By taking part in our Star Count Week, organised with the British Astronomical Association, you will be helping us to find out which part of the country has the darkest skies where the most stars can be seen. The results will help us highlight the problem of light pollution which is spoiling the natural beauty of the night sky.

Why does light pollution spoil our view of the stars?
Astronomer Darren Baskill from the University of Sussex, explains why it is a problem and what can be done in this slideshow.
Watch BBC slideshow: Dark sky stargazers

Be inspired by dramatic night sky images
Star Count 2012 slideshow

How to take part

You can do your Star Count on any day of the week, but preferably on one where there is no haze so you have the best chance of seeing the stars. It will be sufficiently dark from 7pm. You should make your count as soon as you see the constellation.

We are asking people to count stars within the constellation of Orion, which will be visible in the southern sky (the same direction that household satellite dishes face). The main area of the constellation is bounded by four bright stars. The star count should not include these four corner stars – only those within this rectangular boundary – but do include the stars in the middle known as Orion's three-star belt.

Please only submit one star count unless you are submitting other counts from different locations.

Tell us how many stars you counted
Once you have made a count of the number of stars you can see with the naked eye (not with telescopes), please complete our online survey form.
Use our online survey form to send us your results

We will show the results on our Star Count map and publish this on the website in the coming months so we can compare this with our Star Count maps of 2007 and 2011.
Star count map 2007 (1.5MB PDF)
Star count map 2011 (1.2MB PDF)