Stargazers come out and count

This week, the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and the Campaign for Dark Skies (CfDS) are jointly running a national experiment called Star Count Week. They want you and me to look up at Orion and count the stars we can see, writes Carol Miers.

Recently I stood below a bedroom skylight in a small town in the UK and could not see any stars.Here, living in the French countryside our friends come to visit and invariably find the nights a surprise.

“It is so dark, When I woke up I could not see my hand,” they say.
Here at night it is dark and clear and the stars shine brightly. As well as that the moonlight is enough to guide a walker along the road and banks without a torch and enough to throw long shadows up from the soles of our feet.

The CfDS wants to protect the beauty of these clear skies. The organisation was set up in 1989 in order to reduce the amount of poorly directed lighting which forms a 'sky glow' or light pollution blocking out the stars.

The CfDS believe that astronomers have needs too and these are for less light pollution and clearer skies. They have as much right to have their needs met as others. In order to raise awareness of their wish to reduce light pollution they ask for everyone to count the stars they see and submit their results online.

Comments

[Tom Kitching]

I love dark skies...We had a first at Henchman Ltd today - sold one of our Tripod ladders to someone for the purpose of star gazing through very tall telescopes which he coudln't reach standing on the ground! Add that to ice scuplting, paint restoration, deer stalking ...

[Carol Miers]

Thank you for that Tom, I can just see it in my imagination, balancing on the top rung of the ladder to peer into the lens. What I wonder was he looking at in particular? Perhaps you could enter the star gaze count too? It runs until Sunday 6th.
Carol