We teach the sky you actually get.

01 · WHY

Why the academy exists

Most astronomy teaching assumes a sky that few people in Britain see from home: deep black, steady, clear for a week at a time. Then a beginner steps into a suburban garden, sees an orange glow and a few dozen stars, and decides it is not for them.

We think the real sky is worth learning as it is. The Plough is still there over a town. The Moon and the planets cut through light pollution. A camera on a tripod pulls stars out of a sky that looks almost empty. Every course starts from what you can see where you live, and only then talks about what a darker site adds.

02 · HOW

How the courses are made

Each course is recorded and edited into short video lessons, grouped into units. Every lesson is tied to something you can do on a clear night: a pattern to find, a setting to change, a target to frame, a step of processing to repeat with your own data.

Lessons are filmed with the real sky wherever we can, with the chart, finder or screen shown beside it, and each unit ends with questions answered on screen. The courses sit on four shelves that follow where you stand under the sky:

1. I First nights out
2. II At the eyepiece
3. III The sky with a camera
4. IV Into the deep sky

03 · WHERE

Where we are

The academy is based in Newquay, on the north coast of Cornwall. The sea gives an open horizon to the west and north, and Atlantic weather gives plenty of practice at waiting for the cloud to break.

About an hour’s drive inland is Bodmin Moor, which was designated an International Dark Sky Landscape in 2017. It is a good example of what a protected dark sky looks like, and a reminder that most of us observe from somewhere much brighter, which is what the courses are written for.