
We are a team of professional astronomers based in Northumberland who formed a social enterprise “AstroVentures CIC” to deliver stargazing experiences for the general public all over the UK, and for children in schools as part of our STEM and Mentoring programme. Download our Dark Sky Discovery Stargazing Guide here.
Our primary mission is to get as many of you to go stargazing with us as possible. We also support and deliver STEM and astronomy activities in schools, libraries and with the scouts/cubs/beavers/guides. As a social enterprise it is our goal to divert our profits (when we make them!) into these educational projects.
Based at the Battlesteads Dark Sky Observatory where we go stargazing 6-7 nights a week every week of the year and we host stargazing events across the UK, but we also take guests on guided tours of the cosmos at a variety of hotels, glamping sites and self catering accommodation.
Our goal is to get as many people as we can to go stargazing wherever and whenever they can – are you AstroCurious and do you want to give it a go?
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Roy Alexander BSc, FRAS, MInstP, IDA Delegate
Director of Learning, Lead Astronomer
Roy is a degree qualified planetary physicist and teacher who is passionate about teaching astronomy, physics and science who believes astronomy is about showing people something new and awesome in a telescope and seeing their reaction.
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Chris Duffy FRAS
Director, Lead Astronomer & Astrophotographer
Chris is the astrophotography director at AstroVentures and Director of Battlesteads Dark Sky Discovery Observatory and he is an expert astrophotographer and astronomy teacher with a passion for Dark Sky objects.
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Dr. Martin Kitching FRAS
Director, Lead Astronomer & Nightscape Photographer
Martin is the Director and Senior Guide at NEWT and a Director of AstroVentures and he divides his time between leading wildlife, landscape and photography day tours and delivering sessions on a range of astronomy topics for AstroVentures.
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Jimmy McPartland
Lead Astronomer & Astrophotographer
Jimmy has been looking up at the stars since he was a child and is fascinated with the workings of the cosmos, from the big bang and the first stars to black holes and supernovae. He also loves getting the most out of our everyday technology with mobile phone astrophotography.
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Dave Newton BSc FRAS
Lead Astronomer
Dave Newton is a degree qualified astrophysicist with a lifelong interest in astronomy and space. He loves to share his knowledge of the universe and the view through his telescope eyepiece. Dave’s interests include galaxies and the evolution of the universe. While being mostly a visual observer, he has been known to do some lunar photography with his smartphone.
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Our Work in the community
Astro Ventures is a social enterprise and as such we’re committed to giving back to the community. Our ultimate goal is to provide free of charge astronomy sessions to local schools and children’s groups. Hopefully we’ll be able to do this by building up a pot of money from our ticket sales but we’re also looking for donations and funds that we can access for this purpose.
If you have a children’s group that you think would enjoy a stargazing session, or if you’d like to donate, then please get in touch with us – we’d love to hear from you.