The tiny island of shooting stars.

The headline of the article I've read is "The tiny island of shooting stars". It's written by Norman Miller and published in www.bbc.com on November 25. The main purpose of the article is to give the readers some information about the beautiful little island in Great Britain - The Channel Island of Sark. 

The author starts his story by describing the atmosphere he was in - a dense darkness, shooting stars crossing the night sky of Sark, bells tolling from an invisible church. He mentions that Sark is located just 25 miles west of France’s Normandy coast and there're 600 inhabitants, but no cars or street lights. This island has the award for counteracting light pollution from The International Dark-Sky Association (IDA). 

Then Norman tells about its observatory for star gazers, which was opened in October. He adds with irony, that it has nothing in common with hi-tech white-domed buildings. Sark's observatory is just a wooden tiny shed in the corner of a farmer's field. The author shares his impressions of being there  with Annie Dachinger (chair of the Sark Astronomy Society), peering heavenward through a simple, sliding roof. She told him about her interest in the stars and science fiction since childhood, and now she's one of those who want to form astronomy society and develop Sark's potential. She also told, that peolple in this observatory can see Mars, Orion in its full magnifience, Betelgues, Rigel, the Pleiades and Cassiopeia!

According to the author's opinion, this place is distinctive not just because of stars, but and for other special things. For example, the ban on street lights means that any night-time walks are generally led by torchlight, while the lack of cars means people get around by foot, bicycle or horse-drawn carriage. He describes wonderful old buildings, where lived and got inspiration different English writers from 16th century till nowadays. Miller stresses, that on November 20, shortly after his visit, the Irish musician Enya put a new album inspired by Sark.   

In conclusion, he mentions a qoute from the poem "Lucifer in Starlight", where stars are called as "the brain of heaven", and then the author finishes with describing of his heading out into a magical darkness field with ligth.  

This article was very interesting to read for me. I like such stories, which are written by travellers and I also spend a lot of time staring at the night sky, especially in summer. I'd like to travel more and visit not just famous places like European capitals, but such as this little island too, where no crowds of people and high-technologies. The author gives enough information to learn about this place and adds amazing pictures to catch your attention and make you want to pack bags and go somewhere. So, the question for my groupmates is "What places in the world would you like to visit primarily?".