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PLEASE POST IF POSSIBLE:
The 5th Annual Globe at Night Campaign: 3-16 March 2010
What: The Globe at Night Campaign
When: 8pm to 10pm local time, March 3-16, 2010
Where: Everywhere
Who: You! (Everyone!)
How: See http://www.globeatnight.org
Why:
With half of the world’s population now living in cities, many urban  
dwellers have never experienced the wonderment of pristinely dark  
skies and maybe never will. This loss, caused by light pollution, is a  
concern on many fronts: safety, energy conservation, cost, health and  
effects on wildlife, as well as our ability to view the stars. Even  
though light pollution is a serious and growing global concern, it is  
one of the easiest environmental problems you can address on local  
levels.
Globe at Night is an annual 2-week campaign in March that helps to  
address the light pollution issue locally as well as globally. This  
year the campaign is March 3-16, 2010. You are invited along with  
everyone all over the world to record the brightness of your night sky  
by matching its appearance toward the constellation Orion with star  
maps of progressively fainter stars found at http://www.globeatnight.org/observe_magnitude.html 
. You then submit your measurements on-line at http://www.globeatnight.org/report.html 
  with your date, time and location. A few weeks later, organizers  
release a map of light-pollution levels worldwide. Over the last four  
2-week Globe at Night campaigns, volunteers from over 100 nations have  
contributed 35,000 measurements.
To learn the five easy steps to participate in the Globe at Night  
program, see the Globe at Night website at http:// 
www.globeatnight.org. You can listen to our 10-minute audio podcast on  
light pollution and Globe at Night at http://365daysofastronomy.org/2010/02/03/february-3rd-the-globe-at-night-campaign-our-light-or-starlight/
For activities that have children explore what light pollution is,  
what its effects are on wildlife and how to prepare for participating  
in the Globe at Night campaign, see the new activities at http://www.darkskiesawareness.org/DarkSkiesRangers 
.
Monitoring our environment will allow us as citizen-scientists to  
identify and preserve the dark sky oases in cities and locate areas  
where light pollution is increasing. All it takes is a few minutes  
during the March 2010 campaign to measure sky brightness and  
contribute those observations on-line. Help us exceed the 15,000  
observations contributed last year. Your measurements will make a  
world of difference.

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Constance E. Walker, Ph.D.
chair, IYA2009 Dark Skies Awareness Cornerstone Project
www.darkskiesawareness.org
director, GLOBE at Night campaign
www.globe.gov/globeatnight
associate scientist & senior science education specialist
www.noao.edu/education

National Optical Astronomy Observatory
950 N. Cherry Avenue
Tucson, AZ 85719 USA
520-318-8535
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