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inline_online
18-06-2020, 02:41 PM
Hi all,
I received the email below from researcher, Dr Kellie Pendoley. With her permission, I have posted it here as I imagine many of you will be very interested in this.
I hope as many of you as possible can get involved.
Cheers, Dan


G’day from WA

As many of you know I have been fascinated with artificial light at night and how to measure and monitor it and its biological impacts for over 30 years now. Typically this is an incredibly complicated thing to do and restricted to technical specialists, but now there is a way for everyone to get involved.

21 June is the longest darkest day of the year in the Southern Hemisphere and the Australasian Dark Sky Alliance are hosting a Guinness World Record ™ attempt to raise awareness about light pollution – the fastest growing pollutant in the world.

The Official Attempt ™ aims for more than 2,000 people to go outside and look at the stars and take the LARGEST ONLINE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY LESSON IN 24 HOURS.

To break the World Record we want participants to complete a short fun online lesson (for the record) and then go outside and record how well you can see the stars from your back yard using the Citizen Science Globe at Night web App.

Please go online an sign up now and then next weekend, when the event opens up for global participation over a 24 hour time window, you will be prompted to login and complete the course (fun videos and quiz questions – also suitable for kids) and then after the sun sets in your area, go outside and collect observations on star visibility using the Globe at Night web App. Once you upload your data it will help build a picture of light pollution in your community and let you compare that to other communities around the world.

The 24 hour event opens at 1 pm Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) on Sunday 21 June and closes at 1 pm AEST on Monday 22 June.

To check what time this is in your part of the world go to https://www.worldtimebuddy.com/

Sign up now and learn more at: worldrecordlight.thinkific.com

Atmos
18-06-2020, 03:00 PM
Guaranteed it’ll be cloudy and/or raining in Melbourne :lol:

leon
18-06-2020, 03:28 PM
Hmmm, well that might be an interesting project, it is pretty dark where i am, so I'm in.

Leon

pfitzgerald
18-06-2020, 04:24 PM
I've signed up today - and invited about 1000 kids at school to join in!

AndyG
19-06-2020, 02:01 PM
Sounds like fun, but also with a productive outcome. My last 2 World record involvements were much less exciting:
- Stare at the Moon for 10mins (who here didn't do that?)
- World's longest game of lawn bowls

pfitzgerald
19-06-2020, 02:12 PM
Hi Andy - did that one too (GWRSGazing) and it helped to keep my School's Astronomy Club Numbers up for a couple of years after the event.

For those who rarely look up, these events often provide us with nice hook or segue into them taking up Astronomy as hobby or as a career aspiration.

Paul