in the sky, you can actually see a darker sky from Thatcham now, which is good.”

Although West Berkshire was placed in the top third, neighbouring districts were found to be darker.

Wiltshire was placed 48th, Basingstoke and Deane 84th, while the Vale of White Horse came 95th, with Reading 283rd.

Mr Harris said that there were plenty of good places in West Berkshire for glimpses of darker skies in the district, including along the Ridgeway.

“I go to a friend’s house in Kintbury, just that seven or eight kilometres away from Newbury, and the sky is black as velvet in winter-time,” he said. “The sky is so full of stars it’s difficult to make out the constellations.”

The CPRE recommends that local authorities should develop policies to protect dark skies areas and ensure that new developments do not increase light pollution.

A spokesman for West Berkshire Council, Martin Dunscombe, said: “Comparatively speaking, our skies are dark, with West Berkshire in the top third of districts in the country and the third darkest sky across Berkshire.

“Light pollution varies across districts depending on, amongst other things, levels of development. Across West Berkshire we have urban areas, including Newbury, Thatcham and Hungerford, which will inevitably cause some light pollution.

“We’re also lucky to have large rural areas and, in these areas and away from development, our skies are darker.”

The data was gathered by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration in September 2015.

At a county level, Berkshire was ranked as the 39th darkest county out of 41 in England.

Neighbouring counties again fared better, with Hampshire 23rd, Wiltshire 12th and Oxfordshire 18th.

Mr Harris said that Berkshire’s densley populated areas in the relatively small county had accounted for the high ranking.