[BAA-00260] Join the Christmas and New Year Star Count

[Rick]

BAA electronic bulletin No. 00260 http://www.britastro.org/

Join the Christmas and New Year Star Count

You may be interested to learn that the BAA Campaign for Dark Skies has joined with the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) to organise a simple star count.  People everywhere in the UK can take part during the nights running up to Christmas.  Its aim is to help us gauge the extent of light pollution, and to raise awareness about the issue.  This is what you do:

If the sky is clear, without obvious haze, on any of the nights between December 21-24 2006, find the constellation of Orion between 8.00 pm and midnight and count how many stars you can see within the rectangle of Orion (bordered by his shoulders and feet).  The more stars you can see, the less the light pollution.  You can enter your findings on the BAA website or by post.

To find out more and take part, visit the Star Count web page at:

http://britastro.org/starcount

N.B. If the weather fails to co-operate during the next few nights, we are repeating the exercise on January 14-21, 2007 so you will have a second opportunity then.

Finally, may I also take this opportunity to wish you and your family a merry Christmas and a very prosperous New Year.  Thank you for your support.

Richard Miles
BAA President

[Rick]

The BAA and CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) began an initiative before Christmas to assess light pollution in the UK by asking people to count stars within the main rectangle of Orion (incl. the three stars in Orion's Belt) as detailed in BAA electronic bulletin No. 00260.

See http://britastro.org/baa/content/view/195/171/
or http://britastro.org/starcount

As part of this 'Star Count' project, you have another opportunity to take part between now and January 21 or so, because during this period the main source of natural light pollution, the Moon, will be absent from our skies whilst Orion will be high in the sky as seen from the UK.

Allow enough time for your eyes to become dark-adapted before you attempt  the star count,  The best time to undertake this is between about 8.30 pm and midnight when the sky is clear.  More details at the above web address.

Do try to participate as your contribution will help us map the distribution of light pollution across the UK.  You can enter your count on the webpage.

Clear skies,
Richard Miles, President