Valentine’s stargazing: Northumberland coast ranked among top UK destinations

The Northumberland coast has been ranked among the UK’s top locations for a romantic stargazing date.
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With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, TheDozyOwl.co.uk were eager to find out the best location in the UK to go stargazing with your loved one.

Coming in top is Tresco on the Scilly Isles with a rank score of 99.38 out of 100. The remote island location is ideal for stargazing as it has a Bortle Scale classification of 1. This rating allows stargazers to see the Triangulum Galaxy, 2.73 million light-years from Earth, with the naked-eye.

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Second on the list is Glen Brittle on the Isle of Skye (with a rank score of 99.33) which is an area of the famous remote Scottish island well known for its natural beauty. Glen Brittle has a SQM reading of 22.00, the highest possible score for this metric, meaning the area has no light pollution at all.

The Northern Lights at Holy Island by Jane Coltman.The Northern Lights at Holy Island by Jane Coltman.
The Northern Lights at Holy Island by Jane Coltman.

In joint third place is Loch Lomond and the Northumberland coast with Bamburgh and Lindisfarne Castle, both with a rank score of 95.26.

Following is Llanddwyn Island (rank score of 93.17),Tintagel Castle (rank score of 93.13) and Portmeirion (rank score of 91.09), respectively ranking fifth, sixth and seventh.

*Methodology:

A seed list of 25 of the most commonly recommended, romantic locations for stargazing was created from various websites. The study only included locations mentioned in more than one article and took the most specific location mentioned.

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Using lightpollutionmap.info, readings for the Bortle scale (class 1 - 9), SQM (mag./arc sec2) and artificial brightness (µcd/m2) were collected for each location.

A rank score out of 100 was created for each location, summarising the three readings into a final score, by using the average percentrank formula on the three variables, uncovering the best location in the UK to stargaze.

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