Date: November 20, 2010

Title: Under a Dark Sky

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Podcaster: David Ault

Links: www.davidault.co.uk
astrotour2010.blogspot.com

Description: A young science communicator’s trip into the wilds of rural America to see his first truly dark sky.

Bio: David is an actor, singer and science communicator who travelled across North America this summer on his Astrotour 2010. He is currently based in Birmingham, UK and works for the Jodcast, occasionally making up Gilbert & Sullivan pastiches for Thinktank Planetarium.

Today’s sponsor: This episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” is sponsored by Chester Chua. “I’d like to lovingly dedicate this podcast to Renee–my wonderful Wife, Partner, my Enabler. Happy Birthday!!!”

Transcript:

Under a Dark Sky
 
There was something vaguely Douglas Adams-esque about how it started – there I was, a young man, sitting in a cafe in Udaipur suddenly realising what had been going wrong all this time. This time it was right – it would work, and certainly would be better if lots of people were nice to each other. On two small pieces of paper I wrote down what I was good at, what I wanted to do with my life and what was holding me back (and that was mostly just fear) and out of this was born my idea of a grand adventure, travelling across America for a year, presenting in as many planetaria as possible. There in the Lotus Cafe, not far from where Octopussy was filmed, was the start of Astrotour 2010.



On last year’s podcast I talked about my travel to India and how for the first time I could see the link between what I had spoken about in the planetarium and what I could see in the real night sky each evening as the weeks passed. Today I’d like to tell you about my summer travel this year – over 20,000 miles of it – and what I saw along the way. Of course what started as a year got chopped down eventually to four months and due to visa regulations I didn’t do any presenting, but what I did do was to go round North America’s science centres and planetaria to see how science communication is done over there to disseminate to the world via my blog.



Perhaps the most surprising facility in which I found myself was SNOLAB, a neutrino observatory 2km underground. I’d originally asked for an interview, but when they offered me a tour as well I was – how should I put it? – extremely enthusiastic! I’d studied the Solar Neutrino Problem for my third-year essay at university, and the chance to go around the facility that provided most of my research was too good to pass up. There we were, all suited up in mine gear, then we tramped to the cage with the real miners and descended the 6800ft to the lab level. Once there, we walked another 2km to the lab, showered and changed into clean clothes ready to view these underground telescopes.



To have such a large space connected by a warren of tunnels is incredible in itself, but to make the air cleaner than a hospital operating theatre takes a lot of effort. I was shown the original SNO experiment, the new dark matter telescopes (which are little more than boxes behind shielding) and a good deal more in my morning underground. This was a privilege I hardly expected to have, and shows that astronomy need not have direct access to the skies above.



Now to tell the truth I’m not much of an observational astronomer in any case. I do have a telescope at home, but the last time I tried taking it out into the garden all the security lights told me I wasn’t welcome, and I have no car to go out to the countryside. All my astronomy has been theoretical, either on computer or in the planetarium, remembered from childhood or absorbed whilst podcasting. I have to admit that every time it happens, I’m always bowled over when I see astronomy in a telescope, right there in front of me. So, when in June I found myself in Washington DC and my hostess suggested an astronomy trip, I figured that would be a very good way to start this particular leg of my journey.



The National Capital Astronomers were out in full force at Rock Creek Park, just outside the metropolis. There we saw the Moon and the terminator line across it, Mars, Saturn and Venus shining against an uncivil twilight. As time passed we were able to see the usual summer constellations as you would expect in the city, as happened when we visited the University of Maryland’s astronomy department for a talk the following week. These weren’t the only times I was treated to a telescope in the city however – I finished my trip in September with a long drive up Mt Tam with the San Francisco Amateur Astronomers, enjoying the amazing views and the heavy fog covering up the invasive light pollution from the city below.



The highlight of my trip however was my foray into rural Texas and the first time I had been into a truly dark area. I was a guest of the 3 Rivers Foundation, and as I drove out to Quanah with my two American friends I found myself beginning to see proper American cowboys, with spurs on their boots and everything. The small town itself is miles from anywhere, after which you must drive to Crowell, a smaller town 20 miles away then out into the bush for a further 15 miles before hitting the Comanche Springs Astronomy Campus.



It was incredible – miles away from light sources, even further away from big cities and therefore the darkest sky I’d ever visited in my life. The grasshoppers were huge and we were warned about things that bit – we were even given whistles with our dark adaption lights that could be blown to summon the rattlesnake disposal team. I also doused myself in DEET because of the threat of the so-called chiggers and their particularly uncomfortable attachment to human hosts, but mainly to keep away mosquitos and other flying fiends.



Nevertheless, once the Sun went down, a vast array of stars came out. As a highlight, I was shown all the planets in one night, and even Pluto! I saw the bands of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn, the phase of Venus and Mercury through a scope. I was shown wispy galaxies through their 8″ refractor and loads of amazing observational phenomena. All this was served up with great American hospitality and the marvellous enthusiasm I met from every scientist and astronomer on my travels.



It hammered home to me the fact that we need dark sky areas. So much wonder and detail is lost through light pollution, so it’s imperative that we keep our skies as glare-free as possible. Of course we have to make sure our cities and towns stay safe and bright, but more needs to be done to preserve areas of darkness for everyone to appreciate. I have to admit that I thought skies that clear were only possible in planetariums, and for many people that’s all they’ll see of the stars above.



So what did I learn from my trip? Well, firstly that the skies are more beautiful than I could ever have imagined; secondly that science centres and planetaria across the world have great ideas that need to be shared and finally that it’s good to be in Britain, where nature doesn’t try to kill you! But I do have to thank everyone that I met – each facility and each couchsurfer, friend or family, that allowed me to crash on their floor, meaning that I could travel with a zero accommodation budget. And if you want to find out more about my trip and its results, visit astrotour2010.blogspot.com, which contains links to each place I visited, far out in the uncharted backwater of the western spiral arm of the galaxy.

End of podcast:

365 Days of Astronomy
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