Photographs
of the earth taken from space at night show the extent of light from human
habitation. So much of the night sky is lit up from below that around half of
the world’s population cannot see the stars. In the United Kingdom the 2013
Star Count revealed that only 5% of the population could see more than 31 stars
on a good night.
While Clarence
Valley urban areas do not have as much light pollution as cities, our view of
the night sky is still limited by light pollution. Travelling through the darkened countryside
towards a town or city, you will notice a halo of light above the settlement
from many kilometres away. This restricts what can be seen of the heavens from
the lit area.
What a
contrast there is if you visit sparsely populated areas of Australia away from
settlement! On a clear night there the stars
are dazzling in their numbers and intensity.
Observation
of the stars, once the preserve of professional astronomers, now attracts many
non-professionals and astrotourism is growing.
Around the globe there are areas which have been given “Dark Sky” status
– places where it is possible to see the heavens clearly and these are
attracting increasing numbers of tourists.
One of
these is the UK’s Northumberland Dark Sky Park, around 1,500 sq km in northern
England. Another is the 4,300 sq km
Aoraki Mackenzie Dark Sky Reserve on New Zealand’s South Island. In the United States, even though light
pollution is a major issue around the large population centres, there are many
designated Dark Sky areas. These include
Death Valley National Park, Canyonlands National Park, and Natural Bridges
National Monument.
Dark Sky
status is conferred by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) which is
based in Tuscon, Arizona. Areas applying for the status
are required to have taken major steps to avoid light pollution and to have proved that
their nights are sufficiently dark.
While
Australia does not have any areas with Dark Sky status, it has places – some in
our region - which could qualify and potentially boost tourism.
-
Leonie Blain
This post originally appeared in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on 28th March, 2016.
