More than 100 stargazers descended on Hadleigh Castle Country Park to catch a glimpse of distant planets and faraway solar systems.

Around 150 amateur astronomers turned up on Saturday night for the first of park's three winter stargazing events, and were relieved initial cloud cover cleared so they could get a better view of the skies.

The amateur astronomers were aided by experts from Southend Planetarium and the Castle Point Astronomy Club, who set up 22 telescopes to watch the stars.

For more on this story see tomorrow's Echo.