Events in 2012

Around 36,000 of you have already taken part in Stargazing LIVE BBC-led events around the UK this year, and there are many more thousands attending partner-led events in your local area. There are hundreds of events and star parties being organised from Lands' End to Aberdeen with the help of partners around the country right up until the end of January.

Bringing together astronomical societies, museums and discovery centres, country parks and local authorities, these exciting events include planetarium shows, star parties, astrophotography, night walks as well as topical talks and discussions contributing to a national stargazing celebration.

FIND EVENTS NEAR YOU

Although all our Stargazing LIVE events are finished for 2012, many astronomical societies and science centres continue to run astro activities throughout the year. To find out more, visit the BBC's activity finder website Things To Do and see what's happening in your area.

• Find your nearest activities

PARTNER EVENTS

Amongst the hundreds of activities, Loughton Astronomical Society investigated the chaos of the Solar System, offering specific sessions for young astronomers; Birmingham brought sidewalk astronomy to the city; and Alvaston Park Friends hosted a star party featuring a real space rocket!

BBC EVENTS

As well as events run by partners throughout January, the BBC held some amazing events across each region of the UK. Thousands of you joined at Flag Fen; Greenwich celebrated 400 years of astronomy with loads of activities; Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland offered almost 20 miles of perfect darkness in which to pick out the most distant objects in our night sky; and stargazers everywhere collaborated to make the three nights truly memorable.

Special stargazing moments were created by the BBC and partners across the UK. One moment of particular note was a fantastic performance at Gibside Chapel by Sound Power Orchestra of a composition written by George Hastings.

• Watch the orchestra perform 'Stargazing'

BBC BIG SCREENS

On Saturday 14 January, BBC Big Screens ran a live-link to the Faulkes Telescope in Hawaii for a taste of the stars by day. Live images of deep space in all its beauty were projected across city centres at incredible Stargazing events in Norwich (Chapelfield Plain), Derry (Waterloo Place), Plymouth (Armada Way), Bradford (Centenary Square), Edinburgh (Festival Square), Woolwich (General Gordon Square), Birmingham (Victoria Square) and Swansea (Castle Square).

With loads of hands-on astronomical activities and an exclusive BBC interactive game specially created for Stargazing LIVE, there were some great responses all round. Visitors saw demos of some of the incredible star apps available and received news about more upcoming events, Star and Moon Guide and Planetary Activity Card handouts and a fun-filled lunchtime. If you've got news about what you saw and heard at your local Big Screen let us know.

• Read what happened at the Swansea Big Screen

THE GREAT BIG DULVERTON SWITCH-OFF

Dark Sky Discovery supported this event to help raise awareness around the importance of dark skies. Astronomer and Stargazing LIVE presenter Mark Thompson asked everyone in Dulverton to turn off their lights as part of the Great Big Dulverton Switch Off! The aim was to reveal the amazing dark skies and stars visible without any pollution from artificial light and to share these with the rest of the UK. Although it was cloudy it was still a great nigh as the whole village came together to make this unique event happen.

ORGANISE AN EVENT

Want to organise your own public event? If you're an events organiser keen to organise a star party, you might want to read this Sky at Night Magazine article Stargazing LIVE needs you! which offers top tips for getting started.

Stargazing LIVE resources were so popular that they're now all gone, but why not download the materials from the How To Guides section of this website and publicise your event with BBC Things To Do?

• BBC Things To Do activity maker