This week Galloway Forest Park formally submitted its application (pdf 7Mb) to become the UK's - and possibly Europe's - first International Dark Sky Park.

Galloway Forest Park is located in the south-west of Scotland, and has some of the darkest skies in the whole of Europe, and the value of these skies has been recognised Galloway Forest Park, who have undertaken to protect and preserve these skies for all their visitors.

To give you some idea how dark Galloway Forest Park's skies are, they are rated between 2 and 3 on the Bortle Scale. How dark are your skies?

The decision will be made by the International Dark Sky Association in mid-November, so watch this space!