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The worldwide, citizen-science, star-hunt campaign "GLOBE at Night" is
happening now! Please help us exceed last year's record of 17,800
observations.... Please post, promote and/or participate in the
campaign:
1) Shorter Ad:
Less of Our Light for More Star Light
Join the 6th annual worldwide GLOBE at Night 2011 campaign: Feb. 21 -
March 6
What: The Globe at Night Campaign
When: 8pm to 10pm local time, February 21 - March 6, 2011
Where: Everywhere
Who: Everyone
How: See http://www.globeatnight.org
GLOBE at Night encourages citizen-scientists worldwide to record the
brightness of the night sky. During 2 winter/spring weeks of moonless
evenings, children and adults match the appearance of a constellation
(Orion in February/March and Leo and Crux in March/April) with 7 star
charts of progressively fainter stars found at www.globeatnight.org.
They then submit their choice of star chart on-line with their date,
time and location to help create a light pollution map worldwide.
The GLOBE at Night 2011 campaign dates are February 21 – March 6
(worldwide) and March 22 – April 4 (for the Northern Hemisphere) and
March 24 – April 6 (for the Southern Hemisphere). 52,000 measurements
have been contributed from more than 100 countries over the last 5
years of two-week campaigns, thanks to everyone who participated!
This year children and adults can submit their measurements in real
time if they have a smart phone or tablet. To do this, you can use the
web application at www.globeatnight.org/webapp/. With smart phones and
tablets, the location, date and time are put in automatically. And if
you do not have a smart phone or tablet, there are user-friendly tools
on the GLOBE at Night report page to find latitude and longitude.
Through GLOBE at Night, students, teachers, parents and community
members are amassing a data set from which they can explore the nature
of light pollution locally and across the globe. Please make a
difference and join our efforts in 2011. For activity packets, one-
page flyers and postcards advertising the campaign, visit www.globeatnight.org/pdf/
.
2) Longer Ad:
Less of Our Light for More Star Light
Join the 6th annual worldwide GLOBE at Night 2011 campaign: Feb. 21 -
March 6
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.
Participation in the international star-hunting, citizen science
campaign, GLOBE at Night, helps to address the light pollution issue
locally as well as globally. This year, 2 sets of campaigns are being
offered. For the first campaign from February 21 through March 6,
2011, everyone all over the world is invited to record the brightness
of the night sky. The second campaign runs from March 22 through April
4 in the Northern Hemisphere and March 24 through April 6 in the
Southern Hemisphere. The campaign is easy and fun to do. First, you
match the appearance of the constellation Orion in the first campaign
(and Leo or Crux in the second campaign) with simple star maps of
progressively fainter stars found. Then you submit your measurements,
including the date, time, and location of your comparison. After all
the campaign’s observations are submitted, the project’s organizers
release a map of light-pollution levels worldwide. Over the last five
annual 2-week campaigns, volunteers from more than 100 nations
contributed 52,000 measurements, one third of which came from last
year’s campaign.
To learn the five easy steps to participate in the GLOBE at Night
program, see the GLOBE at Night website. You can listen to last year’s
10-minute audio podcast on light pollution and GLOBE at Night. Or
download a 45-minute powerpoint and accompanying audio. GLOBE at Night
is also on Facebook and Twitter.
The big news is that children and adults can submit their measurements
in real time if they have a smart phone or tablet. To do this, you can
use the web application. With smart phones and tablets, the location,
date and time are put in automatically. And if you do not have a smart
phone or tablet, there are user-friendly tools on the GLOBE at Night
report page to find latitude and longitude.
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 Dark Skies Rangers activities.
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 2011 campaign to measure sky brightness and contribute
those observations on-line. Help us exceed the 17,800 observations
contributed last year. Your measurements will make a world of
difference.
Star Maps: http://www.globeatnight.org/observe_magnitude.html
Submitting Measurements: http://www.globeatnight.org/report.html
GLOBE at Night: http://www.globeatnight.org/
Audio Podcast: http://365daysofastronomy.org/2010/02/03/february-3rd-the-globe-at-night-campaign-our-light-or-starlight/
Powerpoint: http://www.globeatnight.org/files/NSN_GaN_2011_slides.ppt
Accompanying Audio: http://www.globeatnight.org/files/NSN_GaN_2011_audio.mp3
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/GLOBEatNight
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GLOBEatNight
Web App for Reporting: http://www.globeatnight.org/webapp/
Dark Skies Activities: http://www.darkskiesawareness.org/DarkSkiesRangers/
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Constance E. Walker, Ph.D.
director, GLOBE at Night campaign (www.globeatnight.org)
chair, International Dark-Sky Association Education Committee
chair, IYA2009 Dark Skies Awareness Cornerstone Project
member, Astronomical Society of the Pacific Board of Directors
associate scientist & senior science education specialist, NOAO
National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO)
950 N. Cherry Avenue
Tucson, AZ 85719 USA
520-318-8535
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