International Dark Skies Week 13-19 April 2015

This week is International Dark Skies Week, 13-19 April 2015.

Created in 2003 by high-school student Jennifer Barlow, International Dark Sky Week has grown to become a worldwide event and a key component of Global Astronomy Month.

“I want people to be able to see the wonder of the night sky without the effects of light pollution. The universe is our view into our past and our vision into the future . . . I want to help preserve its wonder.” – Jennifer Barlow

This year’s International Dark Skies Week coincides with the International Year of Light, which makes it particularly appropriate.

Why not head outside at night and explore dark skies? You could head to any International Dark Sky Places. In the UK we have six:

• Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park
• Exmoor Dark Sky Reserve
• Sark Dark Sky Island
• Brecon Beacons Dark Sky Reserve
• Northumberland Dark Sky Park
• Coll Dark Sky Island

Any of these sites will provide excellent views (weather permitting!) of a real dark sky.

If none of these are convenient why not visit a Dark Sky Discovery Site near you. These are sites that have been identified by local communities as being convenient for stargazing, although they don’t have the light pollution control measures that the International Dark Sky Places do.

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International Dark Sky Week 20-26 April

Sunday marked the start of International Dark Sky Week 20-26 April 2014, a global initiative to get people out of towns and cities and seeing a night sky as it’s meant to be seen, unspoiled by light pollution.

City Lights To Dark Skies from Mark Gee on Vimeo.

Most of us live in urban environments these days, with the ever-present orange glow lighting the night sky. From my garden in Glasgow I can see only a few hundred start on a clear night. But if I traveled south by car for an hour down to Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park, or north by the same distance to Loch Lomond National Park, I’d count thousands of stars.

And then if I made more of an effort to get to the very darkest parts of our country (the heart of Galloway Forest, or Northumberland Dark Sky Park, or up to Coll Dark Sky Island) the number of stars would be overwhelming, too many to count.

At this time of year in the UK (especially in Scotland) you’ve got to wait until quite late to see the sky free of twilight (2230 in Exmoor Dark Sky Reserve for example, 2330 in Coll, and after midnight up in the Orkney Islands), but it’s worth making the effort if it’s clear.

If you do head out this week here are a few things to watch for:

 

The Lyrids meteor shower will reach its peak on 21/22 April but you might catch some early Lyrids in the days beforehand, and some after the peak; the darker your skies the more you’ll see.

Cygnus the Swan, and the other stars of the Summer triangle will be rising high in the east after midnight. In the right wing of the swan is the star Kepler-186, with the new-found twin Earth, known as Kepler-186f. The star is far, far too faint to see, even with a very powerful telescope, but you can still look in that direction and give a little wave.

 

Dark Sky Islands

There are only two International Dark Sky Islands in the world, and both of them are in the British Isles: Sark in the Channel Islands; and Coll in the Inner Hebrides.

Sark

Coll

They were designated by the IDA (the International Dark-sky Association) under their International Dark Sky Communities programme, Sark in 2011 and Coll in 2013.

These beautiful short films show what you’ll see on a clear night:

The Starry Skies of Sark from Sue Daly on Vimeo.

Isle of Coll – IDA Dark Sky Community from Ewan Miles on Vimeo.

I’ve visited both islands several times, and they’re beautiful places, and not just at night when the stars come out. They’re very different: Sark is lush, with hedgerows and country lanes, and at 49°25’N latitude its climate is very continental. Coll on the other hand is almost entirely treeless, it’s rugged, boasts long sandy beaches, and lies at 56°38’N. Contrary to common impressions of the weather on the west of Scotland, Coll is one of the sunniest parts of Scotland and so has, like Sark, a high number of clear dark nights.

And it’s on dark nights when these islands are at their most stunning. Now that summer’s on its way though the dark nights will shorten and eventually disappear altogether until autumn, so you’ve plenty of time to plan your visit. Sark has a longer dark sky season, running from August till mid-May, as opposed to Coll’s which runs from September till mid-April, but the nights are longer on Coll than on Sark during the darkest winter months, the best time for stargazing.

