News

  • See http://www.lettherebenight.com/whatsnew.html for more news.  This page of updates will become dormant for a short while as I try to maintain multiple websites.  Thank you.

  • Let There Be Night sim is now open in Second Life at the Astronomy 2009 island.

  • Let There Be Night world premiere to be Sunday, November 9, at PHM Planetarium in Mishawaka, IN.

  • Let There Be Night DVD excerpts to screen at GLPA Annual Conference in Milwaukee on October 30, 2008.

  • National Geographic cover story for the November 2008 issue features headline: "The End of Night."

  • Be a citizen-scientist by observing the sky for the Great World Wide Star Count on October 20-November 3, 2008.

  • Dark Skies Awareness featured in US 2009 International Year of Astronomy (IYA) activities and events.  See www.astronomy2009.us

  • Let There Be Night to create planetarium program and school district-wide experiment to assess a community's sky glow for IYA2009.

  • View the Total Lunar Eclipse at a night-friendly retail development in Mishawaka, IN, on February 20, 2008.

  • The United Nations officially declares the 2009 International Year of Astronomy.  [December 20, 2007]

  • New For Kids! page features projects, activities, demonstrations, and links for kids.  

  • Lights Out America encourages everyone to turn off outdoor lights for one hour on Saturday, March 29, 2008, from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. to promote energy conservation.

  • A portable planetarium workshop at the Triple Conjunction Conference in Wheeling, WV, on Wednesday, October 10, 2007, will feature  the 2009 International Year of Astronomy (2009IYA).  The workshop description for Year(s) of Dark Skies anticipates planetarium modules, demos, resources, activities, and ideas that advocate the "Dark Skies" theme.  

  • The New Yorker magazine addresses lighting issues in article, The Dark Side, Making War on Light Pollution by David Owen in its August 20, 2007 issue.

  • Astronomy professor Tyler Nordgren journeys across America exploring the connections between the National Parks and the wonders of the night. Nordgren will visit twelve parks in twelve months. [Added Sept. 9, 2007]

  • Coalition of international agencies announces Declaration in Defence of the Night Sky and the Right to Starlight. [Added Sept. 9, 2007]

  • New Video: Other People's Take on Light Pollution page is a compilation that hints at how some people are addressing lighting issues online.  [August 6, 2007]

  • The 2009 International Year of Astronomy features six themes in the U.S., including Dark Skies are a Universal Resource[August 6, 200

  • As Mishawaka, IN, prepares its Comprehensive Plan, the community has a chance to advocate better lighting through two topic sheets on lighting issues.  [April, 2007]

  • Sorry Starry Night student experiment measured sky glow above a neighborhood adjacent to large retail development.  Data suggests an appreciable increase in sky glow occurred from March to December, 2006, with a portion of it attributable to the new shopping center's outdoor lights.

  • Globe at Night will again coordinate observations of the constellation Orion and the brightness of its stars.  The hunt for stars will be March 8-21, 2007.  All you have to do is find the constellation and count how many stars you see, then submit your star count to the global data.  That will give an indication of how dark the sky is--or isn't--as seen from your location and from around the world.  See http://www.globe.gov/GaN/ for details on this easy activity. 

  • The Space Science Center for Education and Outreach at DePaul University has awarded a 2006 PLATO grant to implement the Night Vision program in St. Joseph County, Indiana.  Students will quantify the sky glow with Sky Quality Meters and map the values on a county map.  They will then report their findings to the community.  Details are at nightvision.htm.  

  • Chuck Bueter presented Under the Spotlight: Brendon Hills Park at the Brendon Hills Park Homeowners Association annual meeting on Tuesday, May 9, 2006.  Key persons involved in the Gumwood Rd. retail developments participated in the discussions featuring local lighting issues.

  • Globe at Night is a worldwide campaign to observe and record the magnitude of visible stars as a means of measuring light pollution in a given location.  Join this project of coordinated observations March 22-29, 2006.  Website has an effective simulator to show the limiting magnitudes of stars in the constellation Orion.  

  • Long-term study suggests that bright light at night is a risk factor for breast cancer (http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060107/bob9.asp).  Apparently light suppresses the nighttime production of melatonin, a hormone that has slowed breast cancer growth in lab experiments.  

  • New Sky Quality Meter (SQM) allows individuals to quantify sky brightness at their favorite night sites.

  • The Vanishing Sky exhibit was at the Northern Indiana Center for History from Sept. 3 to November 13, 2005.  It is available for rent by other institutions.

  • GLPA, We Have a Problem, a light pollution workshop, was featured at the Great Lakes Planetarium Association (GLPA) Annual Conference on October 21, 2005, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

  • St. Joseph County, IN, adopts new lighting ordinance (May 10, 2005)

  • Residents ask property developers to minimize impact of new developments by implementing intelligent outdoor lighting designs. (November, 2004)

  • Site hosted by dreamhosters.com. 

 

www.nightwise.org

Copyright ©2009 Chuck Bueter.  All rights reserved.