@idadarksky

We are very excited to announce the newest International Dark Sky Sanctuary (IDSS) — Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island). This certification makes Enlli the first site in Europe to achieve certification under this category. Ynys Enlli is located two miles off the tip of the Llŷn Peninsula, off the coast of north Wales. Its location and geographical features make it one of the darkest places in the UK, with the mountain on the island serving as an effective barrier, limiting light from the mainland. The closest significant light pollution comes from Dublin, over 70 miles across the Irish Sea. A four-year program using the latest technology was undertaken as part of the application to monitor the quality of the night sky on the island to show that it is sufficiently dark to qualify for the designation. The IDA also required a lighting management plan and photographic evidence for this certification. Having secured IDSS status, the Bardsey Island Trust aims to continue its work to protect the dark skies seen from Ynys Enlli by raising awareness of this unique location in Wales and promoting the importance of the dark skies locally and nationally. Today's announcement coincides with Wales Dark Sky Week 2023. Learn more at the link in our bio! 📷 : Steve Porter [Image description: Night sky with aurora borealis over Enlli.]

Great news! @cityofrocksnps in Idaho, U.S., is now certified as an International Dark Sky Park. It does not have any artificial lighting within the reserve’s boundaries; thus, it preserves the night sky with minimal light pollution. City of Rocks is one of the last places in the country where you can experience the California Trail just as the emigrants did. It is also a place where Shoshone people can come and connect with their ancestral past. Preserving the night sky is an integral part of preserving the overall history within the reserve. As the areas around City of Rocks grow, protecting the dark night skies is becoming more critical than ever. Through preservation efforts, the reserve can ensure that in 50 years, visitors will still experience the excitement of seeing the Milky Way stretch across the night sky or get their first detailed view of Jupiter through a telescope. This accomplishment results from years of hard work and dedication from site staff and partners. Among the many achievements inspired by this certification is the development of new educational programs emphasizing the value of natural darkness. In 2021 and 2022, they piloted several new interpretive programs and environmental education programs with a dark sky focus. Over 425 people have attended the programs so far, with the programs likely to grow in attendance and popularity as we continue to offer them in the future. Congratulations to everyone! Learn more at the link in our bio. 📷 : Savana Jones [Image description: A photograph of s shooting star crossing through the Milky Way over Pinnacle Pass in City of Rocks National Reserve.]

Will you love the stars this Valentine's Day? This February, we are teaming up with Globe at Night, a program of NSF’s NOIRLab, to encourage everyone to celebrate Valentine's Day by showing their love for the stars and taking simple light pollution observations through the Globe at Night program. The campaign needs as many measurements as possible to get a global picture of the state of our night skies so that IDA, NOIRLab, and other organizations can make informed decisions on how best to combat light pollution. Through this campaign, you can help raise awareness about the impact of light pollution by measuring and submitting your night sky brightness observations. All you have to do is look up at the night sky, find the bright constellation Orion, and then submit an observation of which star map most closely matches what you see. Scientists can compare these measurements to prior years in the same month to provide a comprehensive view of the changes to the night sky quality worldwide, such as the recent paper from Science concluding that light pollution is increasing at just under 10% per year. Learn more at the link in our bio. [Image description: A graphic that says "love the stars" in a font that looks like constellations in the night sky surrounded by stars. Underneath, it says darksky.org and globeatnight.org. Then, there are two people taking night sky brightness observations with a smartphone.]

Meet IDA Advocate Diane Knutson! We recently spoke with her about her time serving as an officer on the IDA Board of Directors and how she became a Dark Sky Advocate in South Dakota, U.S. She told us how she used her experiences as a business owner to connect with her community to promote change toward dark sky-friendly practices. Learn more here: https://www.darksky.org/diane-knutson-monthly-star/ There’s a clickable link in our bio. #idadarksky #darkskyadvocate #monthlystar #protectthenight #darkskies #darksky #lightpollution

We have excellent news! The Districts of South Wairarapa and Carterton of New Zealand’s North Island, named Wairarapa Dark Sky Reserve, are now certified as the newest International Dark Sky Reserve! The combined South Wairarapa and Carterton districts of the new Wairarapa Dark Sky Reserve cover an area of 3,665 square kilometers. The site is surrounded by enduring protection from significant light encroachment, with the Pacific Ocean to the east and south and the Remutaka and Tararua forest ranges to the west. WDSA already has plans to expand the reserve area to include northern Wairarapa’s Masterton district, which will encompass some 5,895 square kilometers. Most of the Reserve is easily accessible to the public by foot, bike, or motor vehicle for night sky viewing every night. The core of the Reserve consists entirely of the Aorangi Forest Park public lands, administered by the Department of Conservation. The periphery encompasses the South Wairarapa and Carterton Districts. The collective Reserve’s commitment to night sky conservation is evident through implementing a District Plan that regulates outdoor lighting across the three districts in Wairarapa Valley. Additionally, 100 percent of the lighting in the core is compliant with the Reserve Lighting Management Plan. Changes to public lighting within the periphery are underway, with over 50 percent of all street lighting already in compliance. This certification results from five years of hard work by a small group of volunteers, the South Wairarapa and Carterton Districts, and broad community support. Congratulations to everyone involved! Learn more at the link in our bio. 📷 : Glen Butler [Image description: A photograph showing the Milky Way framing raming native cabbage trees (tī kōuka) and flax (harakeke) in the heart of the Wairarapa Moana, the largest wetland area in the lower North Island.]

