Dark Skies Bandwagon

[Beulah]

I am attempting to jump on the bandwagon that seems to be gaining momentum. With the Brecon Beacons, Exmoor and Northumberland having Dark Sky status, plus others gunning for it (Elan Valley), I thought it might be worth our effort writing to any AONB status areas to ask if they are aware of the current movement to protect the night sky.

AONB SITES

I'm sending a letter to my local AONB and am talking to the local head rangers.

Just a little person of little worth in the world but at least I tried...

[ronin]

There was an almost believable one for getting the area, or some of the areas, inside of the M25 defiend as a Darlk Sky, it read that Boris was passing legislation to have all the lights off at night in order to qualify.

It was so well written and knowing how Boris has these ideas that it was almost believable.

The problem is AONB's do not need to be dark, so they can be close to a town or city. I assume a DSS has requirements on the ambient light level and possibly distances to a light source associated with it.

[jnb]

Are there any standards for dark sky sites such as there might be for SSSI or is it purely aspirational in the same way that Brent declared themselves a nuclear free zone.

Even if AONBs do not themselves have to be dark it would be worth approaching them. Partly because it raises the visibility of the campaign, partly because it's the sort of organisation that would be sympathetic, partly because AONB are often largely rural so even if the entire area couldn't be dark there's no reason why DSS and AONB couldn't overlap. The only problem I could foresee is that if dark sky status becomes purely aspirational it leads to people believing that enough has already been done and no more effort is required.

[reddoss]

I am attempting to jump on the bandwagon that seems to be gaining momentum. With the Brecon Beacons, Exmoor and Northumberland having Dark Sky status, plus others gunning for it (Elan Valley), I thought it might be worth our effort writing to any AONB status areas to ask if they are aware of the current movement to protect the night sky.

AONB SITES

I'm sending a letter to my local AONB and am talking to the local head rangers.

Just a little person of little worth in the world but at least I tried...

Good luck with it, the more protected dark skies sites the better.

Are you doing this to try and boost astro-tourism in the area?

Are there any campsites in the area with electrical hook up that are not lit up at night?

[Beulah]

Yeah, there are a few....

I'm going to be trying them out next year and getting SQM readings. All going well, I'll publish my 'findings'.....

With regards to my weedy letter, there is reference to an increase in tourism around the year (it drops a lot in the winter obviously), and benefits to wildlife.