South Downs sky at night

The key constellations to look out for are Orion the Hunter and Taurus the Bull, Cygnus the Swan, the Plough (Big Dipper), Cassiopeia and Andromeda (which has the Andromeda galaxy in it) and the Perseid Meteor shower in August.

Some of these constellations can only be seen during winter or spring. Websites and Apps can help you to find out the best times to visit and view the South Downs dark night skies, so you can promote highlights including meteor showers, comets, an eclipse and other celestial activity.

Stellarium, for example, is a free open source planetarium for your computer. Apps that you may find useful include Mobile Observatory, APOD or Polarfinder, which tells you where to align a telescope to the pole star.