New year, new Globe at Night dates! Each year, the Globe at Night international community science campaign, a program of NSF’s NOIRLab, raises awareness about the impact of light pollution by inviting community scientists to measure and submit night sky brightness observations. All you need is a computer, tablet, or smartphone. And their webapp is available in 28 languages! Globe at Night will be collecting observations for all twelve months of the year. This large set of measurements will be compared to measurements from prior years in the same month to provide a comprehensive view of the changes to the night sky quality worldwide. Learn more at the link in our bio. [Image description: The Globe at Night postcard showing information about the program and the dates for each month of 2023.]

Every year, IDA supports thousands of people all around the world in their effort to protect the natural nighttime environment. By working together, we have achieved a lot. This year we certified our 200th International Dark Sky Place, reached over 1 million people during International Dark Sky Week, released the State of the Science Report, supported dark sky proclamations in more than 25 jurisdictions, welcomed new chapters in the UK, Taiwan, and Alabama, advanced a Europe-wide light pollution initiative, and more! In the year ahead, we will build on this momentum and strengthen our support of action-takers—the dark sky heroes. There are many reasons to support dark sky protection. Maybe you care about wildlife in your neighborhood. Or you want your family to get a good night’s sleep under a dark sky. Or you care about reducing energy use and fighting climate change. Maybe you simply love the awe-inspiring view of the Milky Way. Your support of our year-end campaign means we can continue to grow the dark sky movement, support more heroes, and roll back light pollution. Please consider making a special year-end gift to support dark sky protection and help us meet our fundraising goal. A generous group of dark sky donors will match all donations, up to $50,000, received before December 31. Give today at darksky.org/hero or navigate to the link in our bio. 📷 : @bettymaya.foott [Image description: A photograph of two people holding hands looking out over a city with the stars above.]

We are logging off! For the next week, the IDA team is taking a break to rest, recharge, and focus on self-care. During this time, we will be unplugging and connecting with loved ones. Since we will be away from our workspaces, we will not be able to respond to messages, but our accounts will be monitored, and you may see a post or two. We look forward to reconnecting and continuing the critical fight to protect the night from light pollution in 2023! Wishing you a happy and healthy New Year. Keep looking up! Photo courtesy of Liu Yinghan. [Image description: A photograph of a person standing with a camera and tripod under the stars.]

IDA wishes you a happy solstice! We honor and celebrate the longest night of the winter in the northern hemisphere and the longest day of summer in the southern hemisphere. In ancient times, people built monuments that reflected both the first light of day and the setting sun in places like Stonehenge in England and Machu Picchu in Peru. These natural rhythms of our world remain celebrated and unchanged. Remember, though, the over lighting of the night sky masks our ability to observe many important celestial events. Tonight, if you can, look up to the sky and imagine what many generations have seen. Did they view the Milky Way or the star Rigel in Orion? Help us continue to keep our nights dark and starry! Join us by supporting our fundraising campaign today at the link in our bio. For the night! Photo: Sunrise at Stonehenge courtesy of Josh Dury (@josh_dury_photomedia )/English Heritage

Our newest issue of Nightscape is out this month! Inside you'll find: - “Day and night, light and life,” an article about our daily rhythm by Lisa Heschong - 2022 Annual Awards winners - A poem by supporter Juliane McAdam - Meet a member: Landon Bannister - Advocate highlights - and more! Cover image courtesy of @johnnardacci . Nightscape is a quarterly magazine and a benefit for members of IDA. Want to ensure that you receive a copy? Become a member at the link in our bio. [Image description: A photograph of a tree with the moon low in the sky. Text over the top reads: Nightscape, in this issue, Day and night, light and life our daily rhythm, 2022 Annual Awards, Supporter poetry, Advocate highlights, + more. At the bottom, there's the IDA logo and text that reads: International Dark-Sky Association, #110/December 2022.]

Meet Kerem Asfuroglu, a lighting designer, graphic artist, and dark sky advocate based in the U.K. and Ireland. Originally from Turkey, he is one of the rare individuals approaching light pollution from almost every angle. After working in London for eight years as a designer at a commercial lighting firm, Kerem realized that maybe the commercially driven big projects he was working on were not necessarily the right way of doing things. Not long after, he founded his own lighting firm, where he began to explore our relationship with light and darkness. Learn more about Kerem and his incredible efforts at the link in our bio. #idadarksky #darksky #lightpollution #protectthenight #savethedark #monthlystar

We are delighted to announce the rollout of our new pilot Light Monitor Grant Program! We've partnered with Asterion to provide Sky Quality Meter (SQM) devices to measure the quality of the night sky, as well as the Opple Light Master III devices, which can measure the CCT of light sources. These specialized devices can be valuable tools to collect data required for applications to the International Dark Sky Places Program. By offering these devices in our Lighting Device Program, a Dark Sky Place applicant, IDA Chapter, or Delegate can use them to monitor light pollution without needing to purchase a new device. This program is intended to supplement funding barriers from groups who wish to monitor artificial light at night or CCT and need additional assistance. Learn more about the program and how to apply at the link in our bio. Photo courtesy of @jeffdaiphoto . [Image description: A photo of Jeff Dai taking sky-quality measurements with an SQM in Gaomeigu, Yunnan, China.]