Coll Dark-sky Community

The Isle of Coll was designated a "Dark-sky Community" by the International Dark-sky Association (IDA) in December 2013. The Isle of Coll became the 2nd Dark-sky Place in Scotland and the 22nd Dark-sky Place world wide. This was quite an achievement for such a small community.

What does this mean? When you come to Coll you are guaranteed clear vistas of the night sky unspoilt by light pollution. Unfortunately, this is, of course, only if the weather permits and, sadly, there is nowhere in the West of Scotland that can guarantee clear weather ! However, Coll is amongst the best for clear skies, there are no high mountains to attract cloud build-up and we can often see, to the north and west, pendulous rainfalls over Rum, Mull and the mainland.

Of course it's difficult to admire the night sky mid summer, Coll is just too far north to have any real darkness through May, June and July. But, even the mid-night glows are worth coming to see and you may be lucky enough to experience the rare event of Noctilucent Clouds, night shining clouds of ice crystals some 80km above the island.

Second to the amazement of the Aurora is probably the Milky Way which can be seen as early as mid August as the nights noticeably draw in. The best times to see the Milky Way on Coll is explored here.

Although the IDA wished us to designate three specific locations for Dark-sky viewing, Coll is so un-light-polluted almost anywhere will do. In addition, Coll Community Centre together with Coll Bunkhouse run Dark-sky weekend events (Coll and the Cosmos) through the winter. These includes the visiting Cosmos Planetarium complete with things to do should it be cloudy.

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Coll's Sun & Moon rise/set times
Moon Rise -	21/11/2024 - 9:35pm
Moon Set -	21/11/2024 - 1:48pm
Sun Rise -	21/11/2024 - 08:24
Sun Set -	21/11/2024 - 15:59
Moon Stage	- waning
Illumination fraction	- 62%
Next new moon	- 6:22, 1 Dec 2024
Next full moon	- 9:02, 15 Dec 2024

A lot of useful stargazing information can be found at gostargazing.co.uk/