Europe's first "dark sky park"

dmcdona wrote:Albert - I'm sure that if ILPAC came up with a couple of candidates here in Ireland you would have the full support of all the folks on this forum. If there is anything we can do to engage in such an exercise, we're all ears and we'd be fully supportive.

I'm sure there would be no shortage of support Dave. It's the going out and doing the work bit that there is a shortage of. Really we need to get to the stage where all amateur astronomers are out doing their bit, advocating better lighting, showing the dangers of bad lighting and getting some change and where the like of ILPAC and the IDA are supporting them.

Some of you organise star parties and observing sessions in or near national parks - can you talk to the local rangers about light pollution? I'd be happy to facilitate a conference all with the key people behind the Galloway project and parks officials here if we have some interest from the parks here.

dmcdona wrote:
I think the thread you refer to was hardly advocating light pollution - perhaps one or two individuals expressed a positive opinion on light pollution but that's hardly indicative of this forum in general and the contributors as a whole supporting such a view...

True, however the amateur astronomy community in Ireland seems very apathetic about doing anything with regard to light pollution.

albertw wrote:

dmcdona wrote:Albert - I'm sure that if ILPAC came up with a couple of candidates here in Ireland you would have the full support of all the folks on this forum. If there is anything we can do to engage in such an exercise, we're all ears and we'd be fully supportive.

I'm sure there would be no shortage of support Dave. It's the going out and doing the work bit that there is a shortage of. Really we need to get to the stage where all amateur astronomers are out doing their bit, advocating better lighting, showing the dangers of bad lighting and getting some change and where the like of ILPAC and the IDA are supporting them.

Some of you organise star parties and observing sessions in or near national parks - can you talk to the local rangers about light pollution? I'd be happy to facilitate a conference all with the key people behind the Galloway project and parks officials here if we have some interest from the parks here.

I agree with you on this one Albert. Getting support is great but getting people off their backsides is another thing. The government/politicians/councils don’t seem to give a rat’s ass about the problem of light pollution in this country.

This just sums it up

albertw wrote:
Some of you organise star parties and observing sessions in or near national parks - can you talk to the local rangers about light pollution? I'd be happy to facilitate a conference all with the key people behind the Galloway project and parks officials here if we have some interest from the parks here.[/quote]

When I was doing the initial digging for the Burren Starparty
I spoke to the people in Shannon Development and also
the rangers at the park and explained all about Galloway etc.
I went so far as to show the locals some of the photos of the
Milky Way I had taken in Greece a year before to show them
the benefits.
I also spoke to the attendees on the night of the observing up in the Burren
at the Caherconnel Ring Fort media centre about the importance
of keeping the parks skies dark and said it was akin to
conservation.
The locals there really got behind it and went 'lights out' for the night
as some of the board
members here that were there on the night can tell you - It was
great to see - Apart from the FOG! : blink:

In fact,
when we go up there now I ring the owners of the centre
and they kindly switch off the security lights and this
makes a huge improvement.
They are really helpful people and we are lucky they
understand us.


Anyway - it's a great start and I'm sure there would be room
for improvement.
If you have any strategy or ideas about how to go forward
Albert - just give me a mail or a ring..
I'd be more than happy to see what we could do.

Frank & Albert --

It only now occurs to me that An Taisce owns land within the Burren National Park, which gives us some influence in the park's operation. I'm sure we'd be more than happy to support a proposal to make the Burren National Park a Dark Sky Park.

I'm not very familiar with the area, though. Are there good viewing places within the park itself? (I know the star party is held a bit outside of the park.)

-- Jeff (National Secretary, An Taisce).

(An Taisce also own land adjoining Glenveagh National Park in Donegal, which might give us some leverage there too.)

Just a few thoughts from my experince with wildlife photography....
Some of the wildlife organisation like BirdWatch Ireland, the Irish Wildlife Trust and the National Parks and Wildlife service could be approached about setting up dark sky areas as light pollution affects wildlife as well.
It's a known problem in some bird species like Manx Shearwater who use the full moon to fledge but can fledge at the wrong time of the year by confusing light pollution with the full moon.
All of these organisations have a mandate for wildlife conservation

Darragh