North Rhine-Westphalia: Explore the night sky with star guides in the Eifel

Who remembers the constellations in the night sky? In the Eifel, the view of the firmament is particularly good.

North Rhine-Westphalia: Explore the night sky with star guides in the Eifel

Who remembers the constellations in the night sky? In the Eifel, the view of the firmament is particularly good. Because there is little scattered light that clouds the view upwards.

Nettersheim (dpa / lnw) - In the Eifel, star guides go on tour at night: the trained nature guides provide information on tourist tours about the stars in the sky and our planetary system. The first appointment at Nettersheim starts on Saturday when it gets dark.

Further star tours are initially planned until the end of December. You start at easily accessible hiking car parks in Dahlem, Mechernich, Hellenthal, Nettersheim or Nideggen. "From here you can quickly immerse yourself in the darkness of the Eifel nights and even admire the Milky Way with your own eyes at suitable observation times," explains the North Eifel Nature Park.

The project uses a special feature in the sparsely populated, densely wooded area on the border with Belgium: there is little scattered light from settlements, and the nights are dark. When the sky is clear, you can often see the Milky Way, which usually remains invisible in the city because of the many light sources. For more than ten years, the Eifel region has been committed to preserving natural darkness, among other things through the use of street lamps that emit little scattered light.

In recent years, the star guides have been trained at the North Eifel Nature Park. The strictly protected Eifel National Park is not entered during the guided tours. The tours are based in the nature park surrounding the national park. "When selecting the type of guide, the protection of nocturnal nature with its valuable nocturnal habitats was particularly important to us," says Harald Bardenhagen, trainer of the star guides and operator of the observatory on the international Vogelsang square, a former Nazi Ordensburg in the Eifel.

The sky should be viewed with the naked eye or with binoculars. Up to 15 participants can take part in each tour. "The first bookings have already been received without a large application in advance," says Peter Gieseler from the North Eifel Nature Park.