Make sure that if you’re going to Sark or Coll for stargazing that you avoid the bright moon. Ideally you would be there during a new moon or thin crescent; at the very least you should avoid the week on either side of the full moon. To maximise your chances of seeing the wonderful dark skies make sure you stay for several nights!

Northumberland and Coll: The Newest International Dark Sky Places

The International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) announced today it has designated two new International Dark Sky Places in the UK, including one representing the largest land area of protected night skies in all of Europe. This brings to six the total number of IDA International Dark Sky Places in the UK, second only to the United States.

IDA is proud to recognise Northumberland  Dark Sky Park and Coll Dark Sky Island for their exceptional efforts in helping preserve and promote dark night skies over Britain.  I have worked with both of these areas as a dark skies consultant, advising them on the process of achieving dark sky status. To date this puts the number of dark sky places that I have been heavily involved in to five; more than anyone else in the world, I think!

The reasons for these areas seeking dark sky status are many and varied. Off-season winter astronomy tourism is one main driver, while for councils the economic and environmental benefits of night-sky-friendly zero-waste lighting are paramount. Northumberland County Council have recently announced an investment of £24million to refit all public street lights in the county to energy efficient LED lights, fittings which pay back the initial investment within 6-8 years through reduced operating costs, and which have a significantly reduced carbon footprint, due to their efficiency and the fact that no light is wasted – it all shines down to the ground where it’s meant to be, rather than into the sky.

Stargazers at Cawfields, Northumberland Dark Sky Park

Northumberland International Dark Sky Park

A UK National Park and adjacent forestry plantation encompassing nearly 580 square miles (1500 km²) of public lands in northern England, Northumberland National Park and Kielder Water & Forest Park are the first IDA-recognized International Dark Sky Park consisting of two independent parkland units.

Once at the frontier of Roman Britain where Hadrian’s Wall repelled Pictish invaders, Northumberland International Dark Sky Park now serves as a bulwark against the incursion of harmful light pollution into one of the darkest locations in England.

With today’s IDA announcement, National Parks UK and Forestry Commission England adds dark skies to their portfolio of protected natural resources including the largest manmade woodland and reservoir in northern Europe. Kielder Forest provides Britain with 200 million board feet (475,000 m³) of timber annually.

The dark night sky attracts an increasing number of visitors to the region. Kielder Observatory, the UK’s largest and most active public observatory, widely promotes local astronomy events and activities. “Dark skies and astronomy have become a passion in the area,” according to Heidi Mottram, Chair of the Kielder Water and Forest Park Development Trust and Chief Executive of Northumbrian Water.

As both Northumberland National Park and Kielder Water & Forest Park began to vie independently for IDA recognition, it quickly became evident that two heads were better than one.  “It made perfect sense to work together to protect one of our greatest assets and make it available to more people,” Mottram said.

Park officials hope that protecting dark skies through the promotion of responsible outdoor lighting will increase the allure of Northumberland as a tourism destination.

“Becoming a Dark Sky Park will reinforce the status of Northumberland as an unspoiled destination offering a true sense of tranquility and wildness – a tonic in this day and age,” said Tony Gates, Chief Executive of Northumberland National Park.

Coll International Dark Sky Island

A sparse population and geographic isolation make the night skies over the Isle of Coll among the darkest in Europe. The island adopted a quality outdoor lighting management plan to ensure Coll remains dark for many future generations of residents and visitors.

Coll lies about six miles (10 km) west of coastal Argyll and hosts just over 200 residents. It attracts dozens of bird species according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which owns an extensive reserve at the west end of the island and hosts one of Coll’s recognized night sky viewing sites on its land. Nature tourism in part draws thousands of visitors to the island each year.

