Northern lights glow green and purple above a lake, reflecting the colours and a star-filled night sky.

Embleton Quarry Nature Reserve is designated as a Northumberland Coast AONB Dark Sky Site.
The quarry’s rural location, away from larger towns, means that the influence of light pollution is reduced. As a result the sky is darker with more stars visible. This naturally dark sky provides perfect conditions for Stargazing.

The quality of night sky viewing from the quarry can be excellent. On moonless nights the Milky Way is visible to the naked eye. You may also see large features like the Orion Nebula (this appears as a fuzzy star with the naked eye). With binoculars or a telescope more can be seen, so
the structures of some galaxies and nebulae become visible.

Given the correct set of conditions the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) can sometimes be seen from the quarry. To see this requires a strong solar storm combined with a dark, moonless and cloud free sky.
Night sky at Embleton Quarry: stars and Milky Way above, northern lights and stargazing area below.
If visiting the quarry at night to look at the stars please take care and use torches for access.
When you arrive at the Stargazing Area turn your torches off and then give your eyes 10 minutes to adjust. As your eyes slowly adapt to the darkness you will see more and more pinpoints of light in the night sky !

Embleton Quarry Nature Reserve has a sky quality rating of Bortle 4. The Sky Quality Meter reading for the Nature Reserve is 21.4; this indicates a good quality dark sky.

The Horsehead Nebula glows in space, with bright stars and pinkish nebula clouds against a dark sky.