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!

On 22-24 October 2009, the International Year of Astronomy 2009 Cornerstone Project, Galilean Nights, will see amateur and professional astronomers, enthusiasts and the public taking to the streets all around the globe, pointing their telescopes to the wonders that Italian astronomer Galileo observed 400 years ago.

Spread over three nights, astronomers will share their knowledge and enthusiasm for space by encouraging as many people as possible to look through a telescope at our planetary neighbours. The focus for Galilean Nights is the objects that Galileo observed, including Jupiter and the Moon, which will be well-positioned in the night sky for observing.

Galilean Nights runs just before Autumn Moonwatch in the UK (24 October until 01 November).

As part of Galilean Nights there is an astrophotography competition running on Flickr, closing date 27 October 2009

To celebrate the International Year of Astronomy 2009 Explorers of the Universe is a selection of photographs by Max Alexander, portraying all aspects of astronomy in the UK.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.