About

Dark Skies UK is a consultancy delivering astronomy events, advice on dark sky designations and delivering high quality training to businesses wanting to tap into the expanding tourism market for stargazing.

Richard Darn sat on the working group that led to the designation of the Northumberland International Dark Sky Park and helped launch the Kielder Observatory.  He also co-founded the Kielder Forest Star Camp, ran a high profile astro tourism training project for the Animating Dark Skies Partnership called Star Tips and began outreach astronomy in Kielder Forest in 1998.  He continues to work with Northumberland Dark Sky Park and also the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors national parks, being part of the team that gained international dark sky reserve status for both in 2020. He works with tourism businesses and has appeared on BBC Sky at Night and Stargazing Live and has numerous TV and radio appearances to his credit. Aside from his dark sky work, he is an award winning media consultant who has worked for a wide range of high profile national clients.

“Richard is an excellent dark skies man – bringing marketing, tourism, training skills to a growing tourism market. He is easily able to adapt his style for any audience and has the expertise as an astronomer to delve into detail to delight and intrigue the audience when needed.”