Dark Skies over the Howardian Hills
In a follow-up to his stargazing presentation on 2 December, Richard Darn asks whether you saw thousands of stars and a Milky Way etched onto a black sky the last time you looked up on a clear night.
For most people in the UK, the response is a resounding no!
But if you live in the Howardian Hills National Landscape, you can still marvel at ancient constellations and, on occasion, even the Northern Lights.
That’s also good news for the one-third of British wildlife, which is nocturnal. Too much artificial light can seriously degrade habitats and impact species such as moths and bats.
So, to help raise awareness, the Howardian Hills Partnership is running a year-long series of roadshows and inviting the public along to find out more. The first four events – including one in Nunnington – have attracted over 160 people. Clearly this is an issue that chimes with people.
To put things in context, light pollution means that 80% of Britons can’t see the Milky Way from where they live. The big driver has been the widespread introduction of powerful LED lights. These are cheaper to run and last longer than older technologies. The downside is we are seeing a huge growth in their numbers, especially very intense cold white floodlights. These produce excessive sky glow and have a big impact on the landscape.
But there is a better way. We have been a long-term collaborator on dark skies with our North York Moors National Park colleagues. They have already completed some very impressive projects to install dark sky-friendly lighting, which is safer for humans and better for wildlife. Together with them, we are also working on a project to invite communities to become officially dark sky friendly by completing a simple checklist of local initiatives. For example, one task will be to complete a mini audit of external lighting.
So do take time to look up on a clear night. You can help keep it looking beautiful by following the guidelines in our simple graphic.
For more on the Howardian Hills Dark Sky Project, go to www.howardianhills.org.uk/dark-skies-roadshow or contact Richard Darn at richard@richarddarn.com
Clear skies!
Richard Darn
Dark Skies Community Status.
Deliver one significant lighting improvement demonstration project designed to show best practice and inspire others (this could include, for instance, pointing lights down on a village hall, swapping lights out for dark sky friendly fixtures, using curfews, or making needless lighting redundant).
Demonstrate continued commitment to controlling light pollution in the community. This embraces, for instance, Identifying opportunities to communicate with the community via websites, social media, village newsletter, leaflet drops, posters etc
Run at least one outreach event per year (eg during Dark Sky Festival). We can help you with this.
Provide a short report annually summarising the activities above.
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