Categories: Astronomy

Join International Dark Sky Week (April 5-11, 2013)

Take the next few nights to celebrate the stars! The International Dark Sky Week is a worldwide event, and part of Global Astronomy Month – going on now! The goals of IDSW are to appreciate the beauty of the night sky and to raise awareness of how poor-quality lighting creates light pollution.

The International Dark-Sky Association says that light pollution is a growing problem: “Not only does it have detrimental effects on our views of the night sky, but it also disrupts the natural environment, wastes energy, and has the potential to cause health problems.”

Here are some ways that the IDA suggests how you can spread the word about IDSW during April 5-11 — as well and all year long:

Join IDA online! Post about dark skies awareness on the social media sites, and you can follow the IDA on Facebook, Twitter, G+ and any other social media you like. And if you would like to become a partner email ida@darksky.org to learn more. See a list of existing partners here.

Check around your home. Make sure your outdoor-lighting fixtures are well shielded — or at least angled down — to minimize “light trespass” beyond your property. Do you have security lights that stay on all night? Consider adding a motion-detector, which can pay for itself in energy savings in just a few months. You’ll find lots of great suggestions in “Good Neighbor Outdoor Lighting” and you can perform your own outdoor lighting audit.

Talk to your neighbors. Explain that bright, glaring lights are actually counterproductive to good nighttime vision. Glare diminishes your ability to see well at night, because the pupils of your eyes constrict in response to the glare — even though everything else around you is dark. Show them this handout.

International Dark Sky Week poster. Image courtesy Sean Parker Photography.

Ask your local library if you can put up an IDA poster showing good and bad lights. Include a photo of the Earth at night, and take some pictures around town that show examples of good and bad lighting.

Become a Citizen Scientist with GLOBE at Night and similar programs, observe light pollution wherever you are and contribute to reports coming in from across the globe about light pollution. Or join GLOBE at Night’s Adopt-A-Street program and ‘map’ light pollution in your community.

Become a Dark Sky Ranger. Teachers and families can do these activities that include an outdoor lighting audit, a game, and hands-on crafts to help visualize the night sky better. In English. In Portuguese.

Attend or throw a star party! International Dark Sky Week is a great opportunity to dust off the old telescope in your attic and use it share in the wonder of the universe with your family, friends, and neighbors. Visit the Night Sky Network to find a calendar of star parties or to find an astronomy club in your area. Click here to find out what’s up in the sky. This activity book is full of great activities for budding stargazers of all ages!

Photograph the sky and enter it in the 2013 International Earth and Sky Photo Contest, run by The World at Night, or photograph some constellations and submit the pictures to the Dark Skies Photo Project to measure light pollution.

Here’s a great video: “Losing the Dark,” IDA’s public service announcement:

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/

Recent Posts

Flowing Martian Water was Protected by Sheets of Carbon Dioxide

Mars' ancient climate is one of our Solar System's most perplexing mysteries. The planet was…

30 mins ago

Japan Launches the First Wooden Satellite to Space

Space debris, which consists of pieces of spent rocket stages, satellites, and other objects launched…

1 hour ago

You Can Build a Home Radio Telescope to Detect Clouds of Hydrogen in the Milky Way

If I ask you to picture a radio telescope, you probably imagine a large dish…

5 hours ago

A Space Walking Robot Could Build a Giant Telescope in Space

The Hubble Space Telescope was carried to space inside the space shuttle Discovery and then…

1 day ago

New Report Details What Happened to the Arecibo Observatory

In 1963, the Arecibo Observatory became operational on the island of Puerto Rico. Measuring 305…

2 days ago

We Understand Rotating Black Holes Even Less Than We Thought

The theory of black holes has several mathematical oddities. Recent research shows our understanding of…

2 days ago