Satellite maps of England’s light pollution and dark skies, released by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), show that Cornwall ranks as the fourth darkest county out of all 41 in England.

The maps, produced using satellite images captured at 1.30am throughout September 2015, show that Cornwall has a high percentage of dark skies with minimal light pollution – 73.4 per cent of the skies above the county fall into the two darkest categories, compared with 66.8 per cent for the South West region as a whole.

The CPRE says this is great news for the bid to gain International Dark Skies status for Bodmin Moor.