Peak District Dark Sky Project

[laser_jock99]

Not really in my patch but I came across this today:

Dark skies

The Night Sky

The night sky is inspiring, from the thousands of stars visible on a clear dark night, to the arc of nebulous light rising across the sky that is our Galaxy, the Milky Way. It is also amazing to think that with the naked eye we can view our neighbouring galaxy, Andromeda, which is 2.5 million light years away. However, over the past 100 years, our skies have become more difficult to view as they have become obscured by man-made light pollution. Unless we act now, there is the potential for future generations to grow up never experiencing the wonder and beauty of a truly dark night sky.

What is Light Pollution?

Light pollution is artificial light that shines where it is neither wanted nor needed. Not only does light pollution have an impact on people’s enjoyment of the night sky, it has also been shown to have an impact on quality of life, as well as wasting energy.

What we are doing?

The Peak District National Park is lived in and visited by many and is an area of the countryside that currently has some dark skies. We are working with others to ensure that our special landscapes and skies are there for future generations to enjoy. We are looking to pursue international recognition from the International Dark Sky Association for the quality of the National Park’s night skies, and we need your help.

How You Can Help

We would like you measure the darkness of the night sky between 31 December 2010 and 5 January 2011, or between 28 January and 2February 2011. Using this information we will be able to produce a map of night sky quality in and around the Peak District National Park. The darkness of the night sky can be measured by comparing how the constellation of Orion (the Hunter) appears where you are to a set of sky quality charts, and then letting us know via this website. A comprehensive set of instructions and sky quality charts can be found below.

[laser_jock99]

Seemingly related to the CPRE Star Count Week

http://www.cpre.org.uk/campaigns/landscape/light-pollution/start-count-week-2011

[Alkaid]

Dark skies in the Peak - that sounds good. Not too far from me, and probably easier than driving into the Yorkshire Dales.

The inherent problem here though is that the Peak is surrounded by bright cities. A fair chunk of the UK population live in this area. Manchester to the West, Sheffield to the East, Huddersfield to the North and Derby to the South.

Getting the light pollution under control will be hard, but anything to help this cause is a good thing.

Many thanks for posting this info.

Steve

[Glider]

EMS has been sending reps to the meetings, we have a thread running in our Cummunity page here on SGL.