“Achieving dark skies status will be great for the island in many ways,” Julie Oliphant, hotelier at the Coll Hotel, explained. “Not only will it ensure that any future development on the island is done in a way that protects Coll’s natural and unspoiled beauty, but it will also help promote winter tourism.”

Fred Hall of the Argyll and Bute Council echoed the sentiment. “The Isle of Coll is a unique island in many ways, not least of which is its beautiful countryside and sea views but also the lack of light pollution,” he said. “I can think of no better island in the inner Hebrides to gain the Dark Skies accolade.”

Northumberland  is IDA’s thirteenth International Dark Sky Park, while the Isle of Coll becomes the world’s fifth International Dark Sky Community. They join four existing International Dark Sky Places in Britain: Galloway Forest Park in Scotland, Isle of Sark in the Channel Islands, Exmoor National Park in England, and Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales.

If you’re interested in gaining dark sky status for your area, then get in touch!

Stargazing Weekend Breaks 2013-14

There’s a great piece in Guardian Travel today about stargazing breaks in and around Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park. The article was written by Kevin Rushby, who visited the park earlier this year, and who I took out stargazing on a beautiful night.

It really is an amazing place, and on a clear winter’s night you can see thousands of stars, the Milky Way, shooting stars, nebula, galaxies, satellites… and much more.

But for most people the night sky is a confusing place, and having a guide to lead you around is an ideal way to begin stargazing. (Ahem! A good guide book is handy too…) I run regular stargazing weekends and evenings at a number of hotels near Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park (and one down in Exmoor!) over the course of the winter. Here are the dates for the weekends I have planned for this coming winter:

1-3 November 2013 Selkirk Arms Hotel, Kirkcudbright
29 November – 1 December 2013 Kirroughtree House Hotel, Newton Stewart (SOLD OUT)
6-8 December 2013 Kirroughtree House Hotel, Newton Stewart
31 January 2013 – 2 February 2014 Yarn Market Hotel, Exmoor
28 February – 1 March 2014 Kirroughtree House Hotel, Newton Stewart
28-30 March 2014 Selkirk Arms Hotel, Kirkcudbright

I also run bespoke stargazing nights at Glenapp Castle, Ballantrae.

Light Pollution and the Loss of Wilderness

Today marks the 175th anniversary of the birth of John Muir, the Scottish-born American naturalist, writer, and advocate for the preservation of wild land.

The protection of our wildernesses landscapes (defined as anywhere you cannot see the intrusion of human activity) is more important than ever, with the spread of suburbia and the urbanisation of more than 50% of the world’s population.

But one measure of what makes a wilderness has to-date been largely ignored: that of the darkness of the night sky. After all, if you can see the sky glowing orange at night then you are seeing the intrusion of human activity, and you can’t consider the land you’re in a true wilderness.

John Muir’s legacy as the founding father of the conservation movement lives on today, in part in the organisation The John Muir Trust.

The JMT estimates that the amount of Scotland’s landscape that is wilderness is rapidly diminishing, dropping from 31% of Scotland to 28% between 2008 and 2009, but I think if you added in the spread of man-made light pollution the situation would be decidedly worse.

I am fortunate to have been awarded the JMT’s Bill Wallace award to help fund a trip later this year (once the skies get dark again after the bright summer nights) to map light pollution in one of Scotland’s most wild landscapes, between the JMT properties of Quinag and Sandwood Bay.

Hopefully this project – the first of its kind in this remote area – will shed some light on the problem of the loss of our wilderness nightscapes.

The Return of Darkness

With summer coming to an end in the British Isles we start the return to the dark skies of autumn and winter. Depending on where you are in the country you will have been without truly dark skies for many weeks, maybe even months, as summer evening twilight lasts throughout the night during the summer.

This all-night-long twilight is almost gone throughout the UK, indeed anywhere on the mainland UK can see astronomically dark skies around 1am at the moment. Only the furthest north outpost of the British Isles still doesn’t have that opportunity.

