Doonvarra Head Observatory, a dark-sky observatory

Everything in this brief is true of the business. You may quote it, paraphrase it and build on it. You may not add facts, prices, numbers, people, testimonials or quotes it does not contain.

The business in one breath

Doonvarra Head Observatory is a small dark-sky observatory on a headland on the west coast of Ireland. Twelve people at a time come out after dark, give their eyes twenty minutes, and see the night sky the way most people in Europe never see it: the Milky Way over the Atlantic, another galaxy with their own eyes, and Saturn's rings through a telescope. There is no town between the headland and the sea to the west, and no streetlight for eleven kilometres.

The astronomer: Orla Breen

• Orla runs every night herself. She is the only person behind the observatory, and she is the one who will meet you in the car park.
• She spent eleven years as a weather forecaster, reading the sky for other people. "I spent eleven years telling people what the sky would do. Now I show them what it's for."
• She chose the headland for its darkness before she had a telescope. On her best night she measured 21.8 on a sky quality meter. At that darkness the Milky Way is not a haze: you can see its dark lanes with your own eyes.
• Her line on the dark: "The dark here is the most valuable thing I own. I'd like to lend it to you for a night."
• Her line on weather: "Cloud is the only guest who never cancels." And: "I will never sell you a cloudy night."
• Her line on patience: "Give your eyes twenty minutes and they'll give you the Milky Way."
• She would rather move your booking than show you a grey sky and call it an experience.

The place

• The observatory sits on the end of Doonvarra Head, beside an old coastguard lookout built in 1940.
• A small dome holds the main telescope, a 14-inch reflector. Outside, on the viewing lawn, three smaller telescopes stand in a row, with deckchairs and blankets between them.
• The sea is on three sides. On a still night you can hear it below the cliff.
• The path from the car park to the lawn is level, 150 metres long, and edged with low red lights.
• Only red light is allowed after dark. Orla gives everyone a red torch and asks for phones to be switched to their dimmest red setting or put away. White light resets your eyes, and they take about twenty minutes to adjust again.
• There is tea, hot chocolate and a basket of woollen hats.

A sky night

• About two hours, starting after full darkness.
• Twelve guests at most.
• It starts on the lawn with no telescope at all: twenty minutes of letting your eyes adjust while Orla points out what is appearing, with a green laser pointer, as more and more stars come through.
• Then the telescopes. What you see depends on the season and the sky, and Orla chooses on the night. Things guests often see: - The Milky Way, across the whole sky over the sea, best in autumn. - The Andromeda Galaxy, 2.5 million light-years away, visible without a telescope as a faint smudge once your eyes have adjusted. The light you see left it 2.5 million years ago. - Saturn and its rings, in autumn and early winter. - The Orion Nebula, a cloud where stars are forming, in winter. - The Pleiades, a cluster of young stars, through the winter.
• Nights are best without the moon, so the calendar follows it.

The season, honestly

• Sky nights run from late August to mid-May, Thursday to Saturday.
• The observatory closes from mid-May to the end of July. At this latitude the sky never gets fully dark in those weeks: even at midnight, twilight hangs on the northern horizon.
• In late August the first sessions start at 22:30. In midwinter they start at 19:00.

Weather (the part everyone asks about)

• Orla checks the forecast at 4pm on the day of every session.
• If cloud is forecast, she emails everyone booked by 5pm, and you choose: move to another night, or a full refund.
• If the sky closes after you have arrived, you get a free second visit.
• She does not run a talk indoors instead. "If there's nothing to see, I'd rather you went home warm and came back."

Plain facts

• Price: €35 for adults, €18 for under-16s. Children aged 8 and over are welcome.
• Booking: online, for a named night. Booking opens for each month on the first of the month before.
• What to bring: more warm layers than you think. It is a headland in the Atlantic, and it is colder at night than it looks from the car.
• Access: the path is level and 150 metres long. One telescope has a low eyepiece that can be used from a chair.
• Cancellation by you: move your booking free up to 24 hours before. Inside 24 hours, it can still be moved if another guest takes your place.

Who reads this site, and what they are afraid of

• The couple or family looking for a special night. They want something they will remember. Afraid of: driving all the way out and seeing cloud, a cold, dull lecture, a tourist trap, children bored in the dark.
• The curious sceptic. Has seen astrophotos online and suspects the real thing is a grey smudge. Afraid of: being oversold, hype, photographs that promise more than the eye can see.
• The amateur astronomer. Owns binoculars or a small telescope and wants a genuinely dark sky and someone who knows it. Afraid of: being talked down to.
• All of them will be reading this at home, often with the lights on. Talk to them directly, as "you".

The voice

Calm, warm, a little wry, exact about what the eye can and cannot see. Short sentences. British English. Numbers only where they are real. Never says "breathtaking", "magical", "once in a lifetime", "unforgettable", "bucket list", "stunning" or "awe-inspiring". Would rather tell you honestly about the cloud than promise you the stars.

What the site must do

• Make the dark feel valuable, not just the stars. Most people have never been somewhere truly dark.
• Be honest about what the eye sees compared with photographs, and make the real thing more interesting for it (light that left Andromeda 2.5 million years ago).
• Answer the weather fear plainly: the 4pm check, the choice, the free second visit.
• Let Orla's character come through: a forecaster who knows the sky, honest about cloud, generous with the dark.
• Get the reader to book a sky night. One action, one label for it everywhere.

The page to build

One landing page (index.html). It may mention booking, the season and the contact details below, but link only to anchors on this page; show the rest as plain text.

• Contact: hello@doonvarra.ie. Orla answers every email herself.

The one thing to get right

When someone finishes scrolling, they should want to be standing on that headland in the dark, and trust that Orla will not waste their night.