astrocast.tv, astronomy, stargazing

Skywatchers of Earth

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Look Up!

From time to time I exhort all my readers to do a little skywatching. There’s nothing like stepping outside on a clear night and just gazing at the stars and planets. I’ve been doing it for as long as I can remember, when weather conditions permit it. My stargazing began next to a house that doesn’t exist anymore, on a farm in Colorado that’s now a highway overpass. But, I still have these flashes of memory of standing there next to the house with the stone chimney soaring up to the sky, looking up at the stars overhead. I did it with my folks, usually my dad, and then as I got older, I did it with my friends and on dates with my first serious boyfriend.

Well, bunches of years have passed, and I still go out and look up. That boyfriend became my husband and we’ve carved out our careers bringing astronomy and space to the public through planetarium shows we produce, exhibits that I write, books I’ve written, and videos we’ve produced.

Stargazing’s a constant in my life. And, it’s one in a LOT of people’s lives.  I spent a lot of time in college — and afterwards — learning as much as I could about as many aspects of astronomy as I could.  Judging by the websites that link to this one, and the folks who follow me on Twitter and Facebook, there are a LOT of skygazers out there.  Maybe you’re one. If not, why not become one?  It’s pretty easy. You just step outside at night and look up!

Of course, you want a little background about what you’re seeing — and here’s where access to the Internet and the Web come in handy. There are many, many, many Websites about stargazing out there. I’m involved in at least one other site besides this one, an online “TV” show called Astrocast.TV. My contributions are to a program called The Astronomer’s Universe and a short little stargazing show called Our Night Sky. Here’s the February 2011 edition.

What do I do for Astrocast.TV?  Well, for both programs, I write and narrate the scripts, occasionally appear on-camera, and pull together imagery and starmaps and send them off to the fellow who “owns and operates” Astrocast.TV — a fellow named Rich Mathews. He’s really the show’s producer and mastermind and I supply him with the raw material for the shows, plus a script as a template to follow as he does the final show assembly, complete with music mixing, visual special effects, etc.

For example, this month, on Our Night Sky, I wrote the script, got it vetted by an astronomer friend of mine, then recorded myself voicing it over. I sent that VO, along with some music from my husband’s upcoming new album called Geodesium Stella Novus, and some star charts. Through the magic of video editing, Rich put it all together into the little program you can see all month. It covers a few of the many highlights of the February sky for both Northern and Southern Hemisphere stargazers. Of course, there’s a LOT more than I can cover in five minutes or so — but that’s the beauty of stargazing: there’s always something for you to discover on your own!

As long as I’m sending you to other Web sites for stargazing help, here are a few (of the many that I know about):

Sky and Telescope — the home page for Sky and Telescope Magazine.

Astronomy — the home page for Astronomy Magazine.

SkyWatcher’s Odyssey — a blog dedicated to sky sights, written by a stargazer in Texas named Dan Riding.
Check ’em out and do a little stargazing (weather permitting!).

astronomy, dark skies

Dark Sark and the Starry Skies

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Another Island of Starry Darkness

In a world increasingly and wastefully lit by lights that shine upward illuminating nothing, the Island of Sark in the English Channel has become the first dark sky island.  It was so-designated by the International Dark Sky Association, which noted that the island’s non-use of public street lighting — in fact, it has no paved roads or cars — makes it an ideal palce form which to see the dark sky.

Sark is one of only a few places in the world that are designated dark-sky sites.  The others are Hortobágy Starry Sky Park in Hungary, Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah (USA), Galloway Forest Park in Scotland, Zselic National Landscape Protection area in Hungary, Cherry Springs State Park in Pennsylvania (USA), Geauga Park District Observatory Park in Ohio (USA), Clayton Lake State Park in New Mexico (USA), and Goldendale Observatory Park in Washington (USA).

This designation is made to identify and honor protected public places that make a commitment to warding off light pollution and pre serving access to the dark sky.  It’s not just about stargazing, but also about committing to wise energy usage (that is, not wasting money lighting up the sky), and wise lighting practice. This is something that affects life on our planet — not just humans, but all life that is tuned to the circadian rhythms of night and day, light and dark.

I’ve never been able to understand why it is that politicians in the U.S. do NOT work toward the energy savings that could result from wiser use of lighting.  Is it because they don’t care? Are they pressured NOT to care by those who make money from our energy use?  Or, is the difference between night and day just not morally apparent to them anymore?  It may come as a shock to those who think that with lighting we are safer and without it we are heathens or something, but you know what?  We need that cycle of night and day. Our economy, our environment, our health depends on it.  Even lighting companies are hopping on the bandwagon of wise use, as represented by the many who are involved in IDA’s outreach. They (and all of us who advocate for wise lighting use) know that lighting up the sky to sell a few more cars or illuminate a religious statue (an ironic use of light, really), or blind oncoming drivers with fancy, actinic-glowboards advertising the latest monster truck rally at the coliseum, is simply showing that we have money to burn.  When, in fact, we don’t.  A world in recession doesn’t need to splash its graphics to space. The universe doesn’t care about our light usage.  But, we should.  The wiser our use of lighting, the less we spend on burning the fuels that are harming our environment.

And, yes, the more stars we will be able to see at night. We came from the stars. We should be able at least glimpse them once in a while.

Exploring Science and the Cosmos

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