On the island of Unst, the furthest north of the Shetland islands, lies the UK’s furthest-north town, Skaw, at 60°49’N and 00°47’W. This tiny village will see astronomical darkness return at 0043 on 24 August, lasting only 46 minutes until at 0129 the sun’s light begins to creep into the sky again.

Midsummer sunset (at 2241) from Unst. Image Credit Brydon Thomason, Shetland Nature Ltd.

The last time that astronomical darkness was seen at Skaw was on 18 April, over four months ago! Indeed this settlement is so far north that between around 13 and 29 June each year they never get out of civil twilight, meaning that the sky’s bright all night long!

Compare this with the furthest south town in the British Isles, Saint Clement in Jersey, in the Channel Islands. Astronomical darkness returned to Saint Clement on 4 July this year, having been absent since 8 June; only four weeks without true darkness!

Such is the effect of differences in latitude that these two settlements, separated by 1299 km, have such hugely different seasonal swings between summer and winter.

 

 

Scottish Dark Sky Observatory

Last Saturday night I visited the site of the soon-to-be-open Scottish Dark Sky Observatory. Sitting on a hill top in Craigengillan Estate near Loch Doon, this stunning new public observatory lies on the edge of Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park, under some of the darkest skies in the UK.

At the moment the observatory is still under construction, and is due to open in a few months time, at the start of this winter dark sky season. It will be open to the public and school groups for day-time and night-time visits.

The site itself is wonderful, and the observatory is nestled amongst the graggy hill tops east of Ness Glen, just south of the small town of Dalmellington on the A713.

The Scottish Dark Sky Observatory, with Dalmellington 4km to the north

The observatory will include a fully robotic 20” Corrected Dall Kirkham telescope in a 5m dome, operated from either of two control rooms; a roll-off-roof observatory with a 10” SCT for a more hands-on, out in the open observing experience; a multi-purpose lecture room served by a toilet and kitchen and an “outdoor classroom” in the form of an elevated observing deck from which to enjoy the experience of naked-eye observation. Facilities will be provided for amateur astronomers to set up their own equipment and have access to the toilet and kitchen facilities. It will be open to the public, amateur astronomers and to schools and universities, with the aim of inspiring people of all ages and all backgrounds with a sense of wonder at the vastness and beauty of the heavens and the revelation of man’s place within the universe.

The Observatory was the brain child of Craigengillan Estate owner Mark Gibson and the Renfrewshire Astronomical Society (RAS). A member of the RAS, Colin Anderson, is an architect and he designed the buildings. It’s a tribute to Mark, Colin, and others in the RAS that this project is even possible, and I for one cannot wait to observe from their incredible new observatory.

The Scottish Dark Sky Observatory and its neighbouring scout fort!

Solar panels

International Dark Sky Places

The global family of International Dark Sky Places – areas with stunning night skies and exemplary lighting controls to preserve those skies – has grown again recently, with the addition of some huge parks and reserves. There are currently (as of June 2012) 18 places around the world that satisfy the International Dark-sky Association‘s (IDA) requirements.

The Church of the Good Shepherd, Aoraki Mackenzie IDSR Image by Fraser Gunn

I’ve been lucky enough to visit 12 out of these 18 incredible places, including the two most recent additions to the IDA family, NamibRand Nature Reserve in Namibia, and Aoraki Mackenzie in New Zealand, both of which have been awarded International Dark Sky Reserve status this year.

The IDA has three different designations: International Dark Sky Park (IDSP), International Dark Sky Reserve (IDSR), and International Dark Sky Community (IDSC).

IDSPs are areas of public land that are near-empty wildernesses, and which have enacted strict controls of outside artificial lighting throughout the entire park. There are currently ten IDSPs.

IDSRs are large areas centred on a dark sky core, a significant area – an observatory, say – in need of protection against light pollution, and a 15km-minimum buffer zone around that core, encompassing surrounding communities. The communities in the buffer zone have lighting controls that help minimise light pollution in the core area. There are currently four IDSRs.

