Will amateur astronomy die?

Theres alot of them around frank....they put a private estate in the county here in waterford and by god every house init has them look at my house lights....

i grew up in the area there was a time it was a dark sky but its gone with this one estate an i wouldnt mind theres only around 20 houses at most :x

as an evironmentalist as well as someone with a keen interest in astronomy. I also weep at the increase in light pollution in Ireland. I believe that as a nation we are way behind most of northern europe when it comes to these matters. In a land where the term "green belt" is meaningless and we call a hedgerow a "ditch" - we have a long way to go. Although perhaps as some have suggested - cost of lighting and energy will mean swithing off of non-essential lights at night. But if you think we are bad....look at northern Germany or Italy on the light pollution map.. :shock:

"keep looking up and pray for power cuts" (occasionally)

declan

But if you think we are bad....look at northern Germany or Italy on the light pollution map.. :shock:

All the more reason to be active in campaigning. Cinzano's map is now 10 years old and we are a lot more like Germany than in shows I suspect.

Why not travel to the Inishbofin Island in the far west and do some observing from Pristine skies:

www.inishbofin.com/index.html

No light pollution for thousands of miles of open ocean to your South, West and North, and none from the east either (Little Cleggan Village 13km away over the sea does not “light pollute” much. The Commemara Mountains block all light from the east of Ireland.).

You can point southwards from Inishbofin across the span of the North and South Atlantic Oceans towards Antarctica, and not one piece of dry land lies between you and Antarctica at the other end of the planet.

Then sweep your aim westwards along the horizon until you are pointing almost due North, towards Iceland.

Across that almost 180 degree span NO land lies within thousands of kilometres of you.
You can see the dazzling Milky Way setting right down on the ocean.

The west of Ireland has some of the darkest skies in the world in places.

Yet we hold our star parties in the middle of heavily light-polluted Birr and in the Dublin Mountains, awash with light pollution!!

Come West to spotless skies!

Belgium is one of the brightest areas on the world map. Every tiny little backroad nearly is lit. Yet, in the midst of all this there is still a thriving astronomical community. They even have public observatories, something we could really do with here. My uncle volunteers for Urania, one of these public observatories. I visit it when ever I'm in Belgium, it's impressive. www.urania.be

Bart.

Do you work for the tourist board Mark ?
It would make an excellet site, if we were gaurenteed good weather for a weekend, I'd probabily go.