Children Reach for the Stars

CPRE and the Cannock Chase National Landscape Partnership join forces every year to run a free stargazing night for children from Scouting and Girlguiding units. This year’s event was held at the Wolseley Centre, with added activities, including a bat walk.

Over the past three years, we’ve given children and teenagers from Scouting and Girlguiding units the opportunity to learn all about the wonders of the night sky at our free stargazing events.

Thanks to generous funding from the Cannock Chase National Landscape Partnership, children have had the chance to look through a high-powered telescope. As well as providing great views of the night sky,  professional astronomers from Keele University’s Observatory explained why it’s important to reduce light pollution.

A starry night sky and the wonder of the Milky Way is one of the most magical sights the countryside can offer, connecting people to an important part of our natural heritage. Sadly, many people don’t get to experience this beauty due to light pollution. As well as reducing our ability to see the stars, light pollution has serious impacts for wildlife.

Cannock Chase is a nationally and internationally important landscape, and its relative wildness and tranquillity lies at the heart of its natural beauty. Darkness at night is an integral part of a landscape, which adds to its beauty and sense of remoteness. As a very small National Landscape, sitting between the towns of Stafford, Rugeley, Cannock and Burntwood, its relatively dark skies are significantly affected by light spilling in from the surrounding towns. We want dark skies to be conserved and enhanced, along with the rest of the National Landscape.

To help to achieve this, a new Good Lighting Guide demonstrates how simple changes by the way we light our homes, businesses and neighbourhoods can have big impacts. It provides information and advice to individuals, businesses and decision makers interested in reducing and avoiding light pollution so that we keep Cannock Chase special.