Dark Skies Ahead? Activities to Raise Awareness during the International Year of Astronomy

Mathematics – Logic

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Scientific paper

"Dark Skies as a Universal Resource” is one of 7 themes targeted for the International Year of Astronomy in 2009. The theme's goal is to raise public awareness of the impact of artificial lighting on local environments and the ongoing loss of a dark night sky as a natural resource for much of the world's population. To reach this goal, activities are being developed which highlight dark skies preservation issues 1) through new technology (e.g., programs at planetaria, blogging, podcasting); 2) at events such as star parties and observatory open houses; 3) in arts, entertainment and storytelling (e.g., art competitions, documentaries, lectures, native American traditions); 4) through unaided-eye and digital-meter star count programs involving citizen-scientists; and 5) by relating them to public health, economic issues, ecological consequences, energy conservation, safety and security.
A centerpiece of the Dark Skies theme is the unaided-eye and digital-meter versions of the GLOBE at Night program. The unaided-eye version directs citizen-scientists on how to observe and record the brightness of the night sky by matching its appearance toward the constellation of Orion with one of 7 stellar maps of different limiting magnitudes. For the "digital” version, low-cost meters are used by citizen-scientists to measure the integrated sky brightness. Data sets and maps of both versions are supplied on-line for further capstone activities.
In the presentation, we will outline the activities being developed as well as plans for funding, implementation, marketing and the connections to the global cornerstone IYA project, "Dark Skies Awareness".

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Dark Skies Ahead? Activities to Raise Awareness during the International Year of Astronomy does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Dark Skies Ahead? Activities to Raise Awareness during the International Year of Astronomy, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Dark Skies Ahead? Activities to Raise Awareness during the International Year of Astronomy will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1481084

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.