We Need Dark!

I’ve been on travel again, out on the high seas, teaching about astronomy. Some nights we had clear skies, but most of our trip was clouded over — which is understandable for early spring in the northern hemisphere. That didn’t stop me from talking about the importance of dark skies to my audiences. I share the video we produced for the International Dark-Sky Association called Losing the Dark (where you can download an HD version) with some of my fellow passengers, which prompted some very interesting conversations.

If you haven’t heard of Losing the Dark, it’s a short video that outlines the challenges of light pollution to human health and safety, and the health of other life forms on this planet. In addition it talks about how light pollution affects our ability to see the stars and offers some easy solutions to help mitigate the problem. The video is available in two flavors: HD flat-screen for use on home computers, in classrooms, auditorium presentations, and so on; the other version is a fulldome video for use in planetariums that have fulldome capability (planetariums without that capability can use the HD flat-screen version).  The fulldome version is available at the Loch Ness Productions Web site. The best part:  it’s available absolutely FREE to anyone who wants to raise consciousness about dark skies! So, check out the two download sites to get the right copy for your situation.

The video is very popular, and the IDA (which is a non-profit organization) has been getting many requests for the show in different languages. To help spread the word worldwide about light pollution, the IDA is running a very cool crowd-funding campaign to fund the production of Losing the Dark in many different languages.  The campaign is called “Taking Losing the Dark Global” and I invite all my readers to participate — and to invite other like-minded folks who love the stars to do the same! The goal is to raise $6,000.00 and there are only 18 days left in the campaign. The perks are pretty cool, including public recognition, t-shirts, and books. Some come for less than the cost of a cuppa joe or a pizza, or the cost of dinner and a movie (at the mid-levels). If you’re one of those folks who cashed out lots of stocks from a dot-com, or won the lottery or are just feeling generous, please consider participating at  a higher level, and some other cool perks, including a l0vely dark-sky print from a famous astrophotographer could be yours. It’s all going to a good cause: helping raise awareness of dark skies worldwide.

(Full disclosure:  I am the co-producer of the video, along with Mark C. Petersen, and we are members of the International Dark-Sky Association. You’ll see my name down there on the bottom of the “team” listings for the Indiegogo campaign. So, yeah, I think it’s a great idea to help spread the word about light pollution to a global audience. I would think so even if I wasn’t involved in the project. I live in a dark-sky area and I think kids around the world should get to see the stars, too.)

In the big picture, this week — from April 4-11, 2013 — is also International Dark Sky Week, a time when world attention is focused on the many problems that light pollution causes, and the many causes of light pollution that could be changed so that we could light our homes and communities without wasting light by sending it upwards. Light pollution is an incredible waste of money and fuels. One only has to look at images of Earth at night to realize just how widespread the problem is. But, the good news is that it can be solved, and often by tiny steps such as directing light down to places where it is needed, and not up to the sky, where it is not.

International Dark Sky Week is a good time to look around your home and community to see where outdoor lighting could be minimized and/0r used more properly. It’s also a good time to talk with neighbors about shielded fixtures on their homes. There are other activities you can do to gain a better understanding of what dark skies mean to all of us — so check out the link above for International Dark Sky week and help to safely bring back the dark of night to planet Earth.