Exmoor Dark Skies Children’s Competition 2025 Winners

Exmoor National Park is delighted to announce the winners of its competition to design a ‘Dark Skies Park Protector’.

The brief asked children to design a character that would defend Exmoor’s population and nocturnal wildlife from light pollution - the adverse effect of artificial light on the environment.

After a number of weeks of intensive deliberating for our judges, Jo Richardson from Space Detectives and light pollution expert Julie Layzell from Exmoor National Park Authority (ENPA) the winner is revealed:

First place went to Ellie W of Minehead Middle School who designed ‘Felix’. ‘Felix’ has big wings and a nose to sense light. His powers enable him to turn bright lights off and keep the Exmoor Skies dark. The judges said this was a great design and consideration was clearly given to light pollution management across the Exmoor National Park. Ellie won a  StarSense Explorer Telescope  kindly donated by Celestron.

The Runner Ups were Natalie F and Betsy C with Highly commended awarded to Milo M, Jacob H, Leo B and William H (see some of the entries in the video shortlist below).

Julie Colman, Rural Enterprise Coordinator for Exmoor National Park said:

“Exmoor has some of the darkest skies in the country, so the idea was for children to really think about how they could help us protect them through their character. We were overwhelmed by the number of entries we received and also the creativity of the artwork and ideas. The entries were marked on both the quality of the piece and the level of consideration for how the character would tackle the issue of light pollution. It proved a very difficult decision for our judges as there were so many exceptional entries. We would like to congratulate all the children that took part and thank our two judges Jo Richardson from Space Detectives and our very own Landscapes Office Julie Layzell as well as our Dark Skies Festival Sponsor this year BMW Vertu Bridgwater”.

Why light pollution matters

Light pollution' refers to the adverse effect of artificial light on the environment. It is usually characterised by the orange “sky glow” that is produced above our towns and cities. This is caused by street lights and glare from lighting that spills beyond its intended lit area. We all rely on artificial light to live our lives, but badly designed lighting wastes energy, can disrupt wildlife, impact human health and prevents us from enjoying our night skies. Here on Exmoor, we are working together to make sure that lighting is well designed, efficient and does not affect our wonderful dark skies.