IDSCs are communities – cities, towns, villages, islands – that have enacted exemplary lighting controls to limit the spread of light pollution into their night skies. There are currently four IDSCs.

The following table has some information about the various International Dark Sky Places:

Name	Location	Park Area	Designation	Year Designated
Aoraki Mackenzie	New Zealand	4300 km2	Reserve	2012
Big Bend National Park	Texas, USA	3242 km2	Park	2012
Borrego Springs	California, USA	110 km2	Community	2009
Cherry Springs State Park	Pennsylvania, USA	4.3 km2	Park	2008
Clayton Lake State Park	New Mexico, USA	1.9 km2	Park	2010
Exmoor National Park	England, UK	692 km2	Reserve	2011
Flagstaff	Arizona, USA	255 km2	Community	2000
Galloway Forest Park	Scotland, UK	780 km2	Park	2009
Geauga Observatory Park	Ohio, USA	4.5 km2	Park	2011
Goldendale Observatory State Park	Washington, USA	0.2 km2	Park	2010, provisional
The Headlands of Emmet County	Michigan, USA	2.2 km2	Park	2011
Homer Glen	Illinois, USA	58 km2	Community	2011
Hortobagy National Park	Hungary	800 km2	Park	2011
Mont Megantic	Quebec, Canada	5000 km2	Reserve	2008
NamibRand Nature Reserve	Namibia	1722 km2	Reserve	2012
Natural Bridges National Monument	Utah, USA	31 km2	Park	2006
Sark	Channel Islands, UK	5.4 km2	Community	2011
Zselic Landscape Protection Area	Hungary	90.4 km2	Park	2009

 

The Starlight Declaration

I recently attended the Third International Starlight Conference held by the Starlight Initiative near Lake Tekapo, New Zealand. The conference brought together a huge range of specialists who seek to limit the excesses of light at night, and the venue sat in the recently-announced Aoraki / Mount Cook International Dark Sky Reserve (IDSR) in New Zealand’s stunning south island.

The beauty of the night sky from somewhere like Tekapo is astounding, and the IDSR status will help keep it that way, limiting the amount of lighting that can spill into the sky from the surrounding communities. Under such starry skies it’s easy to understand why we’d want to protect them, but for most of the population of the planet starlight is becoming increasingly more elusive.

To help emphasise the importance of a dark starry sky the conference looked to build upon a document written at the first Starlight Conference in La Palma, in 2007, the Starlight Declaration in Defence of the Night Sky and the Right to See the Stars.

The Starlight Declaration states:

a. An unpolluted night sky that allows the enjoyment and contemplation of the firmament should be considered an inalienable right equivalent to all other socio-cultural and environmental rights. Hence the progressive degradation of the night sky must be regarded as a fundamental loss.

b. Knowledge—armed with education—is a powerful vector that can heal the growing rift between today’s society and science and contribute to the advancement of mankind as a whole. The dissemination of astronomy and of the scientific and associated cultural values should be considered as basic contents to be included in educational activities.

d. Control of obtrusive light must be a basic element of nature conservation policies since they impact on several species, habitats, ecosystems, and landscapes.

c. Protection of the astronomical quality of areas suitable for the scientific observation of the Universe must be given priority in national and international scientific and environmental policies.

e. The intelligent use of artificial lighting that minimizes sky glow and avoids obtrusive visual impact on both humans and wildlife should be promoted. This strategy would involve a more efficient use of energy so as to meet the wider commitments made on climate change, and for the protection of the environment.

f. Tourism, among other players, can become a major instrument for a new alliance in defence of the quality of the nocturnal skyscape. Responsible tourism, in its many forms, can and should take on board the night sky as a resource to protect and value in all destinations.

Necessary measures should be implemented to involve all parties related to skyscape protection to raise public awareness—be it at local, regional, national, or international level—about the contents and objectives of the International Conference in Defense of the Quality of the Night Sky and the Right to Observe Stars, held in the Island of la Palma.

Dated 20 April 2